The Estee Lauder heir purchased the 30 acre estate in the tony Hamptons in 2021 for $66 million and sold it recently in an off market deal for $55 million. This was actually a plan, Lauder snapped up the property to keep it out of the hands of real estate speculators looking to halt their potential development.
The estate, has a 6,000 sq. ft. main residence, with 4 bedrooms and detached garage, guest house, tennis and pickleball courts, and a heated gunite pool with pool house. In this market he probably could have flipped it for a big profit, but instead took a loss by selling it to the local Community Preservation Fund to keep it from further exploitation.
I don’t run in those circles, but I would imagine there’s a tax advantage softening the loss, but I believe this was a truly altruistic move benefitting us little people for generations to come, thank you Ronald Lauder.
