|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
By: Benyamin Davidsons
Ron Lauder, an heir to the illustrious Estée Lauder fortune, sold his 30-acre Wainscott estate in the Hamptons, in an off-market sale. As reported by the New York Post, the estate sold for $56 million— which is considerably less than the $66 million he paid for it just three years ago. The luxury estate, which closed on Wednesday, was not sold to another billionaire — rather it was sold to the town of East Hampton. The town, which dug deep into its Community Preservation Fund to pay for the estate, plans to protect the land from development and preserve it as open space.
The sale ensures the property will remain undeveloped to protect it and to improve water quality at Wainscott Pond. This is the most expensive purchase in the preservation fund’s history, which dates back to 1998. Officials praised the effort as a big step forward for conservation and water quality.
“These types of acquisitions are important to the preservation of the beautiful landscapes that make the Hamptons the iconic destination that it is,” Cody Vichinsky, founding partner of Bespoke Real Estate, which brokered the deal for both sides, told The Post. “We are grateful to be able to facilitate transactions like this enjoy.”
Per the Post, the preservation fund has flourished in recent years, as it collects 2% of revenue from property sales, which have boomed in the area since the pandemic. The purchase of this 30-acre estate includes a third of the shoreline of Wainscott Pond, a water body which the state designated as impaired, due to harmful algae blooms that threaten its ecosystem. Now that the town owns this property, it can implement plans to assess the pond and move forward to upgrade sanitation systems, stormwater controls and buffer zones to curb pollution.
According to the information provided in The Post report, the estate features a 6,000-square-foot main residence with four bedrooms, as well as a guest and pool house, tennis and pickleball courts, a heated gunite pool and a detached garage. The grounds include meadows, woodlands, and water views of both Wainscott Pond and the Atlantic Ocean. In 2021, Lauder had purchased the property for $10 million more, paying $66 million. Lauder’s intention when he purchased it was to halt potential development. Now, in selling the waterfront estate, Lauder has further proven his commitment to preservation, by selling to the township at a discount.
Lauder, 80, has an estimated net worth of $4.72 billion, as of Dec 2024. He is the son of late Estée Lauder and Joseph Lauder, the Jewish founders of the famed Estée Lauder Companies. He and his older brother of Leonard Lauder, are the company’s sole heirs, and his brother serves chairman of the board of the Estée Lauder Companies. He too worked in the family company, but aside from his multiple business activities, he has also been active in the pursuit of political activities. In 1984, Lauder became a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for European and NATO policy at the United States Department of Defense, per Wikipedia. In 1985 he published a book entitled Fighting Violent Crime in America. In 1986, he was named as the United States Ambassador to Austria.
