In March 2020, a Hawaii contractor agreed to build a house, cabin, and treehouses worth millions of dollars on Mark Zuckerberg’s compound on the island of Kauai. Now the business is suing several companies affiliated with the Facebook billionaire, arguing they still owe the firm $133,726 plus interest for the luxury dwellings.
According to records filed with a lien in state court, Williams Construction was hired to erect a “Jungle House & Cabin” and “Tree Houses” on the 300-plus-acre property owned by Zuckerberg’s Pilaʻa International LLC and Pilaʻa Land LLC. (The filings indicate another firm, ORBT, LLC, acted as the agent of the Pilaʻa companies.)
Williams claims it “has not been paid for all of its labor, materials, and equipment as agreed,” despite sending a bill and demands for payment. The lien says Williams “has used its best efforts to contact ORBT to resolve the outstanding debts” but that the firm “has failed and/or refused to make payment in accordance with Williams’s requests.”
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Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Zuckerberg family told local news site Kaua’i Now: “To our knowledge, we have paid all invoices submitted by Williams Construction in full.”
A hearing on the matter is scheduled for Sept. 28.
Court exhibits include a contractor email from November 2019 detailing the projects at Zuckerberg’s island estate—including another potential million-dollar home called “Waterfall House”—and rough estimates of the cost for each one.
A project identified as “Jungle House (Main)” would cost $2.9 million with a build time of 16 months. “This is based off of other projects we’ve done recently,” the contractor’s email said. “Along with taking into account the potential difficulty of roads, sub contractors not having 4x4, building a temporary bridge to get materials across, tearing it down, rope bridges that become very custom and time binding etc.”
The email also referred to the “Jungle House (Cabin),” quoted at $500,000 “based on tearing the cabin down and constructing a new 500 sq ft cabin” and the property’s road issues.
Finally, the “Tree Houses” were estimated to cost $1,000 to $1,500 per square foot. “These tree houses are going to be considerably timely,” the message continued, “especially with everything having to be permitted and up to code, building scaffolding around the treehouses, intricate rope bridges, no protection from the weather and so on.”
Meanwhile, the “Waterfall House” mentioned in the email (but not the lien) was calculated to run $1.28 million while “excluding swimming pool and fire pit for now.”
“We truly love working with you guys and look forward to any opportunity to do so but we are extremely busy,” the contractor concluded. “So like we mentioned onsite, when there is innocent indecision or a job that needs to be expedited, it becomes very expensive because of scheduling changes, overtime, incentivizing sub contractors to be at our beck and call etc. Please let us know whatever else we can put together for you.”
The treehouse claim isn’t the only pending legal action against Pilaʻa Land.
In August, the family of security guard Rodney Medeiros filed a wrongful death suit against Zuckerberg’s company and claimed the tech mogul and his wife Priscilla Chan only offered loved ones $7,500 after Medeiros died of a heart attack. Relatives say Medeiros, 70, was forced to walk alone up a steep, muddy hill because of storms just before his cardiac emergency in August 2019. They said staff would usually transport him to and from his post in an ATV.
Ben LaBolt, a Zuckerberg spokesperson, said the $7,500 was “given by Mark and Priscilla” and intended “to help with burial and funeral expenses” for Medeiros, who worked for a contracted security company. LaBolt added that ranch personnel immediately called 911 and sent on-site medics, and Medeiros was “conscious and communicative” when an ambulance arrived.
Medeiros’ daughter Ziba told Hawaii News Now she was in shock after her dad died and initially grateful for the funds from the Zuckerberg clan. But the more she thought about it, the more upset she became that the billionaires offered so little.
“It’s $7,500 for our father’s life,” Ziba said. “Is this supposed to make it OK?”
