Fort Driehaus

Manage nearly $3 billion, watch your flagship small-cap portfolio fall 40 percent in one year, and an island fortress might sound good to you, too.

Famed momentum investor Richard Driehaus, suffering through an abysmal year, has begun constructing a replica of a 17th-century Dutch fort to serve as his mountaintop retreat in St. Thomas, in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Driehaus’s assets under management doubled, to $6 billion, in 1999 but have since dropped to $3 billion, thanks to customer withdrawals and poor performance. “I could use a getaway after this year,” concedes the Chicago-based money manager, “Besides, the weather in St. Thomas is a little better.” Not to mention that the 59-year-old growth maven recently launched a $10 million Virgin Islands-based microcap hedge fund. His pricey new home overlooking Charlotte Amalie Harbor is scheduled to be finished by year-end. Jokes Driehaus, “The market had better come back.”

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