SELLER: George
Lindemann Jr.
LOCATION: Sunset Island, Miami Beach, FL
PRICE: $29,900,750
SIZE: 11,388 square feet, 7 bedrooms, 7.5 bathrooms
DESCRIPTION: This historically significant waterfront property designed by Maurice
Fatio encompasses 70,886 SF of land on which rests approx 11,388 SF breathtaking, Neoclassic home w/ a contemporary feel. The home sits on a tip lot on Sunset Island. From there, sweeping bay views & color-soaked sunsets provide a dazzling backdrop to this crown jewel, aptly named,
La Tranquilla. An
Olympic-sized pool blends effortlessly into the verdant & well-manicured surroundings of this tropical haven spanning 1.63 acres.
YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Your Mama suggests the children get right up, grab a nice big cup of coffee, spike it with whatever makes yer head spin and settle in for the long haul because we won't be getting to the meat of this real estate matter for quite some time.
George
Lindemann, Sr., one of the United States' wealthier citizens, made tens of millions developing the first permanent-wear soft contact lens and later made well over a billion bucks selling a nascent cellular technology concern to the Bell Atlantic Corporation. Currently, Mister Lindemann is chairman of the board, president and CEO of the Southern Union Company, the largest natural gas pipeline company in the United States. Mister
Lindemann is said to own as much as 10% of that company and, additionally, a significant stake in Verizon and a whole mess of Spanish language radio stations too. The
Lindemanns, George Senior and his
wife Dr. Frayda Lindemann, are major philanthropists, patrons of the arts and regulars on the upper crust party and charity circuit in New York, Palm Beach and beyond. Together they have three adult children: Adam, Sloan and George Jr.
Now that we know who the primary players are in our little game of real estate what's what, we're going to present an admittedly incomplete run down of the very fancy residential real estate holdings and transactions of the
Lindemann family because, let's be honest, it's always fun and exciting to whittle away an hour or two looking at and marveling over how wildly, filthy, stinking rich people live.
George
Senior and Dr. Frayda, who happen to be
besties with fallen financier Walter Noel and his well kept wife Monica, famously sold their ocean front mansion on Blossom Way in Palm Beach in June of 2008 for a heart stopping
$68,500,000. The buyer is widely reported to be Venezuelan big living banker and polo pasha Victor Vargas. The elder
Lindemanns, who are based in Greenwich, CT, decamped to a smaller but still huge ocean front mansion father north in Palm Beach, which they bought in September of 2008 for $23,500,000 and hired high class architect Peter Marino to work over.
In 1986, according to property records, Mister and Missus Dr. Lindemann purchased a townhouse on swank but staid Sutton Place in New York City that once was owned by Aristotle Onassis. They sold the house a few years later for $8,375,000 and, unfortunately, Your Mama loses all track of their New York City real estate trail right then and there. However, Your Mama is hard pressed to believed these two luxe-livers haven't since bought themselves a pricey and posh apartment in one of the better buildings on Park or Fifth Avenue.
Anyhoo, since at least mid 1980s, according to property records, the
Lindemann family seat has been a 9+ acre water front estate on Indian Field Road in Greenwich, CT. In addition a waterside swimming pool, tennis court, private beach, guest house and acres of lush landscaping, there is, according to property records, a very dignified 12,639 square foot, 12 bedroom Tudor-style mansion that would make a robber baron weep. As best as we can tell from peeping and poking around property records, the stately estate is now in the name of Sloan
Lindemann, however we're pretty sure it's still occupied by the elder Lindemanns. Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
Speaking of Sloan...In the late 1990s, she and her investment banker/natural health-care and housecleaning products
pushing huzband Roger Barnett lived in Manhattan at 550 Park Avenue in a 4,500 sq. ft.
sprawler with 12 rooms. In late 2000, they traded up to a 33-foot wide, 5-floor Georgian style mansion on East 69
th Street that records show they picked up for $11,050,000. At the time Mister and Missus Barnett bought the townhouse, according to a report from the time, the 1881 structure had a marble foyer, library, a full width living room, a dining room with 14 foot ceilings, two single bedrooms and three two-bedroom suites that shared 5
poopers and, natch, staff quarters. There were–and perhaps still are–separate passenger and staff elevators because, apparently, people with more money than the damn Pope don't always like sharing elevators with the help. Our research turned up
multiple reports that stated the interiors were done up and did over by architect
Peter Marino who–as we mentioned earlier–has had a hand in several homes of Sloan's folks. Back in mid-2007 there were rumors running around the upper crust real estate circles that Mister and Missus Barnett were quietly shopping their townhouse around for somewhere in the neighborhood of $62,000,000,000. It was rumored (and
reported) that Mister and Missus Barnett had previously received one offer in the mid-fifty million clam range, but they didn't go for it. Silly rabbits.
In early 2005, after selling their ocean front weekend house at the bottom of Squabble Lane in Southampton, NY to pet product tycoon Leonard
Hartz for $20,000,000, the
Sloan and Roger Barnetts packed up and headed west where they bought a massive mansion in San Francisco from Ingrid and Reuben Hills of the Hills Brothers coffee fortune. According to previous reports and property records, the 1931 built manse, situated on a particularly peacocky block of nabobish Broadway Street, measures 11,455 square feet and includes 9 bedrooms, 9 or more
poopers, a central courtyard and panoramic views encompassing the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz Island. The purchase price is unknown but the
hoity-
toity house was last listed at a staggering $29,500,000. It had been listed, the children might get a kick out of knowing, as high as $45,000,000. To give the children a feel for the sort of west coast neighborhood the
east coast Barnetts landed, their nearby neighbors include billionaire Larry Ellison, oil rich socialites Ann and Gordon Getty, Levi Strauss heir Peter Haas, and dashing
writer and tech entrepreneur
Trevor Traina–whose father was once married to prolific romance writer Danielle Steel–and his stunning wife Alexis. As best as Your Mama can tell from property records and previous reports, the
Barnetts live primarily at their San Francisco mansion but continue to maintain their Manhattan townhouse, but don't nobody quote us on that because we really don't know nuthin' from a nutcracker.
Sloan's brother
Adam Lindemann, a heavy hitting New York City-based contemporary art collector, used to live in a 10
th floor spread at 730 Park Avenue when he was married to his first wife, socialite Elizabeth Graham. That is, until they went splitsville in the early naughts. The formerly happy couple also owned a 4.62 acre, 5 bedroom and 4 pooper property on North Street in Greenwich, CT they sold in September of 2001 for $3,583,000 as well as another house on Fords Lane in quietly ritzy Rye, NY that was sold in October of 2002 for $10,500,000. Ex-Missus
Lindemann sold the 5 bedroom and 5.5
pooper co-operative apartment at 730 Park Avenue post-
dee-
vorce, in June 2006, for $21,500,000 and moved her things just one floor down into an 11-room bacherlorette pad at 730 she bought in August of 2006 for $10,500,000.
In 2006, Mister
Lindemann remarried former
gallerist Amalia Dayan, who herself has a rather impressive family pedigree. For a time they lived in an
art-filled apartment at the Time Warner Center surrounded by high priced and high profile pieces by big fish artists like Jack Pierson, Glenn Brown, Damien
Hirst, and Jeff
Koons. One of the bedrooms in the high-floor condo, shared by two of Mister
Lindemann's three daughters from his first marriage, was wrapped in wallpaper by Japanese super star
Takashi Murakami. The art consuming couple have traded that apartment in–or soon will be–for a David
Adjaye designed carriage house on East 77
th Street that record show Mister
Lindemann bought in May of 2004 for $6,750,000. On weekends, Mister and second Missus
Lindemann either head up to the Catskills where they own a mock-Tudor done over with the assistance of artist
Richard Woods–which means it's probably an extravaganza of
faux bois–or they head out east to
Montauk where property records show that in December of 2007 Mister
Lindemann spent
$15,000,000 on a 3.31 acre bluff top and ocean front property with a sizable shingled cottage built in the 1970s, which they also had David
Adjaye do over.
Now then, let's get to the man of the hour, George
Lindemann Jr., whose unfortunate claim to fame is that in the late 1990s he did some time in the
pokey after he was convicted of insurance fraud related to hiring some thug to electrocute one of his show horses in order to collect a quarter of a million clams in insurance money. After being sprung from the big house, Mister
Lindemann re-created himself from a horseman into a philanthropist and voracious contemporary art collector
based in Miami, FL. Thanks to Mimi
MiamiBeach we've learned that the former felon has put his historic, art-filled Miami Beach mansion on the market with a toe curling $29,900,750 asking price. If that number doesn't cause the children to bust out in a case of hives, maybe the bank account draining $210,269 in annual taxes and $15,000 per year homeowner association fees will.
Public property records on George
Junior's Sunset Island estate are a wee bit confusing and convoluted, as they often can be when dealing with billionaire families who have co-mingling financial interests in family businesses and trusts. According to one of our
interweb sources, George Junior purchased the property through a trust in June of 2000 for $8,425,000. In 2004, the property was transferred from the trust directly to George Jr. and his mother Dr. Frayda. At some point between 2004 and 2008, George Senior and sister Sloan were added on the records and in early 2008 the property was again transferred from that group of
Lindemanns directly to an eponymous trust controlled by George Junior.
Listing information shows the simply but meticulously manicured 1.63 acre lot claims 453 feet of water front and hosts a 1936 Neoclassical beauty designed by famed high society architect Maurice
Fatio. According to listing information, the sprawling single story concrete block stucco residence, called
La Tranquilla, measures 11,388 square feet with 7 bedrooms and 7.5
poopers. At the front, an electronic gate opens to a large circular drive. The driveway leads around one side of the house to a small motor court and 3-car garage and on the other side, a path from the driveway leads around the house to the water where there is private
dockage. A vast, piazza like patio stretches between the two wings at the back of the house and a rectangular, Olympic length swimming pool and spa extends from the back of the house towards the water.
The "W" shaped concrete stucco built residence retains its original character on the exterior and every convenience and
modern amenity has been added to the beautifully proportioned interior. However, as lovely as the house may be, it's a wee bit difficult for Your Mama to look past all that blue chip contemporary art that is practically bursting out through the arched French doors and black shuttered windows. Just a few of the notable artists Your Mama recognizes around the house include Fred
Tomaselli, John
Currin,
Anish Kapoor, Keith Haring, Matthew Ritchie, Marc
Newsom,
Raqib Shaw,
Shiro Kuramata, and Wendell Castle just to name a few. Your Mama encourages the children to call out any other big–or not so big–name artists represented in George
Junior's undeniably impressive collection.
Given that George Junior is shoulder deep in the Miami art scene and a major player in the city's fun in the sun
Art Basel Miami Beach, Your Mama would not bet our long bodied bitches Linda and Beverly that he'll be leaving the area. But then again, what do we know? If we've said it once we've said a thousand and one times, who are we to understand the real estate ways of the ridiculously rich?
George
Junior's name–plus that of another Lindemann–also appears on the records a Miami Beach condominium at the
Il Villagio complex on Ocean Drive that was purchased in April of 2006 for $2,950,000. In July of 2009, records also reveal, George Junior spent an undisclosed but, based on mortgage information, enormous amount of money on an 11,113 square foot house in Aspen, CO.
Ain't life sweet for the children of billionaires?
International socialite Lily Safra did not want to sell La Leopolda, her lavish and legendarily high-maintenance 20ish acre estate in the South of France. Back in late November of 2009, Your Mama heard from Miz Safra's man in Paris who told us, "A purchase proposal was spontaneously–and repeatedly–made by one potential buyer and was finally accepted last year. However, the purchase was never completed. The residence is not being sold and was never offered for sale." Our little pea brain translates that to: Miz Safra was not–and is still not–seeking a buyer for La Leopolda, but, let's be honest chickens, when someone offers you half a billion bucks for a house, you say yes.
