Instead of building a new large mansion where David Rockefeller Sr. used to spend summers on MDI, the new owner is redeveloping the property as a residential compound with four buildings spread out on 15-acres of oceanfront land.
The buildings under construction at 39 Cooksey Dr., where last year Mitchell Rales had Rockefeller’s former summer home demolished, are not the only new things the billionaire is adding to his portfolio. Earlier this year, Rales became one of the new owners of the NFL Washington Commanders football team, along with Josh Harris — who also owns the Philadelphia 76ers of the NBA and the NHL’s New Jersey Devils — and former NBA great Magic Johnson.
The exclusive Seal Harbor property, which Rales bought nearly six years ago for $19 million from Rockefeller’s estate, is not the first luxury property on MDI that he has bought and redeveloped. Rales, who lives in the Washington D.C. suburb of Potomac, Maryland, bought Susan Mary Alsop’s former home on Peabody Drive in Northeast Harbor in 2007 for $5.5 million, according to the town’s property tax assessment records.
Rales then demolished the Alsop home and built a modern 8,000-square-foot mansion on the property, along with a separate guest house, a garage with a caretaker’s apartment, and a small boat house. The town currently values the Northeast Harbor property at $15 million.
In the neighboring village of Seal Harbor, Rales is dividing up functions that typically are contained under one roof among four separate buildings.
His contractor, Nate Holyoke Builders, is working on a building that has two half bathrooms, a kitchen, a dining area and a living area separated by a two-sided fireplace — but no bedrooms. It measures 120 feet by 32 feet and will have a second-floor mezzanine overlooking the dining and living areas that will be used as a children’s play area, and open decks overlooking Seal Harbor at the north and south ends of the building.
Two other of the buildings on the property will function as living quarters for Rales and his family or guests. Each of these buildings will measure 90 feet by 18 feet and will include a bedroom, a bathroom, and additional living space. One of the buildings was just approved for construction last month, according to building permit records at the local town office.
The other, smaller planned building and a fourth that is intended to be a study have foundations, but the builder has yet to apply for permits to construct them.
Altogether, the portions of the project that the town has approved so far have construction estimates of $8.1 million, not including infrastructure improvements such as utilities and roads that connect the building sites from the property line. The town currently values the Seal Harbor property, including the unfinished buildings, at $9.6 million.
Rales has an estimated net worth of $4.7 billion, which ranks him a five-way tie for 244th richest American, according to Forbes magazine.
He and his brother Steven Rales earned their fortunes through Danaher Corp., a global diversified conglomerate. Steven Rales, who also owns a summer home in Northeast Harbor, has an estimated net worth of $8.1 billion, which ranks him in a six-way tie for 108th richest American, according to Forbes.
