After over 15 years of living in Maui part-time,Oprah Winfrey spent the last few months majorly expanding her property holdings inthe Aloha state, according to a report from local news outletKITV4. The media mogul spent about $6.6 million on four parcels of agricultural land totaling 870 acres in Kula, Maui, perMaui Now. Two of those parcels were sold by ʻUlupalakua Ranch last month: one 520-acre plot for $3.89 million and another 330 acres for $2.47 million. Near the end of last year, Winfrey acquired an additional two 10-acre swaths of land, each for $100,000.
The talk show trailblazer already owned over 100 acres of Maui land, according to the report, meaningWinfrey now owns roughly 1,000 acres on the island. The acquisition wasmet with mixed reactions from local residents, some of whomworried that the purchase would contribute to the displacement of native Hawaiians.
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Others, such as Maui councilmember Yuki Lei Sugimura, praised Winfrey for hiring local residents and keeping the majority of her land undeveloped. “[Agricultural] land is treasured here as you can imagine," she told KITV4, before urging the billionaire to use her resources to address wildlife concerns in the area, such as the overpopulation of axis deer and hogs. “We're struggling, we're putting tax dollars together to try to do fencing and culling. We want to protect our food for food security as well as protect the watershed. Those are the big issues and she's stepping right into them,” Sugimura continued.
"I wish we had more people like her that consider when they purchase lands [...] how we've just been inundated with a whole lot of development and tourism,” Hawaiian senator Lynn DeCoite said in the report.
Winfrey maintains her primary residence at her 70-acre“Promised Land” ranch in Montecito, California.
