Yankee Candle Founder's New England Compound With Golf Course Once Priced At $23M Now Asks $14.9M

A rural New England estate once owned by the late founder of Yankee Candle is on the market for $14.9 million.

According to Mansion Global, the property in Leverett, Massachusetts, was originally listed for $23 million in 2022 but has seen its price drop several times since then.

According to listing agent Johnny Hatem Jr. of the Sarkis Team at Douglas Elliman, owner Michael Kittredge III moved out of state and is hoping the latest price reduction will attract more potential buyers.

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"Once he realized he's not using the property as much as he was before when it was his primary residence, he became more motivated," Hatem said.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Kittredge grew up on the property, which his parents bought in 1984 for $144,000. The property originally consisted of a three-bedroom home, but Kittredge's father expanded it over the next decade to create the 100-acre resort-like compound it is today.

About 60 of the 100 acres are included in the $14.9 million listing. A pair of smaller parcels are listed separately, but Hatem said Kittredge would sell the whole property "for the right buyer and the right price."

The 60-acre property includes eight structures with a total of about 120,000 square feet of living space. The main house, measuring about 30,000 square feet, has five bedrooms. The other buildings spread across the property have an additional 11 bedrooms.

"When you're walking the grounds, you never see more than one building at a time," Hatem said. "The way he created the roads was so that every turn you take, something new pops up."

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The property offers a wide range of amenities, including four tennis courts, two car barns, a nine-hole golf course, an auditorium, an arcade, a bowling alley, an outdoor pool and an indoor water park that Hatem described as one of the "coolest features."

Hatem said the property was originally designed as a family compound. Still, Kittredge is seeking approval to develop it into a residential community, potentially appealing to a developer interested in building housing on the site.

According to CNN, Yankee Candle was founded by Michael Kittredge II, who died in 2019 at age 67.

Kittredge began making candles when he was 16 years old to afford a Christmas gift for his mother. He created his first candle using melted crayons as his initial material. A neighbor saw the candle and encouraged Kittredge to sell it to her. With his money, he purchased enough wax to make two more candles – one for his mother and another to sell.

This marked the beginning of Yankee Candle, which Kittredge sold in 1998 and retired.

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