steve schwarzman yacht

Yachts, parties and private islands: The indulgences of real estate’s richest

From floating mansions to private Drake performances, here's how the industry's 1 percent spend their millions

R e member the bad old days in New York? The 1970s had the city on the precipice of fiscal ruin, but a mouthy tax attorney named Steve Ross bet big on the metropolis that many landlords were ready to give up on.

R oss’ Related Companies was part of a class of modern-day real estate titans that would emerge from those ashes, but once you’ve transformed the skyline of a city often described as the capital of the world, what else is there to do? With a net worth of $4.5 billion and a place in real estate lore, Ross thought he’d buy himself a football team.

A decade after Ross spent more than $1 billion to acquire the Miami Dolphins, America has entered a new era of property titans. Real estate’s elite have always loved shiny toys and flashy parties. Now, some of the richest among them are turning the world into a playground for the ultra-wealthy.

Y ear of the yacht

I n the rich folks’ toy box, the superyacht is nothing new. What is new is an unprecedented surge of purchases. Some 887 of them were sold last year, almost double the number sold in 2020, leaving the wealthy to contend with a shortage and seemingly endless waiting lists.  

B ut before taking a look at the boats of the yachted gentry, let’s consider the yachtless among us — including Linda Macklowe, who lost hers in her divorce from 432 Park Avenue developer Harry Macklowe.  

W hen the former couple couldn’t agree on the value of their art collection, accrued over the course of their marriage, a judge decided it should be auctioned off. After the second round of bidding in May, it brought in a record $922.2 million.

Y ou can split money in half. You can’t split a boat. Long rides on the yacht, named “Unfurled,” were once a passion the Macklowes shared. “Unfurled“ now belongs to Harry.

W hile some go for the latest and greatest, luxury spec home developer Todd Michael Glaser’s tastes skew more vintage. Glaser and his 62-foot “Sea Tabby,” built in 1938, have been together for nearly 12 years. It still has all the original furniture, along with three state rooms and a full kitchen.

F lorida kingpin Jeffrey Soffer is willing to share his superyacht, “Madsummer” — for $1.6 million a week, according to a rental listing. NFL legend Tom Brady and his supermodel wife, Gisele Bundchen, were spotted on it last year.

A t that price, “Madsummer“ may be the superyacht to end all superyachts. It boasts a beach club, helipad, daycare center, spa and indoor and outdoor cinemas — a “floating mansion” in every sense of the word.

O stentatious bashes   and personal playgrounds  

B rady hasn’t just taken Soffer’s yacht for a spin — he’s next-door neighbors with the developer on Indian Creek, a 300-acre Miami island where other high-profile residents have included models Adriana Lima and Soffer’s ex-wife, Elle Macpherson, as well as Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.

O racle co-founder Larry Ellison is playing landlord to the people of Lanai, the Hawaiian island he bought 98 percent of in 2012 for $300 million.  

E llison moved to Lanai full-time during the pandemic, and he’s quickly turning it into a playground for other big-name billionaires such as Elon Musk and Tom Cruise, who fly or sail in, coming and going as they please.

E llison also owns Lanai’s grocery store, gas station, newspaper and the Four Seasons resort, which employs most of the island’s population.

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E xpensive boats and private islands are nice, but there’s nothing like a party. Anyone in the industry can tell you that real estate wealth shines most when the elites put on a night to remember.

N ew York retail magnate Jeff Sutton reportedly spent $25 million on his daughter’s wedding in Puglia, Italy, including $5 million on chartered jets to transport guests (Editor’s note: Sutton claims it was $12 million for the wedding and $1 million for air travel). When the big day came, the billionaire father of the bride made a grand entrance in a horse-drawn carriage.

F or his daughter’s bat mitzvah at the Rainbow Room in 2016, developer Ben Ashkenazy hired rapper Drake, who performed his then-hit song “Hotline Bling.”

T he old guard and the new

Cars aren’ t just a way to get from A to B. Glaser loves his antique cars, especially his old Ferrari and Land Rover, and he relishes early morning drives on the weekend.

B lackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman, who said his father was always happy with just two cars, has a Porsche 911, an Audi A4, a Mini Cooper and a BMW 645 CI that goes from 0 to 60 in 5.6 seconds.  

T hese collections are impressive to most, but they’re modest compared to that of Southern California real estate tycoon and social media sensation Manny Khoshbin.

T he Khoshbin Company specializes in retail and office properties, although you wouldn’t know it from Khoshbin’s internet presence. The super car connoisseur’s YouTube channel is all automotive content, the thumbnails a gallery of his many expensive rides — s o many, in fact, that l ast year he bought a 70,000-square-foot p roperty to store them.  

T he “House of Khoshbin” is a palatious monstrosity of mirrored walls, Roman columns and gilded murals of cherubs on every floor. The garage is still unfinished, but it will house Khoshbin’s Bugattis, Porsches and the rest of his fleet.

I n an industry where showy displays of wealth are the norm, fleets of sports cars or superyachts make for a great flex. But some billionaires prefer not to showboat.  

W est Coast developer John Sobrato, who spends up to 18 weeks out of the year on his yacht, said he sees it not as a luxury asset but as an extension of his home.  

“ We’ve had the same boat now for 17 years, which is unheard of in the industry,” he told the Nob Hill Gazette in a 2019 interview.

L arry Silverstein’s elusive, 175-foot “Silver Shalis” tends to generate local headlines when it makes a rare appearance. It was spotted in Maine last summer, and it popped up in Fort Lauderdale in January.

T he “ Silver Shalis ” is an oasis of luxury, with a glass elevator, a swimming pool, a dining area and an art collection. Silverstein purchased it in 2010, reportedly for more than $30 million.  

A sked by TRD about the yacht’s price in a 2011 interview, Silverstein demurred.

“ That’s irrelevant,” he said.

Recommended

Yacht owners on st. barts track locations of crew to keep covid at bay.

As the rich and famous flocked to their yachts on St. Barts this holiday season, many of them did everything they could to prevent the spread of COVID-19 — including tracking the location of crewmembers to make sure they stayed onboard, On The Money has learned.

Yachts provide a fair amount of isolation and privacy for those who can afford it — but that’s only if everyone else on board is also committed to isolating and staying away from possible super-spreader events.

So, amid a surge in Omicron cases, the ultra-rich clamped down on crewmembers’ usual visits to shore. Captains told staff — including chefs, deckhands, and first mates — they had to stay on the boat and share their location on their cell phones, one source who was recently aboard a big boat told On the Money.

Some Russian oligarchs are said to have taken an even harsher position than their American counterparts, the yacht-goer told On the Money, and required crew members to wear ankle bracelets like criminals under house arrest.

But staying away from the posh St. Bart’s nightclubs proved too difficult for some crew members. To avoid surveillance, one trio of staffers left their phones on board when they went ashore in the middle of the night, a source told On The Money.

Their escape was only discovered when the owner of the yacht woke up hungry for a pastrami sandwich at 3 a.m. When he couldn’t find the chef, he asked the captain to find him. But the three crew members — including the chef — had left their phones on board to avoid being tracked ashore. When they found their way onboard after a night of partying, they were forced to quarantine — unpaid — for five days, this person adds.

Yachts have proven a favorite — albeit controversial — escape for the wealthy since lockdowns began in 2020.

At the outbreak of coronavirus in March 2020 billionaire David Geffen — famous for his nearly $600 million superyacht — sparked outrage when he posted an aerial shot of his boat and said he was isolating in the Grenadines.

“I’m hoping everybody is staying safe,” Geffen wrote from his 454-foot boat named Rising Sun.

While billionaires may have learned to be more subtle since then, their concern with avoiding COVID seems to have remained.

Blackstone Group billionaire Stephen Schwarzman, who is known for his lavish birthday bashes, resumed hosting parties in 2021 — albeit with safety measures in place, On The Money has learned.

In November, prior to the Omicron outbreak, Schwarzman invited pals to a soiree in St. Barts. But he didn’t trust the island’s already stringent testing protocol, a source familiar with the matter told On the Money. He flew out a team of his doctors to separately test all the patients.

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Miramar sells for $27 million

Gustave White Sotheby’s International Realty announced the sale of ‘Miramar’ at 646 Bellevue Avenue in Newport, RI. The seller was represented by David Huberman of Gustave White Sotheby’s International Realty. The buyer, Blackstone Chairman and CEO Stephen Schwarzman, was unrepresented.

Located on Bellevue Avenue, ‘Miramar’ is among Newport’s finest Gilded Age mansions and one of its largest private homes with an oceanfront setting offering panoramic views of the Rhode Island Sound and Atlantic Ocean.

In 1912 George D. Widner of Philadelphia commissioned architect Horace Trumbauer to design a summer cottage for his family. Trumbauer had designed several prominent buildings in Philadelphia as well ‘The Elms’ in Newport, his design for ‘Miramar’ was a neoclassical

French petit palais constructed of limestone inspired by eighteenth- century French architecture. On over 8 acres, the grounds were designed by French landscape architect Jacques Greber, who laid out the grand parterre gardens facing Bellevue Avenue.

In April of 1912, the Wideners were returning from a visit to Paris where, among other things, they were looking for furniture and decorative objects for their Newport house. They were aboard the RMS Titanic.

In the early morning hours of April 15th, 1912, Eleanor Elkins Widener and her maid stepped into one of the lifeboats after the ship struck an iceberg. Her husband, George, and her son, Harry, did not survive. Upon her safe return to America, the widowed Mrs. Widener continued with plans for her Newport house, named ‘Miramar’ (Spanish for “sea-view’) as a memorial to her husband. Eleanor later donated the money to Harvard University to build the Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library in her son’s memory who was a Harvard alumni and avid book collector.

Listing agent David Huberman of Gustave White Sotheby’s International Realty said “Miramar is a once-in-a- lifetime opportunity to own one of the most spectacular estates in Newport. The design, construction, setting, and historical pedigree of this property are second to none. From private entry through its elaborate gates, to the flow through arched doorways from formal dining spaces through grand ballrooms to its exquisite seaside terrace it offers grandeur, and an opportunity to own a piece of history that cannot be recreated.” Its most recent owners had undertaken a detailed study and conservation of the estate with an international team of preservation consultants and advisors. Exterior stone cleaning, repointing, roof and balustrade work, a new geothermal heating and cooling system, interior paint analysis, tree care, and much more have been implemented, bringing the house and grounds on a course back to the original vision of Mrs. Widener and her design team.

Stephen A. Schwarzman is Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder of Blackstone, one of the world’s leading investment firms with $684 billion Assets Under Management. Schwarzman’s net worth is reportedly $33 Billion.

This historic sale comes on the heels of Clarendon Court selling for $30 Million , making it the highest sale price for a private home ever in Rhode island.

Amid Rising Mosquito-Borne Disease Risks, Rhode Island Officials Recommend ‘Smart-Scheduling’ for Outdoor Activities

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Inside the billionaires' battle for the soul of Newport, Rhode Island.

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Ellison has spent more than $100 million to renovate Beechwood and create a museum to house part of his art collection. He has had security guards posted at the construction site 24/7, according to a neighbor. So, with a mix of eager anticipation and worried trepidation, locals wondered if this would be the summer that Ellison would finally put down roots in town and bring his 288-foot yacht, Mushashi , to Newport harbor.

Ellison’s arrival in Newport coincides with two other famous faces buying property in the area: “Judge Judy” Sheindlin and comedian Jay Leno. In 2019, Sheindlin purchased the Bird House for $9 million . The estate was previously owned by Campbell’s Soup heiress Dorrance "Dodo" Hamilton. Leno, meanwhile, paid $13.5 million for Seafair in 2017 . The crescent-shaped, 15,861-square-foot home on Ocean Drive played host to President Barack Obama when he attended a Newport fundraiser in 2014.

And while the so-called nouveau riche have been buying and building estates in Newport since the Gilded Age (memorialized in an upcoming HBO series from Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes ), insiders say the current influx of wealth—spurred on by the recent pandemic—has many wondering whether Newport is heading the way of the Hamptons.

“The money has been going out of the traditional families in Newport for a long time,” says photographer Nick Mele, who has been called a modern-day Slim Aarons. “The new generation are not able to sustain the lifestyles that their parents were able to.” He knows from experience. Following the 2018 death of Mele’s grandmother Marion “Oatsie” Charles, the noted Newport and Georgetown society figure, his family decided to sell her former house. Located on six acres, Land’s End had previously been Edith Wharton’s summer home, and it was listed for $11.7 million in 2019. The house sold for $8.6 million in April 2020 . The new buyers were identified in the Wall Street Journal simply as “a family from Connecticut who had previously spent summers in the Newport area.”

“Anytime you get an old community that has had the same families in it for generations, you do get a sense of a sense of encroachment (‘this is our town’), but I think it’s just as much a sadness that the money is not in those families any more than it is that these new people are coming in, because there’s really no choice,” Mele says. “You see fewer and fewer of these iconic properties that we grew up in staying in the families of our friends, but that’s no one’s fault but our own.”

He added that while the properties might not be expensive compared to destinations like the Hamptons, real estate taxes are incredibly high in Newport, and many of the old houses, especially those along the oceanfront, require a significant amount of upkeep.

How Newport Became Newport

David Ray, who owns the legendary Clarke Cooke House, remembers when the U.S. Navy announced in 1973 that it was pulling its Atlantic destroyer fleet out of Newport. “It totally changed the town, because it was a white-hat sailing town,” Ray says.

Ray moved the Clarke Cooke House building to its current location in 1973 and bought Bannister’s Wharf, on which it sits, in 1975. In 1976, tall ships arrived in Narragansett Bay and paraded under the Newport Bridge as part of a July 4 celebration for the Bicentennial . “The town got a tremendous amount of publicity—there were tens of thousands of people walking up and down this wharf,” Ray says. Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth II visited around that time too.

The following year, Ted Turner won the America’s Cup in Newport Harbor. “That’s what really started putting Newport on the map—the tall ships and the America’s Cup, big events year after year,” Ray says. “Up until that point in time, nobody came here. There was no tourist business—zero.”

Ray says that the number-one ingredient that separates Newport from any other resort town in America is its deep-water harbor. It was a deciding factor in the New York Yacht Club’s purchase of Harbour Court as an outpost for the club in the late 1980s. A sailor and former owner of the Newport Shipyard, Charlie Dana was involved in the yacht club's purchase of the former Brown (of Brown University) family home. Dana and Ray, along with a cadre of other NYYC members, joined an initiative spurred on by Charles A. Robertson and Commodore Robert G. Stone, Jr. to purchase Harbour Court from the Brown family in 1987. The striking house on a hill overlooking the harbor, which was completed in 1906, was sold to the club the following year for $4.5 million .

“Newport was sort of dying on the vine,” Dana says, “and the summer of ’77 was a big deal because Ted Turner brought a lot of attention to the America’s Cup and to Newport.”

“Like many places, it was centered around club life, and people wouldn’t buy house unless they could get into Bailey’s Beach,” he says, referring to the exclusive beach club officially named the Spouting Rock Beach Association. Having the New York Yacht Club open a clubhouse in town “did huge things for Newport because all of a sudden the boat people came.”

Wharfs like Bowen’s Wharf and Bannister’s Wharf, where the culinary institution The Clarke Cooke House is located, began to fill up, Dana says, and life ceased to revolve exclusively around Bailey’s Beach.

Doris Duke’s actions after the famous automobile accident in which she was involved are another reason Newport gained national prominence, especially for its architecture. In the days following the 1966 car accident that killed her interior designer friend Eduardo Tirella under suspicious circumstances ( Duke was at the wheel of the car that fatally crushed him against the gate of her estate, Rough Point, after he got out to open it ), the tobacco heiress reportedly donated $25,000 to restore the Cliff Walk and $10,000 to Newport Hospital. A few months later, she established the Newport Restoration Foundation , which has renovated more than 80 Colonial-era buildings in Newport and neighboring Middletown.

“Until her death in 1993, saving Newport’s colonial architectural heritage would remain a singular philanthropic focus” for Duke, her biography on the Restoration Foundation’s website states. There is no mention of the accident—or any deal Duke may have struck with local authorities that resulted in the police chief at the time calling it an “unfortunate accident” and declaring, “There is no cause to prefer charges against Miss Duke and as far as this department is concerned this case is closed.”

That changed in early August, however, when the only known eyewitness came forward and spoke with the author of a recently released book about Tirella’s death, Homicide at Rough Point . Bob Walker was a 13-year-old paperboy intending to deliver a newspaper when he biked up to 680 Bellevue Avenue on the afternoon on October 7, 1966.

“I initially heard the argument and screaming of two people,” Walker told the book’s author, Peter Lance, according to Vanity Fair . “The arguing stopped for a couple of seconds, and the next thing I heard was the roar of a motor, the crash, and the screaming of a man.”

Walker, who is now 68 and a former Marine, told Lance that he approached the scene and saw a woman get out of her car. “She was a rather tall woman—regal,” Walker says. As Walker approached from behind her, he says, “She spun around and looked at me. I said, ‘Can I help you, ma’am?’ And she said,”—screaming and pointing her finger—“‘You better get the hell out of here!’”

Walker’s statements prompted the Newport Police Department to reopen the case. “I can confirm that I’ve been assigned to follow up with this case due to new information provided by Robert Walker,” Newport Police Det. Jacque Wuest told the Newport Daily News on August 5. The “case is now open for further review due to new facts coming forward,” Wuest said. “It is an active investigation.”

Celebrities in Newport

“I ended up in Newport because I was driving down Ocean Avenue with my wife, and she said, ‘Look at that house” as we passed Seafair,” Leno says in a telephone interview. “I said, ‘Let’s go back.’ Just as we drove by again, the gate opened and the caretaker came out. I asked if the house was for sale, and he said technically it was for sale but wasn’t listed. He gave us a tour and got the owner on the phone, and he agreed to sell it to us furnished.”

Leno, who grew up in Andover, Massachusetts and first visited the area when he went to the Newport Jazz Festival as a high schooler to watch Slip Wilson perform, now uses the house to host family gatherings. “When you live in California and all the relatives want to come visit, it’s a nightmare because I spend weeks clearing the house,” Leno said. “In Newport, it’s all taken care of—I don’t even have to vacuum—and everybody has their own room.”

“I got a mansion for the price of a condo on Wilshire Boulevard,” Leno says of his 2017 purchase. Since then, prices have increased dramatically, and Leno expects Seafair is worth twice as much as he paid for it, if not more.

A more well-heeled crowd isn’t so bad for the city, he said.

“I eat at a place on Thames Street, the Handy Lunch, and they’re thrilled because bigger tippers come in and they spend more money,” Leno says. The downtown area “used to be a mix of knick-knack shops selling ash trays made out of lobsters, and now you’ve got five-star restaurants going in there and they’re quite good.”

While Judy Sheindlin, through a representative, declined a request to be interviewed, a source familiar with her Newport life said she likes to keep a low profile when she is there.

Leno and Sheindlin are not the first celebrities to settle in Newport. Nicholas Cage owned one of the largest houses in the Newport area, Grey Craig—in Middleton, where St. George’s School is located—from 2007 through 2011. He paid $15.7 million for the 24,000-square-foot house on 27 acres when he purchased it from Charlie Dana. Cage listed it for $15.9 million in 2008; it sold for just $6.5 million in 2011 , a loss of $9.2 million.

But the first celebrity to call Newport home arrived nearly a century ago. In the 1940s, Broadway star Gertrude Nielsen became the owner of Rosecliff after her mother purchased the home at auction for $17,000 . Life magazine featured her in an article titled “ Life Visits a Palace at Newport.”

Ruth Buchanan, the late Dow Chemical heiress, and her husband Wiley T. Buchanan Jr. bought Beaulieu, next to Marble House on Bellevue Avenue , for $100,000 in 1961. One weekend, the Buchanans invited Elizabeth Taylor as a houseguest. “My grandmother called the hostess of the dinner she was invited to that Friday night, Anita Young, and asked if she could bring her houseguest to dinner,” the Buchanans’ grandson, entrepreneur and former U.S. Ambassador to Austria Trevor Traina, says.

“Mrs. Young said, ‘Absolutely not, we would never have an actor in the house,’ so the butler had to serve dinner to Elizabeth Taylor alone because my grandmother could not unaccept an invitation, which would be rude, nor could she bring an actress, which would be rude.” Traina also noted that Taylor had her bathtub at Beaulieu filled with ice and kept it stocked with beer all weekend, “which I think reaffirmed some of the doubts in the community about inviting her for the weekend.”

“What has changed today is that most of the people in Newport would kill to get an invitation to an actor’s house today rather than refuse to entertain them in yesteryear,” Traina says. “When you walk around Bailey’s Beach, much of the talk is about who bought which house, including Larry Ellison and Jay Leno’s recent purchases, of course.”

Will Newport Become the Hamptons?

“I think Newport will stay uniquely New England, because the people here seem to like the not-so-flashy, not-so-Hollywood lifestyle,” Leno said. “I can walk around as shabbily dressed as I usually am, and no one thinks twice about it.”

Leno’s friend Donald Osborne, who serves as Director and CEO of the Audrain Auto Museum (for which Leno is a major fundraiser) and has made a number of appearances on the TV show Jay Leno’s Garage , has an idea about why the area will remain low-key. “On Aquidneck Island, in addition to Newport, you also have Middletown and Portsmouth, which are very nice middle-class communities that offer the opportunity for people to live in a place very adjacent to the best real estate in the state. Anything affordable in the Hamptons is at least seven towns away.”

In addition, Osborne says, “Newport will never be like the Hamptons because it is a uniquely historic city. Newport is a city founded in the 17th century with great history, so it has a totally different feeling than resorts that can’t match the history.” It also has a strong social fabric, with younger generations returning to the same places their parents frequented when they were children to take part in traditions like the sandcastle contest at Bailey’s Beach and ending dinner at the Clarke Cooke House with a Snowball in Hell .

“The generations all interface at parties,” says Bettie Bearden Pardee , whose books Private Newport at Home and in the Garden and Living Newport: Houses, People, Style chronicle how people live and entertain in the seaside town. “You don’t have only old people and only young people. I had a conversation at a luncheon the other day with someone who said he’s never seen that in any other summer community—this mix of generations.”

Piper Quinn, who owns the buzzy Buccan and Grato restaurants in Palm Beach and spends summers in Newport, says that while the general vibe hasn’t changed much in the past four decades, he has noticed high-profile yacht owners coming to town more recently. “That is something that was not here 20 years ago,” he says.

“The timelessness of Newport makes it different from the Hamptons and Nantucket. The Hamptons could use some of Newport. Nantucket could use some of Newport,” he says.

It’s also harder to get to from New York on public transportation than the Hamptons, as Ray explains: “Psychologically, the Hamptons are a lot closer.” Newport is not serviced by luxury buses like the Hampton Jitney and the Hampton Luxury Liner, and those who take Amtrak from Penn Station have to find transportation for the final leg of the journey Kingston to Newport—about a 25-minute drive.

Ruthie Sommers, an interior designer who lives in Newport during the summer and is currently working on a book about the area with Mele, says the values that Newporters have will prevent it from going the way of the Hamptons. “I believe people who are drawn to Newport are drawn to the nature of the rocky coastline or to the idea of community, Sommers said. “Shared values allow all ships to rise with the tide. Our values are human connection, modesty in terms of discretion, love of entertaining, philanthropy, and nature. If people choose Newport, I feel they are choosing that.”

As Traina put it, “Newport has always been a crucible where new fortunes go to get established, where the new money goes to become old.”

The Exploding Real Estate Market

“It’s billionaires pushing out millionaires,” Leno says of the current market for Newport real estate. “When I bought my house, I think it was the most expensive house in Rhode Island. Now I’m not even in the top 50! People are paying $25 million, $37 million.”

Realtor Kara Malkovich of Gustave White Sotheby's International Realty, who grew up in Newport, says that while the city has been known as the first resort and a sailing gem for decades, “we’ve always been able to scoot under the radar.” No longer is that the case, she says. “I really feel like Newport has totally been found out.”

She and others attribute much of the new attention paid to Newport to the pandemic. “Since Covid,” Malkovich says, “people are putting a lot more thought and emphasis on the quality of their lives and how they want that to look moving forward. I’ve seen a huge influx of buyers relocating here from metropolitan cities like New York and Boston, and from Connecticut and California.” Many of the buyers are planning to live there year-round, Malkovich added.

She said she has never seen a real estate market like the one Newport has experienced in the past year. “It’s unprecedented. People are coming here in droves, and relatively speaking you can still get a great deal here for a fraction of what you would pay in the Hamptons, Nantucket, or Martha’s Vineyard.”

There is, however, limited inventory and high demand from buyers moving to Newport. That, coupled with low interest rates, has led to some of the highest prices in the area in years.

The average list price of a single-family home in Newport, for example, has risen steadily over the past few years, from $967,486 in 2016 to $1,386,150 in 2021. In June, Normandie, an estate on nearly four and a half acres along the coastline, hit the market for $15 million and is currently in contract.

Another waterfront estate, Honeysuckle Lodge, was listed for $10.9 million and had multiple offers before going into contract earlier this year. A Bellevue Avenue spread called Ocean View, which had been listed at $18.85 million, went into contract in August, and an Ocean Avenue property selling for $17 million went into contract on August 19.

“Our high-end properties typically take longer to sell, but in the last six months things have changed drastically,” Malkovich says. “Properties of all price points are being snapped up with multiple offers to boot. It really feels like a feeding frenzy with homes selling well above their asking prices.”

Another issue affecting the market is that many of the so-called legacy homes that have been owned by the same families for decades are not passing on to the next generation. “The families that have owned them are getting older, and they don’t have the time or the wherewithal to maintain them,” Malkovich says.

“That’s why we’re seeing people with the financial means to do what is necessary to keep these homes alive purchase them. They have the funds to restore these houses and a true desire to continue the upkeep and preservation of these landmark legacy estates, which is a beautiful thing,” she said.

One fear among the old guard, however, is that wealthy new owners will overdo the restorations, Dana said. “Oatsie Charles had a great expression, which you can quote me on: ‘Blessed be the poor because they cannot over-restore.’ You worry about too many chandeliers going up where there were none, and there is a little bit of that happening,” he says.

.css-4rnr1w:before{margin:0 auto 1.875rem;width:60%;height:0.125rem;content:'';display:block;background-color:#9a0500;color:#fff;} .css-1x12re0{margin:0rem;font-size:1.625rem;line-height:1.2;font-family:NewParis,NewParis-fallback,NewParis-roboto,NewParis-local,Georgia,Times,serif;color:#030929;}@media(max-width: 64rem){.css-1x12re0{font-size:2.25rem;line-height:1.1;}}@media(min-width: 48rem){.css-1x12re0{font-size:2.625rem;line-height:1.1;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-1x12re0{font-size:2.8125rem;line-height:1.1;}}.css-1x12re0 em,.css-1x12re0 i{font-style:italic;font-family:inherit;}.css-1x12re0 b,.css-1x12re0 strong{font-family:inherit;font-weight:bold;} "Blessed be the poor because they cannot over-restore."

Esmond Harmsworth , president of the literary agency Aevitas Creative Management, started spending summers in Newport in the early 1980s. “It’s always been this mixture of the more summer Social Register people and other groups, and there’s always been turnover and speculation about new people coming,” he says. “The great thing about Newport, though, is that its character has not changed very much at all in my lifetime. There is a wonderful joie de vivre and a focus on entertaining and parties in the summer, but there is also this community of historians and experts.”

As an Englishman, Harmsworth says Newport’s eccentricities and eccentric residents appeal to him. “Newport is far too eccentric and quirky to turn into Southampton,” he says. “I remember when I was a teenager gate-crashing the most fabulous and frivolous parties, and I would vote for more of that, so I hope some of these people [moving to Newport] will do more of that.”

Mansions Still in Private Hands

While the Preservation Society of Newport County now owns and maintains 11 historic properties—including The Breakers , the 70-room mansion Cornelius Vanderbilt II built in 1893—a few oceanfront Newport estates remain in private hands.

Beaulieu, for example, was completed in 1859 and designed to resemble a French château and has been in the same family for decades. Following her mother Ruth Buchanan’s death, Dede Wilsey purchased the house in March 2020.

Wilsey has been visiting Newport with her family since her father, Wiley T. Buchanan Jr., bought Beaulieu. John Jacob Astor III, William Waldorf Astor, and Cornelius “Neily” Vanderbilt III had lived in the house before Buchanan, who served as the Chief of Protocol of the United States and the U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg and Austria, bought it. “My father didn't tell my mother when he purchased the house. We were driving to Newport and stopped at Howard Johnson's,” Wilsey told Town & Country in 2016 . “Daddy looked at me and said, ‘Don't say anything, but let me show you what I just bought.’ It was a flier for Beaulieu, and it looked like a wreck. My parents were the only young couple in Newport, except for the Drexels. They started bringing ambassadors from Washington and prominent people, and all of a sudden the town really had a life.”

Wilsey says that the new wealth coming to Newport is beneficial for the city. “New blood is good for a place, as long as they don’t want to tear down the traditions.”

She added that Larry Ellison’s real-estate purchasing prowess included some strategic moves.

“His representatives were approaching neighbors to buy their property—they weren’t pushy, they weren’t arrogant, and nobody has anything but nice things to say about his organization,” Wilsey says. “He bought a friend of mine’s house two years ago; his people had made offers to my friend and he turned them down, then after the sale happened, I asked him and he said, ‘he made me an offer I couldn’t resist.’”

Wilsey says it is interesting to the Newport establishment that people of Ellison’s magnitude are interested in buying property in Newport. “He could have gone over to Southampton, and so could Judge Judy or Jay Leno. They could have been celebrities there, where people care.”

She added that the famous figures in town have not tried to join the established social clubs. “I haven’t heard a whisper of any of the [celebrities] wanting to join any of the clubs—Bailey’s, Clambake, the Reading Room, or even the Golf Club,” Wilsey says.

Other “new and aggressive” buyers have tried to join the club, but have not been successful, Wilsey says. “They will be fine doing what they are doing but I don’t think they’re going to be adopted by the old guard,” she said. Same with those who try to build houses that do not fit into the architectural landscape, as the New York Times examined in 2016.

“New blood is good for a place, as long as they don’t want to tear down the traditions.”

“Life goes on generation after generation, even though there are divorces and scandals,” Wilsey says. “That’s been going on forever, and everybody just looks the other way or marries one of your friends.”

And in spite of the new arrivals, aspects of the destination have not changed at all. “Newport is predictable,” Wilsey says. “We all know the history, we know who lived there. All those things are kind of written in the sand. There’s not a lot of surprise about Newport. You can sail, you can play golf, you can play croquet, you can play tennis.”

Other Gilded Age mansions remain in private hands. Miramar , for example, was purchased for $17.15 million in 2006 and subsequently restored by former Goldman Sachs banker David B. Ford, who died in September 2020 . The house is rumored to be changing hands soon. According to multiple sources familiar with the transaction, Blackstone Chairman and CEO Stephen Schwarzman and his wife, Christine, are in negotiations to purchase the house. A spokesman for Schwarzman did not return requests for comment. Ford’s son, David B. Ford, Jr., also did not return an email requesting comment. The most recent sale in public records is the 2006 purchase that Ford made through an LLC for $17.15 million . At the time, the price was the highest amount paid for a private residence in Rhode Island . [ Ed Note: Miramar reportedly sold for $27 million on September 30, 2021 . A buyer was not publicly identified at the time. ]

Alex and Ani founder and onetime billionaire Carolyn Rafaelian purchased Belcourt, a 60-room mansion built in 1894, for $3.6 million in 2012 . (Historically, the market for such large houses has not been strong, resulting in the Preservation Society acquiring many of them and others going for a song to wealthy buyers like Rafaelian and Ford.)

As for Ellison, Wilsey and others say it is peculiar that the billionaire has not moved into any of his Newport properties. “To spend that kind of money and not have a presence in Newport, why not do New York or San Francisco?” She added that last summer Ellison did no work on Beechwood, which Wilsey says, “just sat there with guards.”

“In the beginning Ellison was very representative of what I’m seeing as the mindset of the people coming to Newport right now: they love it, they’ve got money, and once they move to Newport they find this inner preservationist in them and put in a lot of money and do a beautiful job restoring old homes,” Pardee says. “But I’m not certain he’s ever been seen around with regard to the house. It's been almost 10 years now and it’s not very pretty to look at when you drive by. There are huge boulders on the front lawn.” The boulders that have been added to the landscaping plan in recent months are among the only indications of progress on the renovation.

Wilsey says, “People are just wondering, what is he going to do?”

Sam Dangremond is a Contributing Digital Editor at Town & Country, where he covers men's style, cocktails, travel, and the social scene.

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Why Goldman Sachs Seized a Yacht -- WSJ

This article is being republished as part of our daily reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S. print edition of The Wall Street Journal (August 11, 2017).

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. owns hundreds of billions of dollars of stocks, bonds and commodities. Add to its portfolio: a 217-foot luxury yacht called Natita.

The story behind the boat begins with a 2014 loan to a prized Goldman client, billionaire Texas oilman William Kallop. It ends with Goldman suing its own client and the U.S. Marshals last month swooping down on a West Palm Beach marina to impound the yacht -- which boasts a movie theater, Jacuzzi and helipad.

Goldman's nautical trophy is a strange but inevitable outcome of Wall Street's latest gold rush: lending to wealthy clients, the loans backed by everything from Warhols to wine.

These loans, which are growing quickly at firms such as Goldman, Morgan Stanley and UBS Group AG, are an exotic spin on the most basic thing banks do: lending money to people. They have the added benefit of building loyalty among prized, ultrawealthy clientele.

Like any loans, though, they can go bad and leave banks holding assets that aren't easy to value or sell. Goldman will likely auction Natita, which already has been on the market for almost two years with no takers.

A Goldman spokesman declined to comment on the case. Mr. Kallop didn't respond to requests for comment. A lawyer for Mr. Kallop declined to comment.

"If you do it right, it's a great business and clients will absolutely love you for it," said Bruce Holley, a partner at the Boston Consulting Group who advises private banks on wealth-management strategy. "But there are a lot of ways to mess up."

Banks pushed wealth lending in recent years against a backdrop of increasing deposits and tepid demand for traditional loans. Goldman's private bank has quadrupled its overall lending balances since 2012 to $29 billion. Morgan Stanley wealth-loan balances are up 420% since 2012 to $74 billion.

The largest chunk of wealth loans are mortgages and loans backed by stock portfolios. A smaller but growing segment is secured by valuables such as classic cars, hedge-fund stakes, and even rare violins.

Wealth loans are especially profitable for banks because the revenue they generate is shared less generously with brokers than trading commissions and other fees.

Banks say these loans are safe because they already know the borrowers, their assets, and their ability to repay. And unlike, say, credit cards, these loans have collateral and often a personal guarantee as well. Goldman said in a February filing that the value of collateral in its wealth loans "generally exceed[s]" the loan amount.

Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank AG have lent against the art collection of hedge-fund billionaire Steven A. Cohen, who owns works by Andy Warhol and Pablo Picasso, according to Connecticut state filings. Top Blackstone Group LP executives including founder Stephen Schwarzman have borrowed from UBS against their stakes in the private-equity firms' funds, New York filings show.

Goldman lent to natural-gas wildcatter Aubrey McClendon against his wine collection, according to an Oklahoma filing. Executives joked the collateral was "particularly liquid." After Mr. McClendon's death in 2015, the collection -- heavy on rare Bordeaux -- was auctioned for $8.4 million. Goldman made its money back.

Although not as well-known as those borrowers, Mr. Kallop was the kind of client whom private banks court.

In the 1970s, he joined a family-owned marine-services company called McAllister Towing & Transportation. A legal dispute in 1993 resulted in a split of the company. The tugboat and ferry operations stayed with the family. Mr. Kallop took the offshore oil business, which he built over the next two decades into a portfolio of drilling rights, rig operators and construction arms.

He sold the business for nearly $1 billion in 2009 to a consortium of Colombian and Korean investors. Mr. Kallop then dabbled in investing, taking a 7% stake in energy company Quicksilver Resources and buying a 300-year-old liquor distillery in Peru.

He spent lavishly, acquiring three Gulfstream jets and at least eight residences, including a Peruvian mansion, two homes in the Dominican Republic and a working cattle ranch in Texas, according to property record, lawsuits and people who have worked for him.

And he bought yachts -- at least seven of them over the past eight years.

In addition to Natita, which he bought in 2010 and named for his mother-in-law, Mr. Kallop's fleet includes Bad Girl, moored in the Dominican Republic, and Honey Fitz, a 93-footer used by President John F. Kennedy that he bought at Sotheby's Camelot auction in 1998 and restored.

Another yacht, La Diva, which was once owned by Ivana Trump, was destroyed in a fire.

A few years ago, Goldman came calling. The Wall Street firm's private bank manages some $450 billion in assets for 11,500 ultrarich clients, and was developed in the 1980s to help business owners like Mr. Kallop manage their windfall after a sale.

Mr. Kallop became a client. In 2014, he borrowed $21.2 million from the bank to buy a 12,000-square-foot Tahitian-inspired oceanfront mansion just down the beach from Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump's private club in Palm Beach, Fla., county records show.

In 2014, Mr. Kallop borrowed $32 million from Goldman against the Natita and Bad Girl, court records show. The loan, the maritime equivalent of a home-equity loan, carried an interest rate of three percentage points above the London interbank offered rate.

But then Mr. Kallop hit money troubles, according to former employees and acquaintances. He put off upgrades to the boats, which were showing signs of wear -- bad enough for a March 2016 charter group to walk off Natita in Nassau, a former crew member said.

Goldman ordered periodic valuations of the yacht after making the loan, according to the crew member.

Mr. Kallop laid off crew members and put Natita up for sale in 2015 for EUR59.5 million ($67 million at that time), then dropped the price to $57.5 million last year, according to court documents. He sold a second Palm Beach house in April 2015 for $19 million. Goldman alleges he stopped paying back on the loan last November.

Three crew members, including the captain, were recently awarded roughly $90,000 in back pay by a Florida court. A Texas judge last month awarded his former bodyguard more than $500,000 for unpaid services. Mr. Kallop also owes the Florida marina where Natita is docked hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees, employees said.

Eventually, Goldman filed suit in a Miami federal court to seize the boat in a maritime version of a foreclosure. Acting on a judge's orders, U.S. Marshals impounded Natita at a West Palm Beach marina, where it remains.

Goldman's first move as owner-in-waiting: buying $67,000 worth of fuel to keep the yacht's generator running, according to court filings.

Today, the yacht is listed for $39.9 million, according to broker Worth Avenue Yachts. The outstanding balance of the loan owed to Goldman is roughly $28 million.

Write to Liz Hoffman at [email protected]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 11, 2017 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)

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While the Rest of Us Drown Under Sky-High Rents, Big Real Estate Execs Buy Superyachts and Hire Superstar Drake for a Party

In News by Patrick Range McDonald October 14, 2022

While more and more Americans struggle to pay wildly inflated rents, Big Real Estate executives are splurging on superyachts, car collections, and even a private audience with superstar rapper Drake. The Real Deal  recently reported about the massive spending by developers and corporate landlords , noting that they’re “turning the world into a playground for the ultra-wealthy.” Meanwhile, as they keep charging outrageous rents with little to no regulations to rein them in, poor and middle- and working-class tenants can’t afford food and face homelessness.

The Real Deal , a kind of trade magazine for the real estate industry, wrote about the extravagant spending of Big Real Estate executives with an obvious glee: “Expensive boats and private islands are nice, but there’s nothing like a party. Anyone in the industry can tell you that real estate wealth shines most when the elites put on a night to remember.”

That led to the revelation that New York “retail magnate” Jeff Sutton spent $25 million on his daughter’s wedding in Italy, and developer Ben Ashkenazy hired superstar rapper Drake to perform a hit song at his daughter’s bat mitzvah at the Rainbow Room in New York City.

The Real Deal went on to giddily report that Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman, whose company spent millions to kill two rent control ballot measures in California, owns a Porsche 911, an Audi A4, a Mini Cooper, and a BMW 645 CI. Housing Is A Human Right reported this month that Schwarzman also owns a sprawling countryside estate in England and posh mansions in New York, Palm Beach, Saint-Tropez, and Jamaica . The United Nations deemed Blackstone a key company that’s fueling the global housing affordability crisis.

Then there are the superyachts. 

“In the rich folks’ toy box,” The Real Deal wrote, “the superyacht is nothing new. What is new is an unprecedented surge of purchases. Some 887 of them were sold last year, almost double the number sold in 2020, leaving the wealthy to contend with a shortage and seemingly endless waiting lists.” (There didn’t seem to be a tongue in cheek in that sentence.)

But developer Larry Silverstein was able to grab a superyacht, called “Silver Shalis,” for a reported $30 million in 2010.

Big Real Estate executives can lay out mountains of cash for their multi-million-dollar toys and parties because they rake in billions through excessive rent increases, which are either poorly regulated or aren’t regulated at all.

In the meantime, Zillow, the real estate site, found that in cities where people spend more than 32 percent of their take-home pay on rent , a spike in homelessness follows. That’s led to an increase of unhoused individuals dying on the streets in Los Angeles and other cities .

It’s no wonder that rent control movements across the country are rising up , with recent victories in New York , California , and Minnesota .

“When the housing market is as dysfunctional as it is in many parts of California,” housing expert Stephen Barton noted, “tenants are effectively subsidizing landlords with rent payments above what a fully competitive market would allow landlords to charge.”

Barton co-authored a UC Berkeley study that found that rent control is a key tool to stabilize California’s housing affordability crisis. Experts at USC and UCLA found the same thing .

But as California rent control ballot measures Proposition 10 and Proposition 21 have shown, Big Real Estate will shell out tens of millions to stop rent regulations so they can keep buying superyachts, mansions, and fancy cars. Americans, however, are becoming increasingly overwhelmed by skyrocketing rents and angry at corporate landlords – and want rent control or rent stabilization. The real estate industry’s obscene spending may soon come to an end.

Follow Housing Is A Human Right on  Facebook  and  Twitter .

20 Things You Didn’t Know about Stephen Schwarzman

As the founding CEO and chair of the Blackstone Group (the world’s largest buyout firm), Stephen Schwarzman ranks as one of the world’s richest and most controversial figures. His mammoth salary and extravagant lifestyle have led some to name and shame him as the poster boy for financial excess. Others, meanwhile, stand in admiration of his financial acumen, political influence, and philanthropic endeavors. Whatever your opinion on Schwarzman, he’s not easily dismissed. To find out more, keep reading.

1. He was in the same society as George W. Bush

Schwarzman was born and raised in a Jewish family in Huntington Valley, Pennsylvania. His parents, Arline and Joseph Schwarzman, owned Schwarzman’s, a dry-goods store. After graduating from Abington Senior High School in 1965, Schwarzman attended Yale University. While a student, Schwarzman was a member of the same Skull and Bones secret society as George W. Bush . Despite its “secret” status, the society has become something of an institution, thanks largely to its influential alumni and the various conspiracy theories and folklore that surrounds it. After graduating from Yale in 1969, Schwarzman served a brief stint in the army before completing his MBA at Harvard Business School.

2. He was a managing director at 31

After completing his MBA at Harvard Business School, Schwarzman landed a position at the investment bank, Lehman Brothers. His rise up the ranks was rapid; by the time he was just 31 years old, Schwarzman had reached the position of Managing Director. From there, he progressed to the head of global mergers and acquisitions. While at Lehman’s, Schwarzman worked under Chairman and CEO of the group, Peter George Peterson. In 1985, the two decided to join forces and start their own business. The result was the global private equity firm, The Blackstone Group.

3. Blackstone is named after him

Hear “Blackstone” and it’s unlikely you’ll spot the connection between the name of the multi-billion-dollar company and the name of its multi- billion-dollar owner. Well, it is if you don’t understand a least a smattering of German, Yiddish and Greek. If you do (and if you understand a little of the company’s history), you’ll know the name is actually a combination of its two founder’s names. “Schwarz” is German and Yiddish for black, while “Peter” (as in, Pete Peterson, co-founder of the company) is Greek for stone. Put the two words together and what do you get? Exactly.

4. He grew Blackstone into the world’s biggest buyout firm

Blackstone started out as a relatively small concern, dealing primarily in mergers and acquisitions. Under Schwarzman’s leadership, it quickly grew into the largest buyout firm in the world, with $439 billion in assets. When the company proposed to go public in 2007, Schwarzman was forced to revel the extent of his earnings: the subsequent security filings showed that in 2006, Schwarzman had taken home the incredible sum of $398m. After the stock market flotation of Blackstone, Schwarzman bagged a further $684 million for the sale of his shares, leaving him with a $9.1 billion stake.

5. He became a poster boy for excess

When Schwarzman’s earnings were revealed in 2007, critics were quick to attack what they considered his history of financial excess. Richard Ferlauto, director of investment policy at the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employee, called into question the favorable tax breaks that had allowed the Blackstone CEO to accrue his wealth, and worried the CEO was setting a precedent in huge bonuses and incentives that would damage other businesses. “How much incentive does he need, given his direct ownership of the company, to get him to produce more for his limited partners?” he asked.

6. He led the biggest leveraged buyout in history

In 2007, Schwarzman led the biggest leveraged buyout in history when Blackstone acquired Equity Office Partners in a $34 billion deal. The acquisition saw Blackstone take control of the company’s 540 office building; its portfolio grew yet further when it acquired the Hilton Hotel chain just a short time later.

7. He founded the Schwarzman Scholars

In 2013, Schwarzman provided the full financial backing needed to launch Schwarzman Scholars, an international scholarship program at Tsinghua University in Beijing that aims to educate future global leaders about China. The program, which launched to the tune of $575 million, is modeled on the Rhodes Scholarship, and, a ccording to Blackstone is the largest philanthropic effort in China’s history to have come from international financiers.

8. He helped fund the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing

In 2018, Schwarzman proved his philanthropic credentials once again when he donated a hefty $350 million sum to help found the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing. The college serves as a vibrant, interdisciplinary hub committed to addressing the global opportunities and challenges presented by the ever-increasing prevalence of computing and the dawning of a new age of AI. With a total of $1 billion committed to its development, the college represents the largest investment in AI and computing by any academic institution in the world.

9. He’s donated to multiple educational causes

In addition to his contribution to the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing, Schwarzman has invested heavily in various other educational causes. His list of donations would be too extensive to roll- off in full, but some key highlights include his gift of £150 million to Yale University to establish the Schwarzman Center; his $5 million contribution to Harvard Business School to support research into the consequences of AI on industries and business; a $40 million donation to the Inner-City Scholarship Fund; and a $100 million prize to the New York Public Library.

10.He serves on multiple boards

Schwarzman’s work ethic takes him beyond the scope of normal human endurance: in addition to his activities with Blackstone, he serves on the board of more organizations, corporations, trusts and charities than you would have thought possible. A rundown of all his involvements would take an age to read and even longer to write – to name just a select few, then, we have the Council on Foreign Relations, The Business Council, The Business Roundtable, and The International Business Council of the World Economic Forum.

11. He’s one of TIME’s most influential people

In the early years of the millennium, TIME confirmed what we’d all suspected for some time: Stephen Schwarzman is seriously influential. After his naming as one of the magazine’s “100 Most Influential People” in 2007, Schwarzman had to wait a few years before his prowess was recognized for a 2nd time; this time around, it was Forbes that did the recognizing, given him poll position on their 2017 list of the most influential people in finance. In 2018, he polled again, this time in the Top 50 of Forbes’ list of the “World’s Most Powerful People”.

12. He’s been awarded the Légion d’Honneur

In recognition of his vast and varied contributions to business and philanthropy, Schwarzman has achieved what precious few American’s have: the dual honor of being awarded both the Légion d’Honneur and the Ordre des Arts et des Letters at the Commandeur level. Both awards are presented only to those individuals who have significantly contributed to the French nation, making their award to a non-French citizen a vary rare and prized occurrence.

13. He’s a recipient of the Order of the Aztec Eagle

As well as receiving the two highest honors bestowed on individuals by the French government, Schwarzman has also been privileged with Mexico’s highest honor for foreigners, the Order of the Aztec Eagle. The award was created in 1933 by then president Abelardo L. Rodríguez to recognize the services given to Mexico or humankind by foreigners. In addition to Schwarzman, other notable beneficiaries of the award include Walt Disney, Bono, Nelson Mandela and Dwight D. Eisenhower.

14. He’s been married twice

Schwarzman has been married twice: his first marriage in 1971 was to Ellen Philips, a trustee of Northwestern University and the Mount Sinai Medical Center. After two children (one of whom is the film producer and founder of Black Bear Pictures, Teddy Schwarzman) and 19 years, the couple called it a day in 1990. Five years after his divorce was finalized, Schwarzman married again, this time to intellectual property lawyer, Christine Hearst. While the couple have no children together, Hearst has one child from a previous marriage. According to the Guardian , the couple currently reside in a 20,000 square foot, two-floor Park Avenue apartment boasting 35 rooms, his-and-hers saunas, a pine-paneled library and 13 bathrooms.

15. His Net Worth is $15.1 Billion

Schwarzman’s business activities haven’t been in vain- despite giving millions of dollars away to charitable causes, Schwarzman still ranks as one of the world’s richest men. According to Forbes’ latest figures, the CEO and Chair of Blackstone is today worth a staggering $15.1 Billion. His enormous wealth has seen him rank #100 on Forbes Billionaires 2019, #34 on Forbes 400 2018, and #42 on Forbes Powerful People 2018.

16. He’s a killer (figuratively speaking)

When it comes to business, Schwarzman takes no prisoners. The deeply competitive CEO has no time to waste when it comes to the financial market: if you’re up against him, don’t expect any courtesy. “I want war, not a series of skirmishes,” he’s been quoted as saying. “I always think about what will kill off the other bidder.” Consider yourself warned.

17. He’s friends with Trump

Schwarzman, an out- and- proud Republican, is a long- time friend and supporter of President Trump. During Trump’s race for candidacy, Schwarzman came out to favor the real estate mogul over his revival, Ted Cruz, telling CNBC America needed a “cohesive, healing presidency, not one that’s lurching either to the right or to the left.” Schwarzman has a long history with the Republican party: as well as raising at least $100,000 as a Bush Pioneer, he briefly served as chair of President Trump’s short-lived Strategic and Policy Forum, a group of cooperate executives including CEO of JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Dimon , Walt Disney head Bob Iger and former General Electric leader Jack Welch that served to advice Trump on employment matters and the economy.

18. He’s defended his support of Trump

Schwarzman’s career has involved more than the occasional controversy, so he was well equipped to deal with the criticism he faced after coming out in support of President Trump. In a letter to the students of the Schwarzman Scholars, Schwarzman defended his position with the comment “having influence and providing sound advice is a good thing, even if it attracts criticism or requires some sacrifice”.

19. He wasn’t a fan of Obama’s presidency

It’s no secret Schwarzman is a Republican, but no one was expecting quite the vitriol the CEO directed at President Obama during the democrat’s term in office. During an address to the board members of a non-profit in 2010, Schwarzman let loose his feelings about the Obama’s administration’s increased taxation of private equity firms. “It’s a war,” Schwarzman ranted . “It’s like when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939.” The attendees were understandably a little bemused. “War? Hitler? Poland? A little over the top for a proposal to make hedge-fund managers pay their fair share in taxes,” one attendee commented. In the end, Schwarzman was forced to apologize for the contentious analogy.

20. He loves a party

Schwarzman, as we know already, has a big income… and he has absolutely no hesitation in spending that income any damn way he pleases. Despite being called out for his extravagant lifestyle, Schwarzman is clearly not one to let the haters get in the way of his enjoyment of the finer thing in life, certainly not when it comes to throwing a party, in any case. Some of his most fabulous shindigs have included a Christmas event based around a 007 theme (complete with Bond Girl waitresses), and a birthday celebration that saw his Park Avenue apartment recreated down to the very last detail at a regimental armory on Manhattan’s upper east side. On the guest list that night were dignitaries such as Colin Powell, Donald Trump and mayor Michael Bloomberg, as well as celebrities such as Patti LaBelle and Rod Stewart , both of whom treated their host to private performances.

Garrett by trade is a personal finance freelance writer and journalist. With over 10 years experience he's covered businesses, CEOs, and investments. However he does like to take on other topics involving some of his personal interests like automobiles, future technologies, and anything else that could change the world.

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What is the Future for Superyachts, Business Jets and Luxury Property?

With Covid vaccination programmes progressing at varying rates around the world, a return to some semblance of normalcy may be tantalisingly close, at least for some.  As businesses attempt to forecast revenues and devise strategies in this challenging environment, what opportunities will the months and years ahead hold for luxury industries globally?  What will be the top future trends for superyachts, business jets and luxury property?

On 18 th March 2021, The Future for Superyachts, Business Jets and Luxury Property , the latest in Quaynote`s stable of online conferences, will examine the way ahead for the luxury asset industries. In the short term, we are all hoping for the imminent return of the superyacht chartering business, while in the medium to longer term, sustainability, the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) and the emergence of the next generation of owners are issues that deservedly attract airtime.

Meanwhile, a question that advisors have heard more often from their clients during the pandemic has been: “How do I go about buying my own jet?” Many a would-be owner has seen a private jet as a legitimate way around Covid restrictions, without knowing the full extent of the costs and potential pitfalls this entails.

Daniel Hall, Senior Valuation Consultant at Ascend by Cirium says: “Business jets are depreciating assets – and values can be volatile through market upheaval, for example with the Covid-19 pandemic. The year-on-year fleet-weighted average decline across the entire business jet fleet was over 11%, which is nearly double that of 6% in 2019.”

Daniel joins a panel of experts who will guide you in advising your client through the process of buying a corporate jet, be they UHNWIs or heads of state. He concludes: “Working with independent advisors can go a long way to minimising risk in structuring a deal. Appraisal (valuation) services which can make the difference between an unwelcome surprise on your investment versus a seamless experience.”

One of the most important considerations in buying a jet, yacht or property is, of course, how to finance the purchase.  In a separate discussion, we`ll look at the future of finance for luxury assets. “While all our clients could easily pay cash, they still prefer to optimize their liquidity reserves by getting financing for their luxury assets. Financing their luxury assets helped our clients to preserve liquidity for their business,” explains Michel Buffat, Head Aviation & Yacht Finance, at Credit Suisse who joins the finance panel on the 18 th March.  He is positive about the future: “I see the future of superyacht and business jet finance quite optimistically: the pandemic has shown the advantage of ‘Covid-remote’ travel,” he says, adding that “this may motivate more people to buy their own jet or yacht.”

Another driver of future superyacht, private jet and high-end real estate ownership is the so-called Great Wealth Transfer, where the heirs to UHNWI fortunes come into their inheritance.  This is not forgetting, of course, the younger generation of self-made tech and other entrepreneurs who represent a burgeoning market for the luxury asset industries. 

The opening discussion at The Future for Superyachts, Business Jets and Luxury Property asks what the next gen owner wants, what the superyacht and business jet of the future will look like, inside and out, and how these assets will be used going forward.  Will superyachts have more emphasis on research, exploration, retreat and sport?  And will yachts, jets and luxury property be designed more with recycling and disposal in mind?  By all accounts, the next generation of superyacht owner is a different animal to the previous generation, with this fresh approach expected to impact every aspect of yacht design and function. “Yacht owners are looking for ‘instagrammable' experiences, those champagne cocktails in St Tropez are so pasee, they don`t want to do what their grandparents did,” observes Marcela de Kern Royer, Principal at ONBOARD Group, Monaco & Genoa Superyacht hub. “They want to go explore new islands, go to remote destinations and combine philanthropic experiences with unforgettable family moments."

We can`t talk about the design or function of anything without reference to technology and luxury assets are no exception.  Artificial intelligence is already with us and it will continue to become a bigger part of our lives. To quote Stephen A. Schwarzman, Chairman & CEO of Blackstone: “AI will reshape the world in ways we can’t imagine, much as the printing press and the Internet did at their inceptions.”

Vilas Dhar, President of the Patrick J McGovern Foundation, commented at Davos 2021: “AI holds the promise of making organisations 40 percent more efficient by 2035.”

With these wise words in mind, we have dedicated a portion of The Future for Superyachts, Business Jets and Luxury Property to looking at how artificial intelligence is changing the luxury industry.  Furthermore, how are companies catering and adapting to AI versus operating in the traditional mode?

Joseph Adir, Founder and CEO of WinTech Marine Intelligence, who is moderating the discussion, points to how AI/ML will help the superyacht industry reduce emissions, improve safety, reduce operational costs, and improve the asset longevity.  Testing on "Digital Twins" will help to optimise the superyacht design performance parameters and improve the vessel`s overall reliability. 

What`s more, using analytics to predict the total cost of ownership (TCO) could transform Shipyard warranty programs and lead to a reduction in the superyachts' operational budgets. “Artificial intelligence and the supervised and unsupervised machine learning are taking analytics to the next level” observes Adir, “enabling smarter, faster decisions throughout the asset lifecycle.”

Others joining the AI panel acknowledge the potential of Artificial Intelligence, while striking a note of caution.  Explains Dominic Bulfin, Director, at Bargate Murray, the Luxury Asset Law Firm: “The superyacht world has always pushed the boundaries of engineering and technological advance, and the introduction of AI is no different with pioneering owners taking advantage of the efficiencies AI driven systems can provide. But uptake across the fleet has been modest and the vast opportunities presented by this technology come with different challenges and a new type of risk which must be effectively managed in order to secure safe and enjoyable use of superyachts now and into the future.”

Joining our panel from the world of business aviation, Vinna Tsang, Founder and Director of The V Executive Search Company Limited is also keen to emphasize the efficiencies that AI can deliver. “However, in the luxury world (especially in business aviation), bespoke services are expected,” she points out, “which I believe still requires significant human touch. How to maximise the use of AI to compliment traditional ways of operation is key."

Finally, to speak of tradition, Quaynote has reinstated its popular roundtable feature at The Future for Superyachts, Business Jets and Luxury Property.  The roundtables will focus on Sustainability issues and how the latest fiscal developments will impact the chartering season. “With networking the most lamented aspect of in-person conferences,” explains Alison Singhal, Quaynote Director. “Our aim is to offer attendees the opportunity to discuss topics of mutual interest in small groups and, as they would under normal circumstances, to meet with their industry friends and contacts.”

The Future for Superyachts, Business Jets and Luxury Property – 18 th March 2021

Please register at www.quaynote.com  to attend the online conference.

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Exclusive: Blackstone founder Steve Schwarzman picks up Wiltshire country pad for cool £80m

By: Sascha O'Sullivan

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If you have ever driven through the countryside and imagined living in a 17th century estate, you’re not alone. 

Steve Schwarzman, the founder and chief executive of Blackstone, has bought Conholt Park, a country house with around 2500 acres of sprawling grounds and a series of cottages fashioned from the remains of an 18th century riding school, for more than £80m. 

Schwarzman, the 75-year-old American billionaire, bought the property in a personal capacity and is understood to be planning a significant restoration of the building. 

The oldest part of the estate was built in the late 17th century and subsequently expanded in the 18th and early 19th centuries. 

A person close to Schwarzman told CityAM: “Steve has always been passionate about architecture and buildings of cultural significance and heritage. He is excited about the opportunity to restore Conholt Hall to its original state.”

The purchase is understood to be personally important to Schwarzman, who as well as running the investment firm with $941bn of assets under management, is passionate about architecture and culturally significant buildings. 

The Grade II listed property was last sold in 1992 to a company owned by the family of Paul van Vlissingen, the Dutch millionaire once ranked as the richest man in Scotland. 

Schwarzman is planning substantial restoration to the building to bring it back to its original state, but is not believed to want to add any further expansions. 

The riding school and stables were both built in the late 18th century and while the school was demolished, the L-shaped stables have remained standing and are, in their own right, Grade II listed. 

The same cannot be said for all parts of the property, such as the covered swimming pool, built immediately north of the house in the late 1990s. 

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These Are the Highest Paid CEOs — And 9 Make More Than $100 Million a Year, According to a New Report Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman took the top spot from Alphabet's Sundar Pichai in total compensation in 2022.

By Erin Davis Jul 6, 2023

Key Takeaways

• A CEO pay analysis examined CEO total compensation for 2022.
• Nine CEOs earned more than $100 million.
• Apple's Tim Cook wasn't one of them.

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Running a company is tough, but spending the summer sailing on your yacht certainly makes up for it.

A new report by C-Suite Comp, examined by the Wall Street Journal , found that nine CEOs took home $100 million or more in total compensation in 2022. Nine is actually low—there were 20 in 2021, according to the company's analysis.

The top spot went to Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman, whose total compensation reportedly earned $253 million.

No. 2 was Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, with a pay package of $226 million.

Related: Google CEO Responds to Accusations That Company is 'Nickel and Diming' Workers: 'We Shouldn't Always Equate Fun With Money'

Six of the top 10 highest-paid chief executives are running companies that aren't in the S&P 500 (the largest publicly-traded companies in the U.S.), per the WSJ .

The CEOs of well-known companies such as Peloton, Pinterest, and Hertz each brought in more than $100 million last year. Michael Rapino, CEO of Live Nation, and Safra Catz, CEO at Oracle, also made the list, bringing in just under $150 million each.

Apple's Tim Cook earned $99 million, which was No. 10 on the list.

Read the full list and analysis, here .

Want to be an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.

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Pandemic Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous

While millions suffer from the COVID-19 pandemic and economic disaster, America’s billionaires are retreating to their luxurious enclaves and super yachts as their wealth soars.

Billionaire David Geffen’s $590 million super yacht, Rising Sun (Image: reivax, Flickr )

Everyday, it becomes clearer: the COVID-19 pandemic is hitting poor, working, and marginalized communities the hardest.

Millions of workers – especially low-wage retail, food service, hospitality, and care workers – have faced the terrible choice daily between going to work and risking their health, or staying home and risking their paychecks. Many other workers don’t even have that choice, with around 30 million people in the US filing for unemployment in the past six weeks.

But billionaires don’t face these same problems. As tens of millions have lost their jobs over the past two months, billionaire wealth soared by a whopping $282 billion between March 18 and April 10, according to a new study from the Institute for Policy Studies. And while finding enough space to wait out the pandemic is something many struggle with , billionaires have been escaping to their second (or third, or fourth) homes to ride it out in luxury – all while they position themselves to further profit off of this crisis.

Clearly, the COVID-19 pandemic is not the “ great equalizer ” that some predicted. 

Here, we look at how some billionaires – hedge fund managers, real estate developers, etc – have taken to social distancing in wealthy enclaves like Palm Beach and the Hamptons – and of course, their super yachts.

Palm Beach, Florida

If you want to see a quintessential billionaire enclave, look no further than Palm Beach, the 18-mile Florida island, sitting on the rim of the Atlantic Ocean, home to a slew of private equity and hedge fund executives.

Palm Beach was recently in the news when the New York Times reported on April 7 that hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin “secured sumptuous Florida quarters” for stock traders from Citadel Securities – a “sibling” to his hedge fund, Citadel – to hunker down in: the five-star Four Seasons hotel in Palm Beach (where some rooms are currently priced at up to nearly $3,000 a night).

Citadel Quarantines at the Four Seasons Palm Beach to ride out the storm! https://t.co/OZ5V9DivTW — Alison Galardi (@alibrite) April 8, 2020

Griffin, worth $12.5 billion , recently purchase d a $99 million Palm Beach estate to bring his total Palm Beach holdings up to $350 million. 

For Griffin, this is just a small slice of real estate empire. He owns the most expensive homes in both Miami and Chicago (where his hedge fund is based), and he bought a $122 million mansion in London – the priciest home sold there over the past decade. In 2018, he bought the most expensive home ever sold in the US – a $238 million New York City penthouse. It was the cherry on top of what CNBC called Griffin’s “$700 million global real estate shopping spree, believed to be the largest ever for a U.S. billionaire.”

If that wasn’t enough, Griffin also paid $500 million for just two pieces of art in 2016.

Griffin owns a 17-acre space, nearly empty lot on South Ocean Boulevard, also known as West Palm’s “Billionaire’s Row.” According to the New York Post , his neighbors there include notorious Wall Street bigwigs like Stephen A. Schwarzman, Paul Tudor Jones II, and Steven Schonfeld. 

Schwarzman is the head of Blackstone, the world’s top private equity firm, overseeing $571 billion in assets. Schwarzman – a political ally of, fundraiser for, and big donor to Donald Trump – is worth $17.5 billion . Tudor Jones founded the hedge fund Tudor Investment Corporation, and is worth $5.1 billion . He also sits on the board of the Palm Beach Civic Association, alongside a slew of elites, including Trump allies Rudy Giuliani and billionaire Stephen Ross. 

Another hedge fund billionaire, Steven Schonfeld, recently paid $200 million to buy Palm Beach’s most expensive mansion. 

But back to Griffin. When fellow billionaire Jeff Greene – a developer who is Palm Beach’s top landowner – heard about how Griffin put up his stock traders at the Four Seasons, he “fired off emails to his contacts in the financial industry offering hotel rooms for alternate trading sites of their own.”

““I sent them all emails saying, ‘I have a hotel right next door. Could you use a trading floor?’”, the NYT quoted Greene.

(It should be noted that not everyone lauded the Wall Street takeover of Palm Beach’s fancy hotels. The NYT reported that a neighbor to the Four Seasons said “it was difficult not to think about the contradiction between the traders working at a five-star resort and people unable to ride out the pandemic in similar comfort.”)

Greene, worth $3.7 billion , owns a home on Palm Beach’s Billionaire’s Row near the likes of Schwarzman, Tudor Jones, and Schonfeld. He made a big chunk of his fortune off the 2007-8 housing crash: “[Greene’s] biggest win came when he bet that the subprime mortgage bubble would burst,” wrote the Palm Beach Post . “In 2006, Greene bought credit default swaps that he later cashed in for a profit of $500 million to $800 million.”

Greene also spent tens of millions on failed U.S. Senate and gubernatorial Demoractic primary runs in Florida. 

Greene’s properties stretch beyond Palm Beach. In 2014, he listed for sale a $195 million, 53,000-square foot Beverly Hills mansion that included “25 private acres, a 3,000-bottle wine cellar, a bowling alley, a state-of-the-art theater, a vineyard and much more.”

Astonishingly, Greene declared in 2015 that “America’s lifestyle expectations are far too high and need to be adjusted so we have less things and a maller, better existence.”

A host of other billionaire investors have second, third, or fourth homes in Palm Beach. Nelson Peltz, who heads up the hedge fund Trian Partners, owns a $136.4 million oceanfront estate (it’s called “Montsorrel”). Peltz, whose hedge fund portfolio includes Wendy’s and P&G, recently hosted the priciest-ever Trump reelection fundraiser there. The New York Post reported that Peltz is looking to cash in on the current crisis.

Henry Kravis, who co-founded the private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis & Roberts, is also a big name in Palm Beach. When he’s not raiding and bankrupting children’s toy stores , Kravis, worth $5.6 billion , can visit Palm Beach’s Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, named in honor of his father , Raymond Kravis. Kravis also sits on the board of the Palm Beach Civic Association.

In addition, the wealthy CEO of the Mount Sinai Health System and the president of the Mount Sinai Health Network took some heat for social distancing from their homes in Palm Beach while their hospital system in New York City “ seems to be imploding ” under the weight of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Hamptons

The Hamptons, on the eastern end of Long Island, is a storied vacation spot for New York City’s rich and famous. Despite only being April, these elites have been clamoring to leave the city to escape the spread of coronavirus and hunker down in the luxury of  – what are typically – their summer homes.

One peninsular stretch along Meadow Lane in Southampton, NY has long been dubbed “ Billionaire Lane ” for its concentration of high dollar beachfront properties and wealthy residents. The area, which Curbed called “where the 1% of the 1% summer,” is one of the most expensive addresses in the county and even has its own helipad to help vacationers reach their mansions even faster. A helicopter commute from Manhattan only takes 40 minutes. 

Residents of “Billionaire Lane” have included Wall Street bigwigs, CEOs, celebrities, and the late David Koch. Billionaire hedge fund manager Daniel Och vacations on a four acre estate worth $26.5 million, while fellow hedge fund billionaire Chase Coleman owns a five acre estate worth $32.5 million.

Private equity billionaires Leon Black and Henry Kravis (yes, that same Henry Kravis from the Palm Beach section above) each own several acres of oceanfront property, while Loews CEO James Tisch of the billionaire Tisch family purchased the famous 8,000 square foot home featured in the film “ Something’s Gotta Give ” for $41 million.

The Hamptons’ Billionaire Lane: Where Wall Street’s richest retreat for the summer. http://t.co/3ekZOV9XEP pic.twitter.com/Njzupoajz3 — ForbesLife (@ForbesLife) June 19, 2014

The strip is also a second home to several celebrities, including designer Calvin Klein who tore down one mansion to build a new $75 million one more in line with his style, and Studio 54 co-founder and hotelier Ian Schrager who has owned his four acre property since the 80s. 

Indeed the Hamptons are so famously connected to wealth and privilege that the destination was name-dropped in a viral appearance by Chamath Palihapitiya, founder and CEO of Social Capital, on MSNBC as he railed against bailing out billionaires and hedge fund managers: 

“Who cares? Let them get wiped out. Who cares? They don’t get to summer in the Hamptons? Who cares?”

The U.S. shouldn’t bail out billionaires and hedge funds during the coronavirus pandemic, Social Capital CEO Chamath Palihapitiya says. “Who cares? Let them get wiped out.” https://t.co/dIbizumtqG pic.twitter.com/u8BSVvr0B1 — CNBC (@CNBC) April 9, 2020

Now, the Hamptons, already rife with the vacation homes of the 1%, are experiencing an influx of even more wealthy individuals looking to ride out the pandemic in a posh setting, taxing local resources during what is typically a slow season.

Joe Farrell, a wealthy Hamptons property developer, provided some insight into the rush of New York’s rich to find refuge when he told the New York Post that he rented a sprawling property nicknamed “Sandcastle” to a fellow New Yorker for $2 million after it was listed for just one day. 

Farrell further disclosed that the six month rental, which set a new price record for the area, went to a “textile tycoon and his family who were stuck in Manhattan and wanted to leave the city on a day’s notice.” He noted that this was “a COVID situation — not a normal summer rental.”

The real estate listing for the estate reveals an astounding number of amenities, including: 10 bedrooms, 15 bathrooms, an elevator, baseball field, tennis, squash, racquetball, basketball and volleyball courts, two-lane bowling alley with full bar, a rock-climbing wall, DJ booth and recording areas, 10-seat theatre, pool and hot tub, spa suite with sauna and two hydraulic massage tables, and a skateboarding half-pipe. 

While we do not know much about the “textile tycoon” who rented this estate, we can get a sense of the clientele Farrell serves from the services he offers. Farrell has several Hampton’s properties available for rent, and he boasts about flying clients between the city and their new homes in his company helicopter, or using his private jet to scoop up their stranded children. The “Sandcastle” property has been rented by numerous celebrities including Beyoncé, Jay-Z, and Justin Beiber, and was the site of a fundraiser for Donald Trump, where tickets sold for up to $250,000 each. 

This rental is a window into the pampered opulence the wealthy expect to maintain in the midst of a global pandemic. However, year-long residents of the Hamptons are fed up with the city elites using their towns and villages to escape, dismissing warnings, and bringing the highly contagious virus with them. The influx during the off season for the area has created major food shortages and strained the small local hospital. 

Perhaps most egregious of all, the wealthy are not exactly hunkering down in their mansions once they arrive – rather, some are out partying, as if suddenly inoculated from the virus by their well-to-do surroundings. 

Super Yachts

Rather than retreating behind the gates of private estates, some of the ultra-wealthy have taken to the high seas to weather the crisis on luxury yachts far away from the growing scenes of misery on the mainland.

Music and movie mogul David Geffen posted a photo to Instagram of his $590 million yacht captioned: “Sunset last night…isolated in the Grenadines avoiding the virus. I’m hoping everybody is staying safe” on March 28.”

Thanks, David Geffen, for your thoughts. pic.twitter.com/5XTRhGX5OP — southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) March 28, 2020

Outraged backlash to his post was so swift and severe that Geffen deleted his account .

Geffen, the founder of Geffen Records and DreamWorks Pictures, is worth around $8 billion. He is the wealthiest person in the entertainment industry, according to Business Insider .

The yacht where he is isolating, named Rising Sun , was originally built for Oracle founder Larry Ellison. Guests on the yacht have included Jeff Bezos, the Obamas, and a host of industry celebrities.

Geffen’s yacht, which he paid more than half a billion dollars for, even has its own Forbes page .

Forbes describes Geffen as a “luxury property aficionado” who “owns one of NYC’s most expensive apartments, a house in the Hamptons and the Jack L. Warner estate in Beverly Hills.”

He is also a huge art aficionado, having “amassed an impressive contemporary art collection, including works by Jasper Johns, De Kooning and Jackson Pollock.” Geffen has one of the most expensive private art collections in the world, estimated to be worth around $2.3 billion as of 2018 by Whitewalls , an art industry website.

(Oh yeah – that $500 million that hedge fund Ken Griffin manager paid for two pieces of art, mentioned above? They were sold to him by David Geffen).

In 2017, Geffen announced a $150 million donation to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art – its largest-ever gift – to help build a new building that would be called the “David Geffen Galleries.”

The public health and economic fallout of the COVID-19 crisis is set to magnify in the weeks and months ahead, and the devastation will likely be with us for years to come. As many in corporate America continue to rake in profits off of the crisis from their luxury homes, and as tens of millions of people in the U.S. suffer, the battle over what a post-COVID U.S. will look like, and whether the interests of billionaires will be prioritized over those of working people, will only intensify.

Steve Jobs' former yacht Venus collided with another superyacht off the coast of Naples

• Venus, the yacht built for Steve Jobs , collided with another yacht off Italy's coast.
• It's unclear which yacht struck which or when exactly the crash occurred.
• With a minimalist design, Venus is one of the world's most iconic superyachts.

Venus, Steve Jobs' former superyacht — now owned by his wife, the philanthropist and investor Laurene Powell Jobs — has collided with another superyacht off of the Italian coast.

A spokesperson from Powell Jobs' Emerson Collective who spoke with a crewmember confirmed to Business Insider that Venus, the 78-meter yacht Steve Jobs commissioned, had collided with Lady Moura, a 105-meter yacht. The collision happened on July 22 off the coast of Naples, Italy.

The spokesperson said that only crew were onboard the yacht and that both boats were anchored when a sudden change of wind led to the collision.

Venus is cruising in the Ligurian Sea, while Lady Moura made its way to Mykonos on Wednesday, based on publicly available tracking data from Marine Traffic.

Videos posted on social media show the strikingly minimalist Venus and the Lady Moura coming into contact. It's not clear from the videos which superyacht struck which, though someone who said they were aboard the Lady Moura seemed to blame Venus' crew on social media, SuperYacht Times reported. The person said the damage was "only a scratch, albeit a significant one that will be costly to repair."

Others on social media said that the Venus appeared to be moored and that Lady Moura seemed to have swung into the boat. BI hasn't been able to independently verify either claim.

Related stories

The Italian Marina Militare didn't respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. The owner of the Lady Moura couldn't be reached.

No matter how little damage may have been done, insurance will probably cover it. Yacht insurance , which can cost six figures each month, is one of the largest costs incurred by yacht owners.

Venus, built by the top yacht-builder Feadship, was delivered after Jobs died in 2011 and was worth $130 million upon completion. The Apple cofounder was heavily involved in the design process alongside the French architect and decorator Philippe Starck.

"Venus comes from the philosophy of minimum," Starck said of her design. "The elegance of the minimum, approaching dematerialization."

Jobs and Starck spent four years working on her design, the designer told Vanity Fair , holding monthly meetings to discuss her specifications. She has six identical cabins, was built to maximize absolute silence, and, upon delivery, included the most up-to-date technology.

"There will never again be a boat of that quality again. Because never again will two madmen come together to accomplish such a task," Starck told the magazine. "It was not a yacht that Steve and I were constructing, we were embarked on a philosophical action, implemented according to a quasi-religious process. We formed a single brain with four lobes." August 7, 2024 — This story has been updated with a statement from a Laurene Powell Jobs spokesperson.

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