Jordan's New Home is a Castle

Michael Jordan is building a home on a golf course -- specifically, the Bears Club in Jupiter, Fla. -- and according to this story, it's going to be quite a doozy.

First, the basics: Jordan bought two adjoining lots at the golf club (Jack Nicklaus' most recent south Florida golf project), with a total land space of three acres, last year for $4.8 million. To date (the story says) the basketball legend has paid slightly more than $150,000 in permits and legal fees to get the project started.Â

The house will be 37,942 square feet, about 26,000 of it air-conditioned. (It will also have a cottage and a security gate.) Most of the houses in the Bears Club are in the 10,000 square-foot range. Chez Jordan will be two stories, with 11 bedrooms and an as-yet-undetermined number of bathrooms. The approximate construction cost: $7.627 million.

As you might imagine, Jordan's plans are drawing a variety of reactions, not all of them positive.

The story quotes Joane Davis, described as a local "growth management specialist, who asked, "Who needs that kind of a footprint? It's insane, a waste. ... I can't imagine anyone needing anything like that, except to show off."

To paraphrase Jordan, if you can afford it, it isn't showing off. Or something like that.

--G.R.