Best of 2015: Florida’s Versailles, Back From the Brink
The tale of David and Jackie Siegel’s “Versailles” in Florida, America’s biggest home (though incomplete), was one of Yahoo Real Estate’s most popular of 2015. It appeared in April, along with a slideshow. We’ve also added videos at the bottom of the post that are newer, shot just days before the June 2015 overdose of the Siegels’ 18-year-old daughter, Victoria. The couple told “Inside Edition” in July that they had not set foot in Versailles since Victoria’s death. In August, an interview with Jackie appeared in Broadly, in which she indicated that work is continuing. “We still have like two more years” of construction, she said. “The outside of the house is pretty much completed.” She didn’t really mind the wait, though, she said: “It’s just part of life. It’s one of the things that has been up and down in my life. I think from going through my divorce–I lost so much of my personal things, as my husband just kind of kept everything, including pictures and stuff–I had to learn how to not be attached to material things.”
Let’s not bury the lead: It’s still not done.
But Florida’s 90,000-square-foot behemoth of a mansion known as “Versailles” is apparently no longer the lost cause it may have appeared a couple of years ago.
David Siegel (“They call me the time-share king”) and his wife, Jackie Siegel — titular star of the 2012 documentary “The Queen of Versailles” — began building their dream home near Disney World about a decade ago. But when the bottom fell out of the financial markets in 2008, their fortunes were upended too. By the time the documentary ended, their dream home had gone into default and they’d put it on the market. The listing asked for $100 million finished — “based on the royal palace of Louix XIV of the 17th century or to the buyer’s specifications — or $75 million "as is with all exterior finishings in crates in the 20-car garage on site.”
It didn’t sell, though, even after a $10 million price cut.
That’s just as well: David Siegel’s time-share empire, Westgate, regained its footing and in fact has been doing better than ever, he told the Orlando Business Journal in February: “Once the recession was over, business was booming again — in 2012, we had our all-time best year in history, and in 2013 we beat that by 30 percent and 2014 beat that previous year by 25 percent. And so far, we’re already ahead again this year compared to last year.”
“The Insider” checked in with the Siegels, who resumed work on Versailles some time ago, and learned from Jackie that “if I have my way, it’s going to be bigger.” (She and David may need to get on the same page there; he told the Orlando Business Journal, “It’s already big enough as it is.”)
Completion is projected for “between two and two and a half years,” David said. Jackie had originally hoped to have his 80th birthday party there, even if the house wasn’t ready to move in — but judging from footage shot by “The Insider,” we suspect it’s not going to happen. His birthday is May 3.
Oddly, construction doesn’t appear in “The Insider” video to have advanced much beyond our slideshow photos (mostly from the listing), even though a couple of years have passed since the project geared back up. Yahoo Real Estate left messages with the Siegels for more information but never heard back.
Jackie tells “The Insider”: “I’m not at the ending to my story yet, but so far, it’s a happy ending, and I’m really looking forward to starting the next chapter of my life and moving into my palace, finishing it and throwing lots of parties — anxious for the world to see it.”
These videos were broadcast by “Nightline” just days before the Siegels’ 18-year-old daughter, Victoria, died of an overdose in June:
