Business Ventures
Griffin ventured into real estate, purchasing the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills. He also purchased Resorts Hotel and Casino, formerly Chalfonte-Haddon Hall Hotel in Atlantic City from Donald Trump in 1988. An active desert resident, he was a supporter of the La Quinta Arts Festival and the owner of the Merv Griffin Givenchy Resort & Spa in Palm Springs, now The Parker. He owned a ranch near La Quinta, California where he raised thoroughbred racehorses, as well as St. Clerans Manor, a boutique hotel, set in an eighteenth-century estate once owned by director John Huston, near Craughwell, County Galway Galway, Ireland. In the 1980s, Griffin purchased Paradise Island in the Bahamas for US$400 million from Donald Trump, but he later sold it for just US$125 million. Merv Griffin sold his empire for $250 million to Coca-Cola in 1986, he then went on a buying spree of hotels and his wealth in 2003 was said to be around $1.2 billion.
In March 2001, Griffin returned to singing with the release of the album It's Like a Dream.
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