Once the scourge of CEOs and boards, Carl Icahn has a new nemesis: hundreds of Florida millionaires, who claim the billionaire squeezed their golf-and-beach paradise for profits.
By John Hyatt, Forbes Staff
On a sunny afternoon in February, people wearing floral dresses and khaki shorts gathered at the newly refurbished beach club of Grand Harbor, an 850-acre master-planned community about 15 minutes north of Florida’s Atlantic-facing Vero Beach. Over glasses of champagne and plates of sushi, just steps from the shore, the club members toasted to the success of the $3 million renovation—and the good times yet to come.
Founded in the early ‘90s, Grand Harbor is having itself a renaissance. The club has added 370 new paying members since the beginning of 2021, pushing the total membership count to nearly 1,000. On any given day its facilities – two championship 18-hole golf courses, sundry pickleball and tennis courts, a fitness center and clubhouse, and of course that new beach club – all teem with activity…