WASHINGTON: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos will have a place to hang his hat in the US capital, with the purchase of what may be the city’s largest private residence, for $23 million.
The Bezos-owned Washington Post reported Thursday that the tech billionaire was behind the anonymous purchase of the former Textile Museum, a structure of 27,000 square feet (2,500 square meters) with a 7,000 square foot formal garden.
Bezos, who plans to use the home as a pied-a-terre when visiting from Amazon’s West coast headquarters, will be in the posh Kalorama district, an enclave that will include, within a five-block area, not just Barack and Michelle Obama but also Ivanka Trump, daughter of President-elect Donald Trump, and her husband Jared Kushner.
According to the Post, the property includes two historic mansions that were used for decades by the Textile Museum before it moved to George Washington University.
Bezos, whose estimated $70 billion fortune makes him one of the world’s wealthiest people, paid cash for the property, according to the Post — a newspaper he purchased in 2013.
The Post, citing “a person with knowledge of the sale,” said Bezos would maintain his main residence in Seattle, Washington, but use the Washington home for entertaining and visits with his wife and four children.
When realtors first listed the property, they said it could be used as an embassy, or a private school.
Nearby, the Kushner-Trump home is a more modest 6,870 square feet (630 square meters), according to the New York Times. It is not clear whether they are renting the place or bought it from someone who recently purchased it for $5.5 million.
The future Obama estate is a Tudor-style house with eight bedrooms and nine-and-a-half bathrooms, valued at around $6 million. The Obamas’ monthly rent is reported to be $22,000.
Source: AFP