Google cofounder Larry Page quietly bought a Puerto Rico island for $32 million, records show

Larry Page has spent the last decade amassing an impressive collection of private islands. It's even bigger than we thought. The Google cofounder purchased Cayo Norte, a large private island in Puerto Rico, in 2018, according to documents reviewed by Business Insider.

Page picked up the island for $32 million using a limited liability company named US Virgin Island Properties, which BI previously identified as one Page had used for buying islands across the Caribbean. Page and his wife, Lucinda Southworth, are "the trustees of the sole owners of US Virgin —the highest ranking position" at the entity, according to a legal motion filed by the LLC in 2017.

The purchase of Cayo Norte included a large section of the island for $28.7 million and another smaller section for $3.4 million, forming all of the purchasable land, for a total of just more than $32 million, according to property documents and a legal filing about the island.

With Cayo Norte, Page has a total of five islands that are known to BI, spanning the Caribbean and the South Pacific. It's unclear whether there are more.

Cayo Norte sits about 20 nautical miles east of Puerto Rico and just northeast of Culebra, another island that forms an archipelago. Cayo Norte is known for its white sandy beaches, surrounding coral reefs, and preserving a refuge for endangered sea turtles. It was previously owned by Dan Shelley, a local developer who acquired the island through SVI Investments in 2006 when it fell into auction, and the Padrón family for several decades before then.

(Google cofounder Larry Page bought Cayo Norte, an island in Puerto Rico. Hugh Langley)

The sale to Page was done privately and so quietly that, when questioned by BI, several local land officials in Puerto Rico were unaware it took place or who the new owner was.

Some believed Cayo Norte was still owned by Shelley. Page purchased the Lollik islands, which sit 23 miles east of Cayo Norte, in 2014 for $23 million, BI previously reported.

(Google cofounder Larry Page and his wife, the scientist Lucinda Southworth. C Flanigan/FilmMagic)

(Google's cofounders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. REUTERS/Kimberly White)

Ref: Google cofounder Larry Page quietly bought a Puerto Rico island for $32 million, records show (businessinsider)

Ref: Hugh Langley