You might be surprised just how many entire towns, villages and even cities are largely funded by super-rich individuals. Whether they're motivated by civic pride or a sentimental attachment to their chosen location, these mega-wealthy donors are re-invigorating tired locations and creating thousands of jobs. Click or scroll through to see the affluent benefactors that are making a real difference in these places.

In late 2018, husband-and-wife duo Michael and Xochi Birch, who founded social network Bebo in 2005, decided to channel a huge amount of money into reviving the sleepy village of Woolsery, aka Woolfardisworthy, in Devon, England, which had been in decline for several years. It’s estimated that the pair had plenty of money to splash on the project, after they sold Bebo to AOL for $850 million (£570m) back in 2010.

Michael Birch spent his childhood summers in Woolsery and has a strong emotional attachment to the picturesque village as his mother’s side of the family had lived close-by since the 1700s. The couple’s project really got off the ground after they purchased local pub Farmers Arms in 2012, which then spiralled into the acquisition of the fish and chip shop, local stores and several residential properties. The much-needed cash injection has been welcomed with open arms by local residents, who described the Birchs' investment in the village as like winning the lottery or having all their Christmases come at once.

In October 2019, the company behind the project, MXB Devon Operations Ltd, employed 65 people, 37 of whom were from the area. Sadly 23 of those employees were made redundant due to financial difficulties caused by the COVID-19 outbreak. That said, work is still very much underway across the village, including expanding the village shop to include a post office and converting a Georgian manor house into a 19-room hotel with a restaurant. The project was due to last until 2021, but its completion date has now been postponed.

Chinese steel tycoon Xiong Shuihua has gone even further than the Birchs by bulldozing the impoverished village where he grew up and replacing its ramshackle huts with luxury apartments and villas. But not to make a profit. Shuihua transformed the village for its inhabitants' benefit and didn’t charge them a penny for their new homes – he simply said he had “more money than he knew what to do with”.

The deep-pocketed metal mogul has ploughed the equivalent of millions of dollars into the village of Xiongkeng in southern China to repay the kindness shown to his family by the residents of the village.

A total of 72 families were provided with luxury apartments, while 18 families who Xiong singled out as being particularly helpful to his family in the past have been gifted villas of their own. The tycoon is also treating elderly and low-income residents to three free meals a day.

Antonio Fernandez, the late founder of the Corona beer empire, hit the headlines in November 2016 after it was claimed he'd left each and every resident of his childhood village Cerezales del Condado in northwestern Spain a cool €2.3 million ($2.7m/£2.1m) apiece.

The story was reported by several trusted news outlets but later refuted by residents of the 30-person village. In reality, Fernandez didn't bequeath millions to individual residents of Cerezales del Condado, but his charitable trust has invested heavily in the village.

The philanthropic beer magnate's foundation, Fundación Cerezales Antonino y Cinia, has paid for an extensive restoration of the village church, funded a cultural centre that draws hundreds of visitors into the area, and improved the water supply in residents' homes. A public square and a street lined with 92 cypress trees were other additions made to the village courtesy of Fernandez’s fortune. In 2016, president of the neighbourhood council Maximino Sanchez said the investments the millionaire had made in his hometown were “his best legacy”, as reported by the BBC. 

Not one to forget her roots, country music star Dolly Parton put her home town of Pigeon Forge, Tennessee on the map in 1986 when she helped transform the ailing Silver Dollar City theme park into Dollywood. Parton is a co-owner and partner in the business alongside Herschend Family Entertainment, which operates entertainment, tourism and hospitality properties across six states.

Parton's involvement has helped turn the struggling theme park into Tennessee's premier attraction. Millions of people visit Dollywood each year, and the growth of the theme park has created thousands of jobs for local residents. There is one person you’ll never see on the rides though, and that’s Dolly herself. The superstar has listed a number of reasons as to why she avoids the rollercoasters, including motion sickness and not wanting to ruin her hair.

The theme park, which has doubled in size since 1986, has around 3,000 staff on its books, which makes it the largest employer in the area, and is credited with revitalising the historic Great Smoky Mountains town. Around 630 Dollywood workers were laid off in April last year as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, however the company has since hosted a series of hiring events over the last couple of months as the Dolly Parton attraction is fully up and running again.

Billionaire Samer Khoury (pictured far left) is on a one-man mission to restore the crumbling town of Bethlehem in Palestine, which is famous of course for being the Biblical birthplace of Jesus Christ and a key Christian pilgrimage destination.

Khoury, a member of the family that owns the Consolidated Contractors Co., is building on the work undertaken by his late father Said, who established the Bethlehem Development Foundation in 2012. The little town has fallen into a sorry state of disrepair following years of instability in the region and is in desperate need of regeneration.

The foundation had already invested at least $40 million (£32.5m) in Bethlehem by 2017, which has paid for essential improvements to the town's buildings and infrastructure. Khoury plans to spend an additional $60 million (£43.1m) by 2027.

Described as the south's “next cultural mecca”, the unassuming town of Bentonville, Arkansas has undergone a major revamp in recent years. The town, which is home to the headquarters of Walmart Stores Inc. and where the Waltons grew up, has been revitalised thanks to the efforts of Walmart scion Alice Walton. Walton is the richest woman in the United States, and currently has a staggering net worth of $64.7 billion (£46.9bn), according to Forbes – some of which has gone towards Bentonville improvements.

The heiress, who has amassed an enviable art collection, oversaw the opening of the world-class Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in the town in November 2011, which displays important works by American artists including Charles Willson Peale to Jackson Pollock. Housing a collection worth an estimated $500 million (£385m), the art gallery welcomed its millionth visitor in August 2013, a little under two years after opening.

Walton has also been involved in establishing an interactive museum for children in Bentonville, as well as a slick boutique hotel, and a number of swish restaurants and stores have opened in the town to serve the increasing numbers of visitors. Last year America’s richest woman also criticised the country's “broken” healthcare system and announced plans to establish the Whole Health Institute and Chopra Medical Library in Bentonville. The centres will aim to improve the health of those living in the area through better medical education and holistic treatments, with plans to eventually spread throughout the rest of Arkansas. Announced in January 2020, construction is due to start this year and the project has a completion date of 2023.

The richest self-made woman in America with a current net worth of $11 billion (£8bn), roofing billionaire Diane Hendricks is pumping a hefty share of her fortune into revamping the town of Beloit in Wisconsin, carrying on the work undertaken with her late husband Ken, who was also dedicated to revitalising the local economy.

The Hendricks' Downtown Beloit Association has been lauded for re-energising the centre of the town, which had been stagnating following the decline of industry in the region. Hendricks is aiming to transform Beloit into a hub for dynamic start-ups. The billionaire has opened a cutting-edge performing arts centre in Beloit and overseen the renovation of an entire downtown block, which is now home to hip restaurants, offices and apartments. She's also funded an international film festival for the town. The gentrification programme has already attracted a number of start-ups and boosted the town's economy.

Hendricks’ adoption of Beloit isn’t without its controversies though, for example she was the biggest financial backer of Scott Walker, Wisconsin’s Republican governor from 2011 to 2019. This prompted one New York Times reporter to liken Hendricks’ involvement in Beloit to somebody “playing SimCity” in 2017, and Hendricks sparked debate once again when she announced she would be funding a brand-new, independent charter school in Beloit. The Lincoln Academy will open on 1 September, despite concerns over whether it’s a good idea to divert money away from public schools.

Roger De Haan, the billionaire heir to the fortune made by UK over-50s brand Saga Insurance, has been instrumental in reviving the centre of Folkestone, the coastal English town he calls home. Having sold their business for £1.4 billion ($2.6bn) in 2004, Roger and his brother Peter have set about investing tens of millions into projects to rejuvenate the town.

Committed to transforming the quiet seaside town into a buzzing cultural hub, the Saga heir has funded a new music and performing arts venue, a public art collection and an annual book festival, all through the Roger De Haan Charitable Trust. The organisation has provided around £18 million ($33.6m) for sports projects in and around Folkestone and £4 million ($7.5m) for schools and education. An ambitious seafront development has already seen the construction of 84 new homes, and the next multi-million-pound phase of development is currently in consultation. If approved, it will bring restaurants, shops, public spaces and hundreds of new homes to the seaside.

De Haan's projects in the town include a long-awaited indoor skate and urban sports park, F51. The unique venue was first proposed in 2015 as the world’s first multi-storey skatepark but it has faced construction and cost-related delays and was then further set back by the COVID-19 outbreak. Construction on the final skate floor (pictured) has just started and the park is set to open this autumn. The project’s costs have soared from an initial projection of £7 million ($9.1m) to £14 million ($18.2m).

Several moneyed tycoons have attempted to revive the downtown area of Detroit, including the late Little Caesars Pizza boss Mike Illitch, but none have been as successful as altruistic billionaire Dan Gilbert. The Detroit-born magnate moved his Quicken Loans headquarters to the centre of the declining city back in 2010 and hasn't looked back.

Gilbert now owns swathes of real estate in downtown Detroit, which have been fully restored and repurposed. Gilbert's bulging property portfolio includes landmark buildings such as the Chase Tower and Madison Theater, and the tycoon has created more than 17,000 new jobs in the downtown area. One of the latest developments is Gilbert’s plan to redesign ailing shopping centre Tower City Center into a marketplace with retail stores and restaurants. Gilbert is also co-chair of the Blight Removal Task Force, which is dedicated to removing all dilapidated structures and lots in the city.

One dilapidated structure Gilbert hopes to give a new lease of life is the half-built Wayne County jail, which Gilbert wanted to develop into a $300 million (£160.6m) innovation centre for the University of Michigan, in partnership with fellow billionaire Stephen Ross. The project recently reached a stumbling block however, when development companies pulled out of building on the site. Ross still intends to build the university innovation centre elsewhere, while Gilbert now plans to create a different innovation centre on the prison site. Gilbert has also pleased Detroiters in March this year by announcing a 10-year, $500 million (£359m) investment to aid residents of the city, including a $15 million (£10.8m) package to eliminate property tax debt for 20,000 low-income homeowners.

Billionaire Kevin Plank, the founder and CEO of thriving sports apparel company Under Armour, is funnelling a staggering $5.5 billion (£3.9bn) into South Baltimore's game-changing Port Covington development.

The ambitious development, which is poised to transform 235 acres of Maryland cityscape, will create 50 new city blocks, 17 streets and around 40 acres of parkland, along with a light rail extension and two new stations. The latest stage in the development is the delivery of 25 acres-worth of new residences, offices, retail outlets and parking, as well as 10 acres of public space, all set for completion in 2022.

While the project has its detractors, who believe Port Covington will only benefit Baltimore's more affluent residents, the development is pretty much guaranteed to attract scores of new businesses to the city and create thousands of jobs. The project is also benefitting the surrounding area, with $10 million (£7.2m) going to six communities nearby, including Cherry Hill and Westport, who can decide how they want to spend the additional funds.

Celebrity chef Rick Stein has a thriving seafood empire in the town of Padstow on the north coast of Cornwall, England. Since opening The Seafood Restaurant in 1975 with former wife Jill, the 74-year-old chef has added a number of businesses to his empire, including Rick Stein’s Café, Stein’s Fish & Chips, Ruby’s Bar, Rick Stein's Seafood Bar & Fishmongers, Bryn Cottage and Rick Stein’s Cookery School.

Stein's impact on the town has been so enormous that some have renamed it "Padstein". In 2017, pre-tax profits for The Seafood Restaurant Ltd., which includes Stein's restaurants, hotels, stores and cookery school, was just under £1 million ($1.3m) although that figure halved in 2018, with finance director Neil McLeod blaming tough conditions in the hospitality industry.

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And 2020 has been the toughest year yet. The TV chef came under fire during the pandemic, after he refused to pay staff for more than a month during March and April until government wage subsidies set in. When restaurants opened up again no-shows also had a huge impact on the economic health of the business, as the Stein restaurant group reportedly lost £46,000 ($59.7k) in the space of just 11 days due to customers not turning up for pre-booked tables. As a result, the coronavirus pandemic led Stein to “nearly [lose] the whole business”, according to an interview with the chef in The Times, and his 600-employee-strong empire was reportedly on the brink of bankruptcy.

Known as "the town that Prince Charles built", Poundbury is a new model town which acts as an extension to Dorchester in Dorset in the south west of England. The prince is known for his disdain towards modern architecture, and wanted to design a town to reflect his ideal principles of more traditional buildings and community living. Building works started in 1993, with the first house going up for sale in 1994.

The town faced instant criticism, with one review in the New Statesman calling it "an embarrassing anachronism", while another in the Observer called it "fake, heartless, authoritarian and grimly cute". Architectural details aside, however, the town does seem to have had a positive economic impact. According to a report by the Dorset County Council, the development is already contributing £98 million ($129m) to the local economy per year in demand for goods and services.

The model town opened its town square, Queen Mother Square, in 2016, complete with a visit from the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, and the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall. Today, Poundbury is home to 3,800 residents living in 1,700 homes, as well as 207  businesses. The final phase of the 30-year venture will be the addition of 200 new homes, a third of which will be social housing. There will also be open squares featuring a variety of tree species, as well as 500 square metres of retail and office units. Designs for this last stage in the development were inspired by the Edwardian Garden Movement, and the entire project is due for completion in 2028.

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