Monday, 7 January 2013
The official buyer of the property is listed in property records—and previous reports—as Home Port Investments LLC but as far as we know none of the reports revealed the Richie Rich behind Home Ports Investments. As was first done by our ever-so-wily informant Yolanda Yakketyyak, it doesn't take much drilling down into information publicly available through the website for the Secretary off the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to figure out that Home Port Investments LLC links to multi-billionaire mining magnate William I. "Bill" Koch.
Before all you indignant lefty liberals gets to hooping and hollering about how the famously conservative and politically active Koch brothers controversially—and unsuccessfully—spent many tens of millions to thwart the reelection of President Obama last year understand that this Koch brother is not one of those Koch brothers.
Yes, he is related to conservative minded lightening rods David and Charles Koch. They are, in fact, his even richer and far more publicly politically active brothers who the folks at Forbes estimate to be worth about $31 billion apiece. However and despite the few million bucks Bill Koch coughed up in vain to defeat Barak Obama last year, this Koch brother is much better known for his less political pursuits such as owning the yacht that won the America's Cup in 1992 and for his vast collections of wine, maritime memorabilia, military vehicles and American Old West doo-dads and gewgaws.
Anyhoo, Your Mama briefly discussed Miz Mellon's comely Cape Cod compound in April 2012 when it was still listed with it's initial price tag of $28,740,000. Listing information from the time shows the rare and private property occupies a private and secured peninsula with a 6,893 square foot Cape Cod-style main house plus separate guest and staff quarters as well as a detached art studio and a beachfront cottage. Several greenhouses dot the grounds that include broad lawns, orchards, formal gardens, a tennis court, a seasonal dock, a private beach and nearly 1,000 continuous feet of shore line, at least some of which is bulk headed. The property also has a swimming pool that capricious Miz Mellon once had dug up and re-installed after she determined the deep end was facing the wrong direction.
Your Mama doesn't know a single soul in picture perfect Osterville but we'd be quite surprised if any of the locals are the least bit surprised by Mister Koch's latest addition to his property portfolio in Osterville. A quick search of various property record data bases shows Mister Koch owns a handful of homes and properties in the area that include a waterfront spread a few doors down from the Mellon spread that he picked up in April 2011 for $8,400,000.
Like all multi-billionaires with seemingly unlimited amounts of disposable income Mister Koch maintains a number of large, high maintenance homes in some of the the country's most expensive zip codes.
His primary residence, as far as we can tell, is a sumptuous multi-acre estate in Palm Beach that runs from the ocean to the bay and includes two swimming pools. Iffin you want to know more about Mister Koch's pad in Palm Beach, just ask super star bubble gum pop princess Katy Perry who gave an hour-long private poolside performance last April as part of the lavish birthday celebration for 72-year old industrialist's third—and much younger—wife Bridget, a well-born lady from Pittsburgh's illustrious Rooney family.
As far as we know Mister Koch still also owns four contiguous properties in the upper Castle Creek Valley above fancy-pants Aspen, CO that he scooped in 2007 for a combined $51,000,000.* The acquisition included the former Elk Mountain Lodge, a 28,000 square foot compound on 52 acres that he converted from a hospitality lodge into a deluxe private residence.
Near the "middle-class mountain town" of Paonia, also outside of Aspen, Mister Koch owns the 6,400 (or so) acre Bear Ranch where he's spending untold millions to build an authentic replica of an Old West town complete with saloon, jailhouse, firehouse, livery and train station, a water treatment plant and a 21,000 square foot mansion. Why? To house his extensive collection of Old West memorabilia that includes the only authenticated photograph of Billy the Kid that he snagged last year at auction for $2.3 million.
*Some reports say it was $55,000,000 but what's four million bucks when you're talking about a fifty-some million dollar part-time residence?
listing photos: Sotheby's International Realty
