Blankfein’s Bullish Bet on Hamptons Real Estate
Lloyd C. Blankfein, Goldman Sachs’s chief executive, said recently that it was a good time to invest in real estate.
It appears he is putting his money where his mouth is. Mr. Blankfein, 58, was identified as the buyer of a seven-bedroom estate in Bridgehampton, New York, according to reports in The New York Post and Bloomberg News. The house, on Ocean Road, was recently listed for $ 32.5 million.
It was sold by Matthew J. Mallow, the general counsel of BlackRock, and his wife, Ellen Chesler, a senior fellow at the Roosevelt Institute, property records show. Mr. Mallow, a 1964 graduate of Brown University, spent 25 years running the corporate finance department of the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.
The property had been listed for sale by Diane Saatchi of the broker Saunders, but that listing has been taken down. Property records list “Fein, Blank” as the new owner.
Ms. Chesler and a spokeswoman for BlackRock each declined to comment. A Goldman Sachs spokesman also declined to comment.
The 8,000-square-foot house, which looks out across an eight-acre lot, features six full bathrooms, a wet bar, a tennis court and “sculpted gardens,” according to a listing with the real estate agency Douglas Elliman, which would rent the property for a weekly rate of $ 45,000. Surrounded by hedges and trees, the estate is located south of the Montauk Highway — an area coveted for its privacy and proximity to the ocean.
“For the most discerning,” the property “offers the ideal blend of every modern convenience and amenity within its early 20th-century construction,” the listing says.
In August, Mr. Mallow and Ms. Chesler hosted a fund-raiser at their home for President Obama, with Vice President Joe Biden in attendance and musical entertainment provided by James Taylor, according to reports in The New York Post and The East Hampton Press. Ticket prices ranged from $ 500 to $ 2,500, according to the Web site Dan’s Hamptons.
To Mr. Blankfein, the neighborhood is already familiar. The Goldman chief, whose owns a place in Manhattan, has a house on Parsonage Lane, just a short drive from the Ocean Road estate, records show.