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121 Parsonage Lane
Good news for Richard Gere! No, as far as we know, his Strongheart Manor in North Haven still hasn’t sold, even after the $11 million price cut The Press reported earlier this week. But the actor may have had a productive conversation with Lloyd Blankfein, the CEO of Goldman Sachs, because Gere has hired Susan Breitenbach of the Corcoran Group to sell his manse. Why is that good news? Well, her price-cut strategy sure worked for Blankfein and his wife, Laura, who just unloaded their 2.7-acre Sagaponack property for a whisper under $13 million.
The Wall Street couple have lived on Parsonage Lane since building the 6,500-square-foot house two decades ago. It contains seven bedrooms, a media room, and a gym—and complementing the landscaped grounds are a sunken tennis court and a 45-foot pool with adjacent pool house.
The Blankfeins initially put the property on the market in 2007 with a $14 million ask, then tried again last year for $16.9 million. With apparently no takers, that price dropped to $15.9 million, then $14.5 million. Finally, a buyer opened his/her wallet this month after the latest reduction to $12.9 million. Though Blankfein’s net worth is reported to be $1.1 billion, he and his wife have another house in the Hamptons, this one in Bridgehampton, so maybe paying two mortgages made things a bit tight.
Lloyd Blankfein’s story is not exactly rags to riches, but the Wall Street titan did have humble beginnings. He was born in the Bronx to a father who worked for the Postal Service and a mother who was a receptionist. One of his jobs growing up was selling peanuts and sodas at Yankee Stadium. He was a high school valedictorian who went on to attend Harvard, eventually earning a law degree. He first went to work for Goldman in 1982, rose through the corporate ranks, and became chairman and chief executive officer in 2006 when his boss, Henry Paulson, because the Secretary of the Treasury in the second Bush administration.
Last September, Goldman Sachs announced that Blankfein, who had just turned 61, had been diagnosed with lymphoma. The firm emphasized, however, that it was a highly treatable form of the disease.
27east on May 19, 2016