2790 Gordon Drive (Naples, Florida)

 house, mansion / manor house / villa, entrepreneur

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2790 Gordon drive goo.gl/maps/rX8RV

Recent owners of this property:
1) purchased 2000 $12.5 million - Current owner- Norman E. Garrity (Corning Inc.)
2) purchased 1994 $3 million - Bronislav Demptchouk (Demchuk) mother-in-law of Ukranian Oil & Gas Oligarch, Ihor Bakay (Naftogaz)
3) purchased 1981 $950,000 - William T Young (Overbrook Farms)
4) purchased 1976 $ 260,000 Tempel Smith Sr. (Tempel Steel- whose family still owns White Sands at 2370 Gordon)

It is the second house north of the Port Royal club and like so many Gordon Drive residences, this one has an interesting history. The banner so proudly displayed at the southwest corner of the property represents the Bucknell Bisons. Bucknell is the alma mater of the current owners who with their family are big supporters of America's largest and one of its best liberal arts private universities.

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Norman E Garrity purchased in 2000 for $12.5 million and is the current owner

The Garrity's purchased 2790 Gordon Drive including an almost new 10,000 sq ft house for $12.5 million in 2000. The house sits on 2 Acres and features 6 bedrooms, with French limestone floors throughout, a library, a wine room, 5 car garage, 87 foot Pool/Spa, etc. This is the listing from 2000: www.naplesarea.com/9919312-2790-GORDON-DR-NAPLES-FL-341...

Norm Garrity began his career at Corning Inc. in 1966 working his way up to Executive VP in 1990; he became a director and Co-Chief Operating Officer in 1996 and was also President of Corning Technologies and a director of the Dow Corning Company. He was appointed Vice Chairman of Corning Inc. in January 2000. At the peak of the dot-com bubble in late 2000, Corning Inc (fiber optics, display technologies etc) had a market cap approaching $100 billion. Mr. Garrity retired in March 2001 at age 59.

Through his holding company, Garrity Investments LLC, he was an early investor in Lending Tree www.nasdaq.com/markets/ipos/filing.ashx?filingid=106537... which was founded by his daughter Tara (Garrity) Lebda and son-in-law, Doug Lebda both of whom are Bucknell grads. The Bucknell affiliation includes generous donations by the Garrity family to the schools and Norm (class of '63), played halfback on the Bucknell Bisons football team.

Other Garrity homes

North Carolina Shell Island (Mason Inlet) Residence on Wrightsville beach - 2559 N LUMINA Ave (beach front) and 2516 N Lumina (boat house) goo.gl/maps/KndZo and this is an image of their North Carolina property from 2007 when a new beach house was being constructed goo.gl/maps/NcRJ3. Garrity purchased this pair of prime vacant North Carolina beach front lots including a third lot across the street in the early nineties and built a new home in 2007. The Garrity's had previously owned a condo at the Duneridge Resort.

This is the Garrity's home in Corning, New York - this is a recent real estate listing of that property www.realtyusa.com/property/9-West-Knollbrook-Lane-Paint...

References:
investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/pers...
investor.shareholder.com/corning/secfiling.cfm?filingID...
www.thefreelibrary.com/Norman+E.+Garrity+and+John+W.+Lo...
photonics.com/Article.aspx?AID=5258
www.dowcorning.com/content/news/about_news7.asp
news.google.com/newspapers?id=Fa4sAAAAIBAJ&sjid=2B4EAAA...
www.b-link.bucknell.edu/s/754/default-template.aspx?sid...
www.catalyst.org/timeline/pdf/99-CORNING.pdf‎
articles.latimes.com/2000/dec/07/business/fi-62312
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bucknell_University

Politics
www.campaignmoney.com/political/contributions/norman-ga...

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Bronislava Demtchouk (demchuk) purchased the property for 3 million in 1994 and sold it to Garrity in 2000

Ms Demchuk is the mother-in-law of Ihor Bakay. It has been reported that the property was purchased on behalf of Bakay who some say was one of the richest people in the Ukraine.

Construction of a new house (the current one) began in 1997. The links below provide some commentary on the colorful Bakay including time in a Moscow prison and gas trading exploits that began in the early nineties. Bakay was quoted as saying "most Ukrainian billionaires made their initial capital from the resale of Russian energy in the 1990s"

References

www.moneyam.com/InvestorsRoom/posts.php?tid=5108&from=1...
www.unian.info/news/256404-bakays-wife-gives-away-her-h...
www.themoscowtimes.com/opinion/article/ukraine-oppositi...
www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1310319/posts
www.ukrainianjournal.com/index.php?w=article&id=7829


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William T young purchased 2790 Gordon in 1981 for $950,000 from nearby Gordon Drive neighbor, Tempel Smith Sr.

Young made his fortune early, founding a peanut butter company when he was in his twenties. He sold out what was to become the Jif brand to Proctor & Gamble 9 years later in 1955 when he was 37 yrs old. Still in his thirties he was appointed to the board of Royal Crown Cola, which also owned Arby's and was Chairman of RC Cola until 1984. He was a pioneer in the cold storage business, was on the board of KFC and at one point the largest shareholder of health care provider, Humana Inc.

But William Young's claim to fame and life's passion was not his business accomplishments but Thoroughbred racing and breeding, something he said he wished he had found earlier in life. As founder of Overbrook Farms, Young was one of America's greatest horse breeders including the legendary Storm Cat, grandson of Northern Dancer and Secretariat.

The William T Young library at the University of Kentucky in Lexington was named after him for his generous gifts.

References:

www.overbrookfarm.com/pdf/wt_young.pdf‎
www.entrepreneurhof.com/william-young‎
www.nytimes.com/2004/01/14/sports/william-t-young-85-ow...
www.complexmag.ca/art-design/2011/09/the-10-coolest-col...
www.nytimes.com/1984/01/14/business/the-innovative-roya...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_T._Young_Library
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_T._Young

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Tempel Smith Sr. Purchased 2790 in 1978 for $250,000

Smith, who was in the Steel Business and a breeder of Lipizan Stallions accumulated, with considerable controversy, a number of Gordon Drive properties in the seventies including White Sands at 2370 Gordon (where he lived) as well as the adjacent DeGroote and Gentil properties. The family still owns White Sands as well as a huge boat house adjacent to the Little Harbor gated community.