After five months on the market and a $10 million price cut, billionaire Steve Cohen found a buyer for his Beverly Hills residence.
The pending deal comes as the New York Mets owner looks to remake 50 acres of parking into an $8 billion casino complex next to Citi Field in New York. The project, called Metropolitan Park, is vying for a state gaming license.
Meanwhile, Cohen’s residence at 901 Oxford Way, which is listed for $35 million, was last week’s top home to go into contract based on asking price, according to the Eklund Weekly Luxury Report Los Angeles. The listing equates to $2,764 per square foot.
That’s discounted from the $45 million, or $3,553 per square foot, the home was asking back in May.
Cohen, the founder of S.A.C. Capital Advisors and Point72 Asset Management, bought the residence in 2015, according to Forbes. Spec developer Gala Asher was the seller at the time, according to the deed.
Property and state records show the home’s owner as a Delaware limited liability company called Crown West, which is managed by Point 72 chief investment officer Andrew B. Cohen and also tied to the same address as the financial firm.
The nine-bedroom, 13-bathroom home spans 12,700 square feet. It’s close to the Beverly Hills Hotel. Among the home’s many amenities are a living room bar, elevator, private space to take meetings, waterfall, spa, game room and underground parking.
Compass’ Ginger Glass has the listing.
It was a big week for Glass, who also holds the listing of Los Angeles County’s second-largest home to go into contract, along with Compass’ Alexandra Glass.
That’s for the home at 1535 Blue Jay Way in the Hollywood Hills, which is listed for just under $27 million, or $2,268 per square foot.
The L-shaped home, which is being sold by a trust, was built in 2021 and has six bedrooms and eight bathrooms across nearly 12,000 square feet.
Highlights include a half-Olympic length pool, spa, 150-year-old olive trees and both city and ocean views.
Twenty-nine homes in L.A. County went into contract last week, which was one more deal than a year ago, according to the roundup produced by Marcy Roth of Douglas Elliman’s Eklund Gomes team. The report counts homes appearing in the Multiple Listing Service with an asking price of at least $4 million.
Total asking volume was $252.9 million, which was a jump of nearly 47 percent from the same time last year.
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Matt Van Epps is projected to win a crowded Republican primary Tuesday in the special election to replace a former Tennessee GOP congressman, according to the Associated Press.
Van Epps will face off in December against Democratic state Rep. Aftyn Behn, who is projected to win a four-way primary for the Democratic nomination.
Van Epps clinched the GOP victory following an endorsement from President Trump that came after in-person early voting ended. Eleven Republicans were on the ballot for the seat vacated by former Rep. Mark Green, who resigned over the summer due to “an opportunity in the private sector that was too exciting to pass up.” Among them, two candidates suspended their campaigns after Mr. Trump weighed in and joined the president in endorsing Van Epps.
Republican Congressional candidate Matt Van Epps speaks during a forum on Sept. 8, 2025, in Dickson, Tenn.
George Walker IV / AP
“Thank you to the people of Middle and West Tennessee! Our Donald J. Trump-endorsed campaign won in a landslide tonight,” Van Epps said on social media. “Now, on to December 2nd! We’re going to win the general and keep this seat RED!”
If Republicans hold onto the seat, it would slightly expand their margin in the U.S. House, where the GOP holds a single-digit majority. The general election in December could also gauge the popularity of Mr. Trump’s second-term agenda, especially with Republican-leaning suburban voters in the Nashville area.
The 7th Congressional District spans 14 counties, bordering both Kentucky and Alabama. Along with parts of Nashville, it includes rural areas, wealthy suburbs and part of a military installment, Fort Campbell. The seat is one of three districts that GOP lawmakers drew as safely red in 2022 by dividing left-leaning Nashville. Its voters elected Green by 21 percentage points in 2024 and by nearly 22 points in 2022.
Of its nine seats in the House, Tennessee currently has one Democrat, Rep. Steve Cohen of Memphis. Republican redistricting in 2022 allowed the GOP to flip another Democratic seat that was drawn to include only part of Nashville.
Van Epps previously served in several roles under Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee. During the primary campaign, Van Epps leaned into his military experience, including as a Tennessee Army National Guard lieutenant colonel and as an Army Special Operations helicopter pilot. Among the competitors he defeated were state Reps. Jody Barrett and Gino Bulso.
Behn was is a social worker and community organizer who has focused on women’s reproductive health rights, including as a plaintiff in a lawsuit against a Tennessee law banning adults from helping minors get an abortion without parental permission. A judge has halted the provision’s enforcement.
Mr. Trump endorsed Van Epps in a Truth Social post late last week that praised him as an “America First Patriot.”
“A West Point Graduate, and Combat Decorated Army Helicopter Pilot, Matt knows the WISDOM and COURAGE required to Defend our Country, Support our Incredible Military/Veterans, and Ensure PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH,” Mr. Trump wrote.
The nod from Mr. Trump followed Van Epps’ prior endorsements from Lee, Green and Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio.
Outside groups spent more than $3.1 million on the race, almost all on the GOP side, with about $1.1 million opposing Barrett.
The Republican primary contenders praised Mr. Trump and expressed staunch opposition to anything perceived as liberal or “woke.” Meanwhile in the Democratic primary, the four candidates attacked the legislation Mr. Trump dubbed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” in addition to his tariffs.
More than 100 people joined a protest aimed at local elected officials Sunday afternoon after a Community Advisory Committee (CAC) unanimously voted in favor of the Metropolitan Park casino proposal last week.
Protesters gathered at Corona Plaza on Sunday, Oct. 5, holding signs such as “sold us out” and “casinos kill communities” to protest against the ambitious $8 billion proposal by Mets owner Steve Cohen and Hard Rock International.
Photo: Ramy Mahmoud.
The project is one of four developments chasing three downstate gaming licences set to be awarded by the State Gaming Commission this December. If approved, it would transform 50 acres of Citi Field parking lot into a sprawling casino complex featuring a 25-acre public park, new shops and restaurants, a Taste of Queens food hall, and a full-scale redevelopment of the Mets-Willets Point subway station, along with improvements to roads and bike paths.
The Metropolitan Park proposal has gone through rigorous public oversight ever since Cohen and Hard Rock launched the proposal in November 2023.
Although the proposed development area is an asphalt parking lot, it was legally designated as city parkland, meaning the city needed to approve zoning text and city map amendments before the project could proceed. The state legislature also needed to approve parkland alienation legislation reclassifying the site as commercial property.
Both houses of the legislature, along with the City Council, voted overwhelmingly in favor of the necessary changes. All six relevant Community Boards also voted in favor of the project as the zoning text and city map amendments made their way through ULURP last year.
All projects vying for a downstate license also required approval from a CAC, with four of the eight projects rejects by their relevant CAC, including all three Manhattan-based proposals.
The Metropolitan Park CAC, however, voted unanimously in favor of the project, with Assembly Member Larinda Hooks, Queens Borough President Donovan Richards and Council Member Francisco Moya voting in favor. Lin Zeng, appointed on behalf of Mayor Eric Adams, George Dixon, appointed by State Sen. Jessica Ramos, and Gov. Kathy Hochul appointee Gregory Anderson also voted in favor of Metropolitan Park.
Vows to ‘keep fighting’
That unanimous vote sparked anger among some members of the local Flushing and Corona community, prompting Sunday’s protest at Corona Plaza.
Photo: Ramy Mahmoud.
The protest, organized by worker advocacy non-profit Flushing Workers Center, heard concerns from community members about the potential impacts that a casino would have on the area.
Protesters also vowed to “keep fighting” to prevent “public land” from being transferred into the hands of Cohen and Hard Rock.
One woman, who did not provide her name to QNS, alleged that the Metropolitan Park CAC “only wanted to hear from Cohen” and further alleged that no CAC members listened to members of the local community.
Photo: Ramy Mahmoud.
Protesters also accused the CAC of shutting down a hearing on Metropolitan Park to prevent opponents to the project from voicing their concerns.
A representative for Flushing Workers Center alleged that the CAC was “stifling” the voices of the local community by greenlighting the Metropolitan Park project.
One man at Sunday’s protest, who also did not provide his name, described the Metropolitan Park proposal as a “design for land without its people.”
He predicted that a casino would lead to the displacement of poor and working-class residents from the neighborhood and said the community “does not need” a casino.
“Steve Cohen and his cronies do not care about Corona or public life, our ways to make culture or the ways that we love and protect each other,” the protester said. “They do not care, and we should not believe their lies. We don’t need any of this, and we need to unite in open resistance and non collaboration with these forces.”
He added that local residents have previously been impacted by other “big flashy displacement projects” in the past.
“Cohen’s project is not an isolated moment,” he added.
Photo: Ramy Mahmoud.
A ‘home run’ for Queens
Metropolitan Park spokesperson Karl Rickett pushed back against the protests, noting that the proposal has received support from six community boards as well as city and state officials.
“With approval by six out of six community boards, the City Council, the State Legislature and unanimous support from the Community Advisory Committee, it’s clear the community stands behind Metropolitan Park,” Rickett said in a statement.
Protesters, however, accused community boards of giving extra speaking time to supporters of the project and alleged that the process was “manipulated.”
Meanwhile, elected officials and community groups have touted the potential benefits of the Metropolitan Park proposal, pointing to 23,000 union jobs and $1 billion in community benefits.
Speaking after last week’s CAC vote, Richards said he had voted in favor of the project partially because of the “outreach and respect” that the Metropolitan Park team had shown the local community. He said such outreach set Metropolitan Park apart from previous failed projects such as Amazon’s shelved HQ2 project in Long Island City.
“They literally went to every corner of this earth to make sure that they spoke to everybody,” Richards said after Tuesday’s CAC vote. “I think what made this plan much different than a lot of larger economic development projects is they listened first. They didn’t come into queens and just shove a plan down our throat.”
Asked if he was concerned if the Metropolitan Park development would attract “problem gambling” to the community, Richards said the project will have a number of safeguards on-site, including addiction services. Still, Richards believes elected officials have a responsibility to continuously monitor concerns if the Metropolitan Park project comes to fruition.
“I think we have an obligation to make sure that we’re keeping our eyes and ears open,” he added.
Richards believes that many of the people who have raised opposition or concerns about the project will be the ones “taking advantage” of the thousands of union jobs that Metropolitan Park brings to Queens.
“This community was hit extremely hard during the pandemic,” Richards said. “We have an opportunity to now put 20,000 people and beyond to work.”
He described the vote as a “home run” for Queens, adding that the borough has “hit the jackpot” with the Metropolitan Park development.
Moya, on the other hand, said Metropolitan Park would be an “added benefit” for the local community and said the ongoing development of a new soccer-specific stadium at Willets Point would make the area a “destination.”
“We’re going to see job creation there,” Moya said. “It’s going to be a destination for people to come to, not just the sports, but also entertainment. And I think this is really great for the borough of Queens. I feel that this is really the step forward.”
Like Richards, Moya said he believed Metropolitan Park has succeeded where other projects have failed because it included grassroots support from members of the local community. He added that the majority of the opposition to Metropolitan Park has come from “outside the district” and insisted that he has an obligation to listen to the views of his constituents first.
Tom Grech, president and CEO of the Queens Chamber of Commerce, said the proposal would not only deliver 23,000 jobs to the area but also careers.
“It’s opportunities for people to get out of that notion of not having generational wealth and get into careers, benefits and opportunities for themselves and their family to really grow,” Grech said.
There is “no question” that Metropolitan Park, alongside Citi Field, the USTA and the new soccer stadium, would be a “big boon” for tourism in a part of Queens that is often neglected by international visitors, Grech added.
Jonah Tong on the mound. Photo: Evan Bernstein/Getty Images
Three hours before he was scheduled to throw the game’s first pitch, Jonah Tong stood, barefoot, in the centerfield grass at Citi Field and stared toward home plate, 400 feet away. Tong wore long black shorts and a long-sleeve black t-shirt with “Mets” in script across the chest. His black hair was wet from a shower. Tong balanced on his right leg for a minute. He balanced on his left leg. He practiced his golf swing. The 22-year-old would soon be making his third major league start, a crucial moment in the attempt to save an imploding Mets season. He appeared utterly at ease.
The Mets had been plunging rapidly downhill for three months and were now on the verge of tumbling out of the playoffs. The sudden arrival of Tong and two nearly-as-young rookie pitchers, Nolan McLean and Brandon Sproat, injected a large dose of badly needed energy and optimism.
But if you know Mets history, uplift is nearly always a guarantee of imminent disappointment. Sure enough, things soured quickly in the top of the first inning. Tong was terrible. He had trouble with his control, issuing three walks. When he did throw strikes, he gave up four hits and six runs to the Texas Rangers. Tong’s night was done after just nine batters and 17 minutes, and before he could get three outs. There was a smattering of boos as he walked to the dugout.
His disastrous outing fit nicely, if painfully, into a Mets season that has swung from elation to desperation. Over the winter, they’d signed outfielder Juan Soto, one of the game’s greatest talents, if an enigmatic presence, to the richest-ever contract in pro sports. That helped propel the 2025 Mets payroll to the highest in the game, at $323 million. And for the first three months of the season, the free-spending plan was working: the Mets had the best record in baseball as of June 12. What they had not done, however, was spend big money on starting pitchers. Instead, team executives seemed to put too much stock in the Mets’ high-tech pitching lab, which employs everything from force plates to spin rate data, and supposedly turns bargains into all-stars. In 2024, they’d succeeded with two reclamation projects, Luis Severino and Sean Manaea. This year’s experiment included re-signing Manaea (“I thought that was curious, bringing him back,” a Mets insider says. “Manaea’s arm seem to be hanging by a thread at the end of last year”); acquiring the frequently injured Frankie Montas, whose last truly good season had been in 2021; and signing Clay Holmes, who’d spent the previous six years as a relief pitcher, and turning him into a starter.
Montas blew out his elbow after seven starts. Manaea was hurt, then erratic. Holmes has mostly been okay, though unable to pitch effectively deep into games. Now the Mets, improvising wildly with mere days left to retain their spot in the playoffs, are using Manaea and Holmes to split games, hoping to essentially get one adequate pitcher out of two underperforming starters. Kodai Senga looked like a dominant starter early in the year, then injured a hamstring and never really returned to form. In early September, he was shipped to Triple A Syracuse.
The Mets looked screwed. They’d been lousy for three months, compiling a 26-37 record that was lowlighted by a pair of seven-game losing streaks. Then McLean, Tong, and Sproat, were summoned from the minors by Mets’ president of baseball operations David Stearns, the baseball wunderkind who last year assembled a likable Mets squad that nearly reached the World Series. “I mean, I think we had confidence that we were going to have an influx of young pitching at some point this year,” Stearns told me while standing on the field in Philadelphia before the Mets took on the first-place Phillies. “I don’t know that we necessarily would have predicted having three of our starting pitchers making their major league debuts for us in a pennant race in September, but that’s where we are.”
That night, the 24-year-old McLean would turn in his fifth consecutive strong start, only to suffer his first big league loss as the Mets were shut out. McLean’s physical abilities have always drawn raves. “You will not find a stronger, more athletic man,” says his college coach, Oklahoma State’s Josh Holliday. “Put a pickleball paddle or a golf club in his hands and he’d get real good real fast.” But it’s his aptitude for pitching that may be even more freakish. McLean started out playing both baseball and football at OSU and threw a minimal number of innings in college; during his first two years in the minors with the Mets, McLean was a designated hitter on days he didn’t take the mound. He has been a full-time pitcher for slightly more than a year, yet makes in-game adjustments worthy of a grizzled veteran. McLean is able to throw six pitches; his signature is a sweeper than can break as much as 22 inches horizontally. In his third big league start, though, he noticed the Detroit Tigers, one of this season’s top teams, laying off his breaking pitches and instead leaned heavily on fastballs, giving up just two runs and getting the victory. “He knows what it’s like to stand in there against a professional pitcher,” says AJ Sager, who was the Mets pitching coach in Double A Binghamton last season and in Triple A Syracuse this season. “That’s rare, and it’s a big advantage, because Nolan can process that information really quickly.”
On top of all that, McLean is an above average singer, according to Mets reliever Brooks Raley. “We have the rookies sing on the bus. McLean’s an entertainer,” Raley says. “He did ‘Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue’ and got everyone whooping and hollering.”
Sproat, 25, was supposed to be the organization’s top pitching prospect, but he had to overcome a stretch of wildness this summer and was the last of the trio to be called to New York, where he has pitched well (and has defeated Raley at cribbage). Tong, who looks about 12 years old, is the most intriguing personality. He throws with a violent grace, jerking his head to the left in order to extend his right arm high into the air, a delivery yielding a 95-mile-per-hour four-seam fastball that appears to defy gravity and rise as it approaches home plate — an effect the metricsheads call induced vertical break.
Off the field, Tong is transparently, compellingly emotional. Two hours after he’d been removed from that ugly start against Texas, he was still struggling with his composure in the locker room, barely holding back tears as he answered questions from reporters. Six days later, though, Tong bounced back brilliantly, throwing his fastball aggressively and often, mowing down the San Diego Padres,
The Mets are doing what they can to reduce the pressure, tightly limiting media access to the three young pitchers. The protectiveness is, in part, an attempt to learn from “Generation K,” the much-hyped mid-nineties trio of Mets pitchers Jason Isringhausen, Bill Pulsipher, and Paul Wilson, who failed to live up to the hype due to injuries, unrealistic expectations, and assorted weirdness. Jeremy Hefner, the Mets pitching coach, believes the current group has a maturity beyond their years. “You could put them in a men’s league game in Central Park and they’re gonna be the same as they are out here,” Hefner says, looking weary while standing along the right field foul line. “These guys know themselves.”
The three are also leaning on one another. McLean and Sproat were roommates in Syracuse, and when McLean was called up, Tong moved into the apartment with Sproat. Now they’re all bunking in a Queens hotel, not far from Citi Field, as they try to salvage the Mets’ season. If the Mets reach the playoffs — and with an 80-74 record, they look quite likely to sneak in — the trio, slightly more than two months removed from facing the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, will likely be handed the majority of playoff starts, with McLean on target to pitch game one in the first round.
“Maybe you could expect one young player to carry a substantial load at this point in a season, but three?” a senior executive with a rival, playoff-bound major league team says. “The only thing I’m sure of with the Mets is that if you give David Stearns five years with Steve Cohen’s resources, he’s going to build a dominant team. What you’re seeing is a transition taking place.”
If McLean, Sproat, and Tong survive this month, that is.
Steve Cohen at the SportiConference Invest In Sports 2023 in New York. Bryan Bedder/Sportico via Getty Images
Billionaire Steve Cohen is betting big on golf. The hedge fund manager predicts that with the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (A.I.), the normalization of the four-day workweek will cause a boom in leisure and give workers more time to hit the greens.
Cohen, the media-shy head of Point72 Asset Management, discussed his prediction in a rare interview with CNBC Squawk Box. “My belief is the four-day workweek is coming,” he said. “I just think it’s an eventuality.”
Despite being known for the owner of the New York Mets, Cohen has made moves in the golf world in recent months. In September, he acquired the rights to a New York team in TGL, a high-tech golf league formed by tiger woods and Rory McIlroy. And as part of a consortium that includes Boston Red Sox owner John Henry and former Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry, the hedge fund manager invested as much as $3 billion in the PGA Tour earlier this year.
“We think it’s an interesting investment,” Cohen told CNBC of the golf industry, adding that “the way it’s been run, we can improve the operations and make it much more profitable.” Some of that profit could come from expanded leisure time. Between the rise of A.I. and the fact that “people are not as productive on Fridays,” Cohen is gearing up for four-day work weeks to become the norm in the future. With an extra day off, he believes industries around travel and experience will benefit. “I guess courses will be crowded on Fridays,” he said.
Get ready for year-round three-day weekends
Don’t expect Cohen’s employees at Point72 to be taking part as long as the markets remain open throughout the week. “If they’re taking off Friday and they have a portfolio, that’s a problem,” he noted. “Forgetting us, the vast majority of people will get an opportunity, I think at some point, to get a three-day weekend.”
Cohen isn’t the only finance heavyweight to predict a move toward compressed work weeks. Fellow billionaire Ray Dalio made a similar point while speaking at the Milken Institute’s Asia Summit last year, where he claimed that A.I. will let humans work fewer hours and urged for policies to prevent a potential widening of the wealth gap. And back in 2018, business magnate Richard Branson predicted in a blog post that emerging technologies would transform the five-day workweek as we know it.
While traditional working hours have remained largely steady across the U.S., some companies have been increasingly experimenting with work structures. The clothing reseller ThredUp, for example, has already embraced a four-day workweek, while New York City’s largest public employee union recently launched a compressed workweek pilot program that will run until May of next year.
Beyond its effects on work structures, Cohen told CNBC that A.I. is poised to transform how companies operate. “My view is this is a very durable theme,” he said, noting that his firm could save $25 million by using large language models to improve efficiency. “Now, we’re a nice-sized firm; we’re not a huge firm. Imagine what big companies can do.”
Cohen also discussed his plans for the New York Mets, which have recently had an unsuccessful run under his ownership despite a large injection of cash. Moving forward, he will continue overseeing strategy experts and prioritizing the development of young talent. These tactics parallel his approach towards running Point72, noted Cohen. “I’m used to operating in a very centralized way. I give people a lot of rope.”
The couple has donated more than $1.2 billion through their family foundation since 2001. Courtesy Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation
Billionaires Steve Cohen and Alexandra Cohen are giving a staggering $116.2 million to LaGuardia Community College, a public institution in Long Island City, Queens. The donation stands as the largest in the history of the City University of New York (CUNY) system and the most significant gift ever given to a community college in the U.S.
The funds will establish a workforce training center to be known as the Cohen Career Collective. Construction of the facility, which will measure 160,000 square feet, is expected to be completed by January of 2029. “I wanted to create a place where students have access to high-quality programs and facilities and can learn the skills they need to succeed in a rapidly changing world,” said Alexandra, who leads the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation, in a statement.
Steve Cohen is the founder of hedge fund Point 72 Asset Management and has an estimated net worth of $19.8 billion. His family foundation focuses on underserved communities and the arts and has given out some $1.2 billion since its inception in 2001. In addition to supporting psychedelic-assisted therapy, local hospitals and cultural institutions like the Museum of Modern Art, the couple earlier this week gifted $10 million to expand an adolescent mental health program at Hackensack Meridian Health, a New Jersey healthcare network.
The Cohen Career Collective will offer a range of specialized training programs
The funds will establish a workforce training center at the community college. Courtesy Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation
Their newest philanthropic endeavor will support education and training programs that prepare students to enter high-demand sectors across New York City. Specifically, the Cohen Career Collective will offer credentials related to healthcare, construction, technology, culinary and hospitality, green jobs and entertainment. “This historic $116.2 million investment multiplies CUNY’s role as an engine of upward mobility and doubles down on our commitment to helping our students not only get a degree but a well-paying job after graduation,” said Félix Matos Rodríguez, CUNY Chancellor, in a statement.
The facility will have specialized shops, labs and classrooms where students can take English as a Second Language (ESL) and high-school equivalency classes geared toward GED seekers. Students with disabilities, veterans and the formerly incarcerated will also be welcomed, according to LaGuardia Community College.
The Cohens have close ties to Queens and have given more than $185 million in charitable contributions to organizations in the area. Cohen is the owner of the New York Mets, whose home ballpark Citi Field is located in Queens. The hedge fund manager is also pursuing one of three available casino licenses for the New York City area in hopes of establishing an $8 billion casino and entertainment complex in the borough.
From a $1.5 million initiative supporting Detroit-based artists to Julia Koch’s eight-figure gift for an ambulatory care center in West Palm Beach, these are some of the most notable developments in the philanthropic world.
Steve and Alexandra Cohen give $3.8 million towards a disability nonprofit’s expansion plans
Steve and Alexandra Cohen launched their foundation in 2001. Courtesy Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation
New York Mets owner Steve Cohen and his wife Alexandra are donating around $3.8 million to help the nonprofit Abilis open a new location in Stamford, Conn. The organization, which provides services for hundreds of individuals with disabilities, will use the funds to acquire a 26,000-square-foot building that will be named after the couple in recognition for their gift.
“The Cohen Abilis Advancement Center will provide more than double the space we currently have for even more programs and services to enhance the quality of life for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities,” said Amy Montimurro, CEO of the nonprofit, in a statement. “It’s very exciting!”
The new two-floor center will be the second Stamford location for Abilis, which was founded in 1951 and is currently headquartered in Greenwich. It will be renovated and retrofitted for accessibility by this fall, with plans to offer a memory unit, alternative typing program and areas for music, art, cooking, dance and fitness classes. “People of all abilities should have a place where they feel welcomed and encouraged to thrive,” Alexandra said in a statement.
The Cohens have given out more than $1 billion in charitable donations over the past two decades through the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation. Largely focused on supporting underserved communities and the arts, they notably gave a $5 million grant to the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, a nonprofit researching the use of psychedelic-assisted health care, in June of 2023. Cohen, who runs the hedge fund Point72 Asset Management and has an estimated net worth of $19.8 billion, also donated some $300,000 last year to support three student-managed funds.
Dan Gilbert’s family foundation launches a $1.5 million arts initiative
Dan and Jennifer Gilbert at Allen & Co’s Sun Valley Conference in 2015. Scott Olson/Getty Images
Cohen isn’t the only billionaire sports owner making philanthropic contributions. The family foundation of Dan Gilbert, owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers and co-founder of mortgage lender Rocket Companies, is investing $1.5 million to help launch Seed and Bloom, a grant-making initiative aiding BIPOC artists based in Detroit.
Founded by Gilbert and his wife Jennifer in 2015, the Gilbert Family Foundation primarily aids economic opportunities in Detroit and medical research initiatives—in 2023, it donated nearly $375 million to help create a rehabilitation center and research institution dedicated to the genetic disease neurofibromatosis. The couple are also signees of The Giving Pledge, committed to giving away at least half of their wealth, currently estimated at $26.2 billion, to philanthropy.
Their newest financial contribution will provide 10 artists with $150,000 each in grants over a three-year period. Established in partnership with United States Artists, a national arts funding organization based in Chicago, Seed and Bloom will focus on deepening the community impact of each grantee’s artistic practices.
“We are truly grateful to be seen and felt in the Detroit community by the residents and Gilbert Family Foundation,” said Asia Hamilton, founder of Detroit’s Northwest Gallery and one of the Seed and Bloom grantees, in a statement. “We are excited to use this incredible opportunity to expand this work, building a legacy for artists of the future to experience and continue for generations to come.”
Julia Koch donates $75 million for new ambulatory care center
Julia Koch pictured in October 2018. Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
An ambulatory care center in West Palm Beach, Fla., will be named after Julia Koch in recognition of her $75 million gift towards the new NYU Langone Health facility. Koch is the widow of David Koch, who died in 2019 and made his fortune running the conglomerate Koch Industries.
Known as the Julia Koch Family Ambulatory Care Center, the eight-story and 77,000-square-foot facility will open by 2026 and will contain ambulatory surgery operating rooms, endoscopy suits, physical therapy bays and full-service radiology and imaging. It will also provide on-demand care for specialty areas like internal medicine, oncology and pain management.
Koch’s contribution will help NYU Langone meet a growing demand for care in Florida. “Palm Beach Country is full of New Yorkers, many of whom now live there year-round,” said Kenneth Langone, chair of the NYU Langone board of trustees, in a statement. “For the rest of us it’s a home away from home—with one big deficit: a lack of comprehensive care from the full spectrum of NYU Langone doctors, who offer unmatched quality in every specialty.”
Koch has an estimated net worth of $61.2 billion and was ranked by Forbes in 2023 as the second wealthiest woman in the world. The NYU Langone Health gift is one of the first grants to be made by the Julia Koch Family Foundation, which she established last year. Alongside her late husband, Koch previously donated millions to institutions like the Lincoln Center, NewYork-Presbyterian and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology via the David H. Koch Foundation.
