Palm Beacher Tom Ford reportedly pays $52M for Hamptons home where Jackie O spent summers

There’s an adage used among real estate observers in Palm Beach: All roads eventually lead to this wealthy barrier-island town on Florida’s southeast coast.

The latest proof? Palm Beach homeowner and billionaire fashion designer Tom Ford was on the buyer’s side of a $52 million purchase last week of a historic house in The Hamptons, according to reporting by the Wall Street Journal, which credited the identity of the buyer to “sources familiar with the deal.”

Known as Lasata, the estate is where the late Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis — who had an especially strong connection to Palm Beach through her husband, President John F. Kennedy, and his family — spent summers as a girl, the Journal reported.

The estate of about 7 acres is at 121 Further Lane in East Hampton, although the Journal’s Katherine Clarke did not include the address in her article.

Dating to at least 1917, the two-story, traditional-style house has 10 bedrooms and 8,500 square feet of living space, inside and out, according to information on the website of the Corcoran Group. Corcoran represented the seller — Los Angeles-based commercial and film producer David Zander — in a co-listing with Compass.

Corcoran agent Eileen O’Neill and Compass agents Ed Petrie, James Petrie and Charles Forsman had the $55 million co-listing. Ford was represented by agent Frank E. Newbold of Sotheby’s International Realty, according to the Journal.

House was once owned by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’ grandfather

In addition to the primary residence, the property has “a two-bedroom guesthouse, a caretaker’s cottage, a pool house and a three-car garage with a workshop,” the Journal reported in an article attributing the description to the listing agents.

Jacqueline Onassis visited the house during her childhood when it was owned by her grandfather, John Vernou Bouvier Jr., the Journal reported, citing the book “Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis: A Life.”

The house has another Palm Beach connection. It was once owned by fashion designer Reed Krakoff, who also used to own a house on the North End of Palm Beach, which he sold for about $7 million in 2015. Krakoff sold the East Hampton house to Zander for $24 million in 2018, according to the Journal.

MORE ABOUT JACQUELINE KENNEDY ONASSIS: Jackie Kennedy found walks boring, didn’t like sweets, notes from a doctor reveal

Tom Ford recently house-swapped in Palm Beach deal said to have topped $100 million

Ford used a trust to buy his first Palm Beach house — an award-winning contemporary-style home on Jungle Road — for a recorded $51 million in an off-market sale in December 2022. But by mid-May he had swapped it for a landmarked house nearby on Via Del Mar in a hush-hush private deal said to be valued at more than $100 million and first reported by the Palm Beach Daily News.

In the house swap, real estate entrepreneur Brian Kosoy and his wife, Andrea, took possession of the former Ford house at 241 Jungle Road, courthouse records confirm. The fashion designer, in turn, moved into Casa Della Porta, the 1920s-era estate the Kosoys owned at 195 Via Del Mar.

House trades often include extra money tossed in when the homes are not of equal value. Several real estate sources have told the Palm Beach Daily News the former Kosoy residence would be worth more in today's market than the house Ford bought in December.

Broker Christian Angle of Christian Angle Real Estate is said to have represented both sides of the house swap and was the only agent involved in Ford’s off-market purchase of the house on Jungle Road.

TOM FORD SWAPS HOUSES IN PALM BEACH: Fashion icon Tom Ford involved in Palm Beach house swap valued at more than $100M: sources

Ford closed his purchase of the Jungle Road house about a month after The Estée Lauder Cos. announced it would acquire his eponymous fashion-and-lifestyle brand, which it valued at $2.8 billion. 

Efforts to reach Ford for comment about the house swap and the Hamptons transaction were unsuccessful.

Through a Corcoran spokeswoman, O’Neill declined to comment about the Hamptons transaction; her co-listing agents at Compass couldn’t be reached. Newbold also did not return a phone message left for him requesting comment, and his client also could not be reached.

TOM FORD PAYS $51M FOR PALM BEACH HOUSE: Designer Tom Ford behind trust that bought Palm Beach house for $51 million: sources

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Darrell Hofheinz is a USA TODAY Network of Florida journalist who writes about Palm Beach real estate in his weekly “Beyond the Hedges” column. He welcomes tips about real estate news on the island. Email dhofheinz@pbdailynews.com, call 561-820-3831 or tweet @PBDN_Hofheinz. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Tom Ford said to have paid $52M for Hamptons home with Jackie O link