Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) Chief Executive Officer Lloyd C. Blankfein bought a seven-bedroom home in New York’s Hamptons that was listed for $32.5 million, a person with knowledge of the deal said.
Blankfein, 58, took title to the property on Ocean Road in Bridgehampton in recent weeks, said the person, who asked not to be named because the transaction hasn’t been made public. The person didn’t disclose the price for the home, which was most recently offered for $32.5 million, according to Zillow.com.
Property records reported by LexisNexis list the owner as ‘Fein, Blank.’ The sellers were Matthew Mallow and his wife, Ellen Chesler, records show. In August, Mallow, who was named earlier this year as general counsel at BlackRock Inc. (BLK), and Chesler, a senior fellow at the Roosevelt Institute, hosted a fundraiser at the house for President Barack Obama that was attended by Vice President Joe Biden, according to reports in the New York Post and on the website of the Sag Harbor Express.
“For the most discerning, this classic Hamptons estate- home, situated on magnificent grounds, offers the ideal blend of every modern convenience and amenity within its early 20th- century construction,” according to a June 2009 rental listing for the property on StreetEasy.com, a real estate website.
The home, with six full bathrooms, includes a tennis court, “sculpted gardens,” a swimming pool, and “a winding driveway to a home of which dreams are made,” according to the rental listing.
Luxury Sales
Blankfein declined to comment through a Goldman Sachs spokesman, David Wells. Bobbie Collins, a spokeswoman for New York-based BlackRock, also declined to comment.
The deal was reported yesterday by the New York Post.
The median price of Hamptons and North Fork luxury properties, defined as the top 10 percent of all sales, was $4.23 million in the third quarter, according to an Oct. 25 report by New York appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and broker Douglas Elliman Real Estate.
The listing price of the Hamptons home is more than what Blankfein spent for his Manhattan apartment at 15 Central Park West, according to a February 2006 regulatory filing by Goldman Sachs. He paid $27 million for that property, the filing shows.
At the time, Goldman Sachs-managed real estate funds held a 31 percent stake in the condominium tower, located across the street from Central Park. The funds have since relinquished that interest.
Blankfein has seen his annual pay drop since he was awarded a record-setting $54 million in 2006 and $68.5 million in 2007. His 2011 compensation was $12.4 million, which included a $3 million cash bonus, $7 million in restricted stock, $2 million in salary and $449,600 in other benefits.
Last month, Blankfein reaped $5.93 million by exercising 10-year-old stock options and selling the shares, leaving him with Goldman Sachs stock worth about $209 million at yesterday’s closing price, according to company filings.
