Is This Steve Jobs’s Memphis Mansion?

By Leander Kahney (12:47 am, Jun 21 2009)

Could this be Steve Jobs's new mansion in Memphis? Public records suggest so.

Could this be Steve Jobs's new mansion in Memphis? Public records suggest it might be.

Could this 7,500 square foot mansion at 36 Morningside Place in Memphis be Steve Jobs’s new mansion?

Jobs has reportedly bought a large residence in Memphis after receiving a liver transplant in March at one of the city’s hospitals.

Forbes reports that Jobs may have bought a mansion in Memphis close to The Methodist University Hospital Transplant Institute, a liver transplant center.

A finance reporter, Alexander Haislip, previously at Red Herring magazine, also says that Jobs has bought a mansion.

According to Haislip, Jobs bought the property through a mysterious LLC, which is associated with a local law firm. But Haislip doesn’t mention the name of the LLC, the identity of the law firm or the address of the mansion. Others, however, have identified the holding company as LCHG LLC, and the law firm as Burch,Porter & Johnson.

If Jobs did indeed buy a mansion through the LCHG LLC using Burch, Porter & Johnson, then the property he bought is very likely the magnificent pile at 36 Morningside Place, according to various public records and real estate websites.

And if so, it looks like he got the place at a substantial discount. Whoever bought the place paid only $850,000 for a property valued at $1.3 million, according to records. Plus, it was recently fixed up with taxpayer dollars!

Here’s the strands pointing to 36 Morningside Place as Jobs’s new Memphis mansion:

* The 5 bedroom, 6 bath mansion is owned by LCHG LLC, according to the Shelby County Assessor of Property, the local property tax authority. Its appraised vale is $1.328 million.

* The lawyer associated with LCHG LLC on the tax records is Joshua B. Lawhead, a commercial real estate specialist with the Burch, Porter & Johnson law firm.

* It looks like LCHG LLC was chartered in mid-March, according to public records.

* On March 31, a “Quit Claim” for Morningside Place was filed between the State of Tennessee, the former owner of the property, and LCHG LLC. A Quit Claim is a document revoking any claim to real estate — in this case, the State of Tennessee. The quit claim implies a sale took place in March.

* The mansion was recently sold for $850,000, according to the real estate site Zillow, which has these aerial views of the property. Note the large pool in the back.

aerial_view_front

aerial_view_back

* The property underwent $28,000 in improvements in recent years, paid for with taxpayer dollars, according to this article. The previous tenant, a chancellor at the University of Tennessee, fixed the place up with tax money, which he later reimbursed, the report says.

* Here’s the house in Google Maps, which has Street View photographs of the whole culdesac.

The missing piece in the puzzle is the link between Jobs and the mysterious LCHG LLC.So far, there’s no link between the two.

Also, why would Jobs buy a mansion? It kinda makes no sense. If Jobs had a liver transplant and it was successful, why would he need to stick around Memphis? Isn’t he supposed to be returning to work at Apple later this month? Why not just fly his personal Gulfstream into town when he needs to see his doctors? Buying a house is a long term commitment to the city. Is there something else, like one of his children studying at a local university? Is he planning to retire there, away from the snoops in Silicon Valley?

On the other hand, Jobs has been known to buy properties and never move in. In 1982, Jobs bought an apartment in the San Remo apartment building in New York. He hired I.M. Pei to help renovate the huge apartment but never took residence. He sold it 20 years later to U2”s frontman Bono.

In 1984, he bought the Jackling mansion in Woodside, which he lived in for about a decade but has been empty for the last ten years. He was recently granted permission to tear it down and build a smaller, greener house in its place. Jobs currently lives in Palo Alto.

19 comments »

About the author

Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac, and author of three books about technology culture: Inside Steve’s Brain, the New York Times bestseller about Steve Jobs; Cult of Mac; and Cult of iPod. Leander has written for Wired, MacWeek, Scientific American, and The Guardian in London. Follow Leander on Twitter @lkahney and Facebook.

(sorry, you need Javascript to see this e-mail address)| Read more posts by Leander Kahney.

Posted in News, Steve Jobs |

John
LCHG = Lisa, Chrisann (as in his daughter, Lisa, and her mom) Health Group? Maybe it’s just a coincidence, but maybe not…? Just thought I’d throw that out there. Any thoughts?
craig
He is weird that way. Like Howard Hughes.
He doesn’t stay in hotels so he is happy to buy a house simply to use as a hotel room once or twice a year.
He made a deal with Univ of TN. I’ll buy your house and you get me a liver.
(maybe not…. )
He needs a place to stay in when he does the occasional postop doctors appointments he will have to do….
gauston
For Steve Jobs to purchase a 900k house is pocket change. If I were a multi-billionaire and wanted privacy while I recover from major surgery, I would do the same. Much safer and much more private than a even a 5 star hotel … Oh, and for those thinking he “purchased” his liver – stop the rumors. It’s bullsht. But yes, he is more important than most people on the recipient list. Sorry, but it’s true. He heads up a 100+ Billion dollar company with total sales over it’s history of over 1 Trillion. Plus, I’m a share holder. Get Well Steve.
DAG
As someone who works in healthcare and lives in the metro Memphis area, I have a couple of thoughts.
1- It is unethical, not to mention illegal, for healthcare workers to disclose any information about their patients without their consent. It is my sincere hope that nobody compromised the standards of the health professions and the law (HIPPA) by disclosing anything about Mr Jobs or any other patient.
2- Mr Jobs extreme need/desire for privacy, while understood, conflicts with his very public role as a star CEO of a legendary American success story. I don’t know who manages his PR, but being just a little more forthcoming through official channels might tone down the interest and speculation.
3- Memphis has a great medical community and a long tradition of innovation and excellence in research- probably not that well known to the general public. It has been speculated that he went to Tennessee because of the relatively shorter wait for a liver and that is possible. It is also possible that the best treatment is available there. St Jude Children’s Medical Center is downtown and many innovations developed there have migrated to adult treatment. UT Medical has a track record on not only transplants- but multi-organ transplants as well. The GI Medicine, Oncology and Endocrinology services are world class and well respected.
4- I hope the hoopla does not promote or provoke an invasion of his or his family’s privacy- especially at this time. The man is sick and should be left alone to heal. Being famous doesn’t take away his right to privacy in personal medical matters or his daily life.
rick Johnson
Bravo!!!!! Said well!!
Bob Suede
If he had a liver transplant in Memphis, Tennessee then it might be convenient to own a house there. His family could stay there when they visit him while he is at the clinic. He could stay there during recovery and post operation or follow up visits to the clinic.
AND if anyone criticizes him for going to another state with one of the nations shortest waiting periods for liver transplants (only about 48 days) THEN he might (try to) silence them by pointing out that he owns a house in the city.
Orlando
Did cult of Mac Turned into Gawker now? Leave the guy alone…
SmithWill
This is news? No public statements have been issued by Apple. All the speculation and hype is just content pimping. I find the “bing” images to a rather subtle message. Could the author be a secret Microsoft shill? :)
Eddie
He wouldn’t buy that piece of junk to live in. The guy needed around the clock health care and easy access to his every need. It doesn’t look like it is set up for a computer user friendly environment.
He makes more then the asking price per day.
Nick Wilcox
I thought he had the transplant 3hrs away in Nashville at Vanderbilt.
Nick Wilcox
I think it was here in Memphis according to our local paper:
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2009/jun/21/sleuths-track-jobs-to-memphis/
Owen Money
Mr. Jobs in a PUBLIC figure. As such, you DO NOT get to choose when you want to be private and when you want to use your publicity for your own advantage. Sorry, it the way it works in the USA. If you don’t like, I suggest you move to another country, maybe Iran.
BRZ
Cult of Mac with pictures from Bing? Something is going on here…..
Mark
Are you people nuts?
He’s having serious health problems and all you can think about is his job?
Leave him the hell alone or he’ll pay to have someone stalk your ass when you get cancer.
ffs.
BDD
@Owen Money- well… Steve operates differently than your typical fat tabloid- consuming public moron. He could care less what YOU or any other brainless automaton thinks, runs his company in the same manner, and I applaud him for that. And it just pisses people off; BURNS their asses, in fact; that they cannot get him or Apple to “get in line” with how the rest of the country/corporations operate. GOOD.
The proof is in the pudding- Apple is up, the rest of the PC industry is down. What more proof does one need to show that the status quo no longer works?
May we have many more years of Steve and Apple pissing off the bozos.
Xavier
Buying good property is smart investment in general. Bet the apartment he sold to Bono 20 years later was valued at much more than what he originally bought it for.
http://www.collabo.com Collabo
Appraised value and market value are two different things. Looks like a nice place to have some roof-top parties :)
Orlando
Owen: Whether Steve is a public person or not has to be tested out in the Court system first. Not that he would ever wanna put that to the test, nobody would. But in the past the Courts have ruled that people who trust themselves in the spotlight can be considered public figures for libel purposes. That is the exact Opposite of how Steve conducts his private life, so if he sued he might just win.
Cult of Mac can publish whatever it likes, but I personally come here for news on the Mac, Ipod, and Apple culture in general. There’s nothing wrong with updates on his health, but PICTURES of his house and airplane logs??? That’s just creepy and sick. C’mom!! Does living in the USA negates basic human decency as well??
Will
Who cares? I certainly don’t. Give him his privacy. Find something else to post on cultofmac.com. I won’t waste another blog concerning this. He definitely needs to plan for succession. He is only a man after all.