A waterfront Connecticut mansion that once served as a family home for President Donald Trump and his first wife, Ivana Trump, could soon disappear entirely.
The Georgian residence in Greenwich is at the center of an extensive redevelopment proposal submitted to the town’s Planning & Zoning Commission. The plans call for the removal of every existing structure on the property before an entirely new estate is constructed.
The 19,786-square-foot mansion, which sits on 5.8 acres overlooking Long Island Sound, was purchased by Trump and Ivana in 1982, shortly after the birth of their daughter Ivanka.
More than four decades later, the property changed hands for $31.5 million in 2024. Now, its new owner is preparing for a dramatic transformation of the site.
A former Trump family home with decades of history
Built in 1939, the eight-bedroom mansion became part of Donald and Ivana Trump’s family life during their marriage.
Beyond its bedrooms, the residence includes staff quarters, an indoor lap pool and a movie theater. Outside, the expansive grounds feature a swimming pool, tennis court and putting green, with waterfront views across Long Island Sound.
Ivana retained the Greenwich property following the couple’s 1992 divorce.
Years later, financier Robert Steinberg purchased the estate for $15 million in 1998. The Steinberg family eventually placed it on the market for $50 million in 2009, beginning a lengthy period in which the property was listed and removed from the market several times.
Its most recent public asking price was $29.9 million before the listing was withdrawn during the summer of 2024, according to Zillow.
Although it was no longer publicly listed, the estate sold later that year for $31.5 million, making it Greenwich’s largest residential transaction of 2024 at the time of the sale.
Sotheby’s International Realty agent Joseph Barbieri, who represented the buyer alongside Leslie McElwreath, told The Wall Street Journal that interest in the property continued even after it was taken off the market.
Barbieri did not disclose the buyers’ identities. He said one of the property’s attractions was its unusually large amount of flat land for the Greenwich area.
New plans would erase the existing estate
When the $31.5 million transaction was completed, the future of the original mansion remained uncertain.
That has now changed.
Documents submitted to Greenwich officials outline a proposal to combine three separate lots into a single zoning lot and clear the property of its current structures.
Attorney John Tesei, representing the owner, explained in documents cited by Patch that the project involves “the removal of all existing structures” followed by redevelopment of the property.
Under the proposal, the former Trump residence would be demolished and replaced by a new main house, while the redesigned estate would also feature indoor and outdoor tennis courts, an outdoor swimming pool and several auxiliary buildings.
The new residence is being designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects. The firm’s previous projects include 220 Central Park South on Billionaire’s Row, the George W. Bush Presidential Library in Dallas and the Ocean Course Club House at Kiawah Island in South Carolina.
How Donald and Ivana found the property
The Greenwich estate also held a memorable place in Ivana Trump’s recollections of her years with Donald Trump.
Ivana, who died in 2022, discussed their search for the property in her 2017 book, Raising Trump.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Ivana recalled that she and Trump surveyed potential estates from the air, flying over the Greenwich area in a helicopter before choosing the waterfront property.
What began as a Trump family residence in the early 1980s subsequently passed through different owners and eventually became the subject of a $31.5 million sale.
Now, pending the redevelopment process, the mansion that has occupied the waterfront site since 1939 is facing the prospect of being removed to make way for an entirely new estate.
