Fareed Zakaria's Fantasy Island

It’s good to be an oligarch. The New York Observer reports that a consortium of American financiers, socialites and media figures including Newsweek and television mainstay Fareed Zakaria, Moby, Alex von Furstenberg and Boykin Curry have purchased a 2000-acre seafront spread in the Dominican Republic, which they play on turning into a utopian community for the rich and super-rich alike. New York’s Intelligencer column has a bit more information on the development, which is to be called Playa Grande:

The Dominican Republic had suffered an economic collapse, and the I.M.F. forced the country’s central bank to sell a 2,000-acre tract of lush beachfront property that it owned. A group of about 20 American luminaries formed a consortium to purchase the land, with the idea of building a sort of utopian community, where artists and writers would be invited to stay at cost and the moguls and moneymen who’d financed the place could vacation, play golf and bask in the glow of their artsy neighbors. The list of “founding residents” includes Moby, Charlie Rose, Alex von Furstenberg, the hedge-fund manager Michael Novogratz, fashion designer Lela Rose and, to lend the group a little political weight, Mr. Zakaria.

Participants on a DR expat bulletin board claim the land sold for $83 million. Playa Grande is home to a waterfront golf course and previously functioned as a golf and sea resort.

Mr. Zakaria Builds His Own Utopia [NY Observer]
Intelligencer [New York]
Playa Grande Sale [dr1.com]
Playa Grande [Tee Off Times]
Playa Grande [Tripadvisor]