FRIDAY September 4, 2020
Public legal notices begin on page 5
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Jay Stein’s $31 million Bel Air home Daily Record JACKSONVILLE
28 apply for JEA CEO job
The applicant pool will be narrowed by Sept. 7 with final interviews to begin in October.
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BY MIKE MENDENHALL STAFF WRITER
JACKSONVILLE
In June 2019, the Steins purchased for $31 million this 13,361-square-foot, two-story, Mediterraneanstyle mansion in Bel Air, California, built in 1931 for film producer Sol Wurtzel.
The former CEO of bankrupt Stein Mart at least partially relocated to California in 2016 and his riverfront Jacksonville home is on market. BY MAX MARBUT ASSOCIATE EDITOR
When Jay Stein decided to retire as Stein Mart Inc.’s CEO at age 70 in March 2016, the business hadn’t substantially begun its decline and COVID-19 was nearly four years from being the daily headline that would seal the national department store chain’s demise. Stein and his wife, Deanie, decided to
at least partially relocate from Jacksonville to Los Angeles. Not just any part of Los Angeles – Beverly Hills. They paid $22.5 Stein million fo r an 8,400-square-foot, six-bedroom, six-bath, single-story home on 0.77 acres in the Trousdale Estates section of Beverly Hills near the Santa Monica Mountains. It was built on the site of a home once owned by comedian Morey Amsterdam, who played Buddy Sorrell on “The Dick Van Dyke Show” from 1961-66. Amsterdam died in 1996. His heirs sold the property in 2012 to a group of investors
who demolished Amsterdam’s home and built the new home the Steins purchased. The Steins moved much of their art collection into their new home, and the Steins soon established themselves in the LA philanthropic community. According to causeiq.com, the Jay and Deanie Stein Foundation Trust donated $110,500 to the Los Angeles Philharmonic and $50,000 each to Teatro de la Opera, Camp Hess Kramer and Stephen S. Wise Temple in Los Angeles. Three years later, the Steins listed the Trousdale property for $29.5 million and looked for property in Bel Air. In June 2019, the Steins purchased for $31 million the 13,361-square-foot, two-
JEA received 28 applications in the city-owned utility’s search for its next CEO. The deadline to apply was Aug. 31. The resumes obtained by the Daily Record comprise a mix of public and utility executives, water and energy industry professionals and consultants. Local and regional applicants include Beaches Energy Services Director Allen Putnam and Gainesville Regional Utilities General Manager Edward Bielarski Jr. Other applicants include executives from Dallas-based natural gas and oil pipeline company Energy Transfer Partners, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. in California and municipal utilities in Austin, Texas, and Anchorage, Alaska. There also are leaders of small to medium-size city energy cooperatives. The JEA board hired utility industry executive search firm Mycoff Fry Partners LLC on May 26. Carl Mycoff, managing director the firm, said the initial response was typical. “There is always an eclectic mix,” he said. “There are people from all walks of life that will put SEE JEA, PAGE 2
THE APPLICANTS A list of the 28 people who applied for the JEA CEO position. Page 2.
SEE STEIN, PAGE 3
Happy Labor Day The Jacksonville Daily Record will not be published Sept. 7 for the Labor Day holiday. It will resume publication Sept. 8. VOLUME 107, NO. 206 • ONE SECTION