If you want to see Jay Leno’s home in Newport, RI all you have to do is leave my office, turn on to Bellevue Avenue and head out to Ocean Drive, and you’ll see it right there on the water.
“Leno and his wife first admired the house around 30 years ago, when he was in Rhode Island for a standup gig,” explains Fred Albert in Newport Life. “In 2017, the couple drove by it again — only this time, they stopped. ‘Let’s see if it’s for sale,’ Leno said, taking advantage of a departing gardener to slip through the open gate and drive up to the front door, where a caretaker greeted him.” Albert continues:
“Is this house for sale?” Leno inquired. “Yes”
“And I bought it,” Leno says, still dazed by the serendipity of it all. Set on nine oceanfront acres, the Norman-style stone chateau features a dozen bedrooms spread over nearly 16,000 square feet of living space. “It looks like the front of a Harlequin novel,” Leno guffaws. “Every time I pull up to the gate I just laugh.”
Leno owns 187 cars and 163 motorcycles, loves to eat a burger and drive while listening to Sam Cooke (if the car has a radio).
I was speaking with a client who rides his Ducati through the Santa Monica Mountains to visit Rock Store. He said he’s seen Leno there many times and he’s the friendliest guy you’ll ever meet.
And he’s not a bad investor either. Just don’t ask him about stocks and bonds. In yesterday’s WSJ:
People told me: I was crazy to pay $800,000 for a 1994 McLaren F1. The last offer I got for it was $17.5 million. I don’t know anything about stocks, but I collect stuff I like.
P.S. For my all-time favorite burger in Newport click here.
