Lawyerly Lairs: George And Kellyanne Conway's $8 Million Mansion
This prominent presidential adviser and her husband, a longtime Biglaw partner, are living large.
The Conways’ future D.C. home (all photos via MRIS).
The real estate purchases of George and Kellyanne Conway can change history. If the Conways hadn’t lived in Manhattan’s Trump World Tower, where Kellyanne Conway served on the condo board, Kellyanne might never have met Donald Trump. If Kellyanne had never met Donald Trump, she might never have served as his campaign manager. If she hadn’t served as his campaign manager — she stepped in at a crucial time, when the campaign was in a tailspin, and turned things around — Donald Trump might not be our president.
Kellyanne Conway, a leading pollster and political strategist, now serves as a senior adviser to President Trump. Her husband George T. Conway III, a longtime litigation partner at Wachtell Lipton, reportedly will be nominated to lead the Justice Department’s Civil Division. (But I do wonder why his nomination hasn’t been announced yet; could he be having second thoughts, like some other potential Trump appointees?)
Given that that their real estate transactions can change history, it is fitting and proper that we look at the Conways’ latest purchase: a lavish lawyerly lair in D.C.’s ritzy Massachusetts Avenue Heights, acquired for a cool $7.785 million.
How did they afford this magnificent mansion? They both had highly successful pre-government careers — she as a top pollster, he as a partner at a firm with almost $6 million in profits per partner last year — and they boast assets that could be worth as much as $44 million, according to Kellyanne’s financial disclosure form. And recall that financial disclosures don’t include the value of primary residences — so that $44 million doesn’t include this $8 million home, nor the Conways’ $6 million home in tony Alpine, New Jersey. (It’s not clear whether they’ve sold the residence in Alpine — “America’s most expensive zip code,” according to Forbes — or whether they still own it.)
The Conways went into contract for their D.C. digs back in April, as Marisa Kashino reported for Washingtonian at the time. The deal closed on May 17 and the deed got recorded last week, according to the Washington Business Journal — which notes these clues about the buyers’ identities:
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Broker sources tell the Washington Business Journal this was a Conway buy. The home was purchased under the name Antoinette Associates LLC, and it so happens that Kellyanne Conway’s maternal grandmother was named Antoinette.
And it was a steal. The home was originally listed years ago for $22 million, then the price dropped to $18 million, then roughly $12 million, then $8 million. It’s been on and off the market since at least 2012. The property’s 2016 assessment was just shy of $10.7 million, per the D.C. tax office.
Citibank N.A. provided a loan of about $5.8 million to Antoinette Associates, according to trust documents filed with the Recorder of Deeds and signed on behalf of the LLC by an associate in George Conway’s law firm.
This strikes me as credible evidence that the Conways are the buyers. But if Kellyanne Conway would like to present “alternative facts,” I will happily hear her out.
I reached out to George Conway for comment, but did not hear back from him. Samu Qureshi — son of the former prime minister of Pakistan, prior owner of the house — also declined comment to Washingtonian, citing a confidentiality agreement.
But who needs comment? A picture is worth a thousand words — and we have several pretty pictures to share….
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