America's largest mansion, a 90,000 square feet palatial house designed after the great "Palace of Versailles" in Windermere, Florida, has finally resumed construction. The building was stalled in 2008 due to the recession and was on the brink of foreclosure. Owners of the residence, David Siegel, founder of Westgate Resorts, and his wife Jackie Siegel have at last accumulated the $30 million they needed to complete construction.
According to the New York Post, the home now has a different floor plan. The initial sandboxes and playrooms have been converted into yoga studios and man caves. The number of bedrooms has been increased too. Earlier, the residence was slated to have 13 and now it will have 30. Three pools, three hot tubs, an underground car-port and a disco have been added as well.
Check out the current floor plan, here.
In 2008, Siegel and his wife first chalked out plans of building the biggest home in America. When the recession hit, the wealthy couple decided to sell the incomplete structure and listed it for around $75 million in 2010. Failing to sell then, the home was price chopped to $65 million in early 2012 and then taken off the market. The couple decided to hold off construction until things got better.
The 'palace' is just not a showcase, the couple plans to live there too. "We're finishing it to actually finish it. But we do want to live in there," Jackie said to the Daily mail.
Currently, the family lives in a 26,000 square feet home in the gated community of Isleworth in Windermere, Florida. The partially built home featured in a documentary, "The Queen of Versailles," which premiered at the Sundance festival in 2012 grossed over $2 million at the box office and even won the U.S. Directing Award at the festival. However, Siegel filed a lawsuit against the filmmakers claiming that the documentary hurt Westgate's reputation.
Yet, Jackie continues to promote it. Bravo channel recently aired the documentary on April 29. After the airing, Jackie appeared in an interview with Huffington Post where she candidly talked about the home and its construction status. In the same interview she claimed to have dated property giant, Donald Trump too.
Check out the interview below:
