Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik buys Sarasota mansion to tear it down

[Tony_FLADEM]

SARASOTA — What would you do if you just bought a 6,000-square-foot waterfront mansion for more than $4 million in cash?

If you're Tampa Bay Lightning owner and hedge fund multimillionaire Jeff Vinik, you tear it down.

The 54-year-old hockey baron, who has a net worth of half a billion dollars, bought a Key West-style estate on the lush Sarasota Bay island of St. Armand's Key through a shell company in April, when the home was only 12 years old.

But by Monday, an excavator had turned much of the mansion into rubble, ripping through the estate's custom-designed arched windows, crown molding and marble floors.

The multimillion-dollar teardown surprised neighbors, who believed the sumptuous mansion would be replaced by a three-story home for Vinik's family, according to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

Even the agent representing the home's seller, Priscilla Doulton, who had it custom-built at 112 N Washington Drive, was shocked by the home's sudden demolition.

"I expected the house would be remodeled," said Developers Realty agent Reid Murphy. "I did not expect it to be torn down."

Vinik, through Lightning spokesman Bill Wickett, confirmed his family had bought the home but would not share any further details Monday. Kathleen Callender, Vinik's agent in the deal, did not return messages.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/realestate/tampa-bay-lightning-owner-jeff-vinik-buys-sarasota-mansion-to-tear-it-down/2142241

[djean111]

1. The land is worth more than the house, really, BUT - it looks as if the house

is just being destroyed, when I bet a lot of it could have gone to Habitat for Humanity. That's sickening, to turn good wood and stone and usable windows and doors and floors into trash.

[Warpy]

2. Four million dollars is chump change to this man

and he had no interest in recycling anything, he just wanted somebody else's house on his property gone as quickly as possible.

That's one of the things we need to understand about the 1%: time is money but money itself has little value to them except in bragging rights.

Likely the new monstrosity will go up in record time, too and will be torn down by the next owner because style fads have changed again.

That's if the derivatives casino lasts another 12 years.