New York

IN 2008, Donald Trump sold a Palm Beach, Florida, estate for US$95 million, making it the most expensive single residential property ever sold in town. Now the property is about to set another record - as Palm Beach's most expensive tear-down.

Backhoes and dump trucks have started crushing and carting away the 61,744-square-foot French provincial home at 515 North County Road, along with an 8,200-square-foot tennis house, a pool house and a carriage house. While such tear-downs have become common in Palm Beach and other high-end resort towns, the demolition of the six-acre (2.4-hectare) estate known as Maison de l'Amitié, or House of Friendship, represents a new level of disposable wealth.