This week East Hampton was the site of a $100 million home sale. Forbes is calling it the most expensive one involving a home ever. The man behind the sale is Hedge fund manager Barry Rosenstein of Jana Partners.
Rosenstein dropped more than $147 million dollars on the home located at 60 Further Lane in East Hampton. On the Forbes list of Highest Earning Hedge Fund Managers Rosenstein was ranked number 29. His most successful year as a hedge fund manager, and probably where the bulk of the cash to buy the home came from, was in 2012 when he raked in over $140 million.
The home once belonged to Christopher H. Browne and Andrew Gordon of the Tweedy Browne Company value investment firm. The two men did some major work to it while under their ownership.
They planted beautiful gardens around the house and even tore it down at one point to replace it with a modernist property Gordon designed himself. After putting in all that work Browne died of a heart attack in 2009 and left the estate to his partner.
This sparked a family feud which ended after Gordon passed away in the fall. Rosenstein entered the picture when the Brown family took control.
Behind the deal to sell the home was a dozen of Browne’s relatives and chef. In order to avoid paying commission the group sold the home without the help of a broker. What left a lot of brokers angry was the fact that the family also made sure to sell the home in secret.
Earlier this year the record for the most expensive home was held by Copper Beech Farm in Greenwich, Connecticut. The home was valued at $120 million. Before that the record belonged to Softbank billionaire Masayoshi Son. He spent 117.5 million on a home in Woodside, California.
[Source: Forbes, New York Post]