- Oracle founder Larry Ellison added two Nobu restaurants since buying Lanai, Bloomberg reported.
- He promised to revitalize the island's economy, but residents say they've been priced out.
- Ellison spent $75 million on an upgrade to the Four Seasons, but canned affordable housing plans.
After Oracle founder Larry Ellison bought almost all the land on the Hawaiian island of Lanai for $300 million a decade ago, his first major project was opening a branch of the high-end Japanese restaurant Nobu, according to a Bloomberg report.
In the years since, a second Nobu has opened on the island, but many local residents whose families have lived on Lanai for generations have left, according to the report.
A 150-unit affordable housing complex promised to residents for years was also canned by Ellison's holding company, Pulama.
About 3,200 people live on Lanai, the smallest inhabited Hawaiian island, where tourism is the main industry.
Ellison, who founded software giant Oracle and is worth about $95 billion, according to Forbes, moved to the island full-time in 2020.
He also spent $75 million upgrading the Four Seasons resort on the island, where rooms can cost thousands of dollars a night, Bloomberg reported.
All properties available to buy in Lanai City are billed as vacation homes with seven-figure price tags.
One local who cannot afford to buy a property on the island told Bloomberg: "My biggest worry, worst-case scenario, is that the island becomes this playground for only the rich."
A news clip of Ellison promised to help the local economy on Lanai is now a running joke among its residents, according to the report.
He said in an interview with The New York Times that he saw Lanai becoming "the first economically viable, 100% green community."
Pulama is planning to build a desalination plant on the island, according to Bloomberg.
However, a seventh-generation resident who represents Lanai on a marine sanctuary advisory council, said his requests to speak to Ellison have been been repeatedly ignored.
Ellison did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
