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A Sense of Belonging: Private Clubs Add to Santa Barbara’s Residential Appeal

Among the unexpected silver linings of the pandemic? The fact that the appeal of living in Santa Barbara’s South Coast has surged, and surged in a big way. An enclave like Montecito is not all that far from the urban sprawl of Los Angeles, where a pandemic-inspired exodus continues. But, as so many residents and visitors know, it is a world away. Indeed, the real estate gods – as inventory shrinks and prices balloon – are smiling.

But living in this treasured corner of the world is more than whether you can afford it, or the way it pretty much guarantees that your investment will grow. It’s about the way that it offers so much more than you thought you needed, the way it never ceases to delight and the way it manages to enhance everyday life, every day.

The private clubs that call communities like Montecito and Santa Barbara home, it can be argued, have a lot to do with that appeal. At their core, they are havens for socialization, that all-important tenet of human interaction that, as another truth revealed by the pandemic, a community both needs and craves. They also aim to elevate their members’ experience, to expand their horizons, through a bevy of innovative programs and curated experiences that range from the culinary and athletic to the creative and intellectual.

“For the majority of our clients, private clubs are definitely an amenity that they’re looking for,” says Natalie Grubb , a realtor with Village Properties’ Grubb Campbell Group, and a resident of Santa Barbara for pretty much her entire life. “We’ll ask them, ‘What do you like? Tennis? Golf? Sailing?’ And we can tell them, ‘Yes, that exists here.’

“That’s why we’ve seen such a huge influx of people wanting to move here full-time, not just part-time anymore,” she adds. “They want to be part of a community, which has always been part of living in this area. But now there’s even more than before.”

Clubs tend not to make dues and fees public. For serious prospects, though, it’s fair to say that membership is more an investment than an expense.

Up first, a spotlight on some of Santa Barbara’s top social clubs.

The Santa Barbara Club

The oldest social club in Santa Barbara is probably the oldest private hangout of its kind between L.A. and San Francisco. Founded in 1892, the Santa Barbara Club features a clubhouse that holds both state and local historic landmark status and that has hosted distinguished community members and guests for decades. 

“Our members are not trust-funders, but academics,” says club manager Linda Spann , who adds that the waiting list for membership, which is by invitation only, has grown so big that the club’s initiation fee recently went up.

There are three tiers of membership here, based on age: Regular (45+), Intermediate (31-44), and Junior (21-30). The foodie offerings have long been a calling card of the Santa Barbara Club; Chef Humberto Perez has helmed the kitchen for more than 20 years and makes everything from pastas to pastries in-house.

“We can serve more than a hundred meals on a Friday night,” adds Spann, which are served either in the elegant Dining Room or the sprawling outdoor lawn.

Members have access to various interest groups, including a Breakfast Club, an Investors Club, and a Wine Group. The Club’s Preservation Foundation allows members to make tax deductible donations to preserve the Clubhouse and other landmark buildings in town. The Club’s Art Foundation aims to support contemporary artists by featuring their work through displays and exhibits. There are dozens of reciprocal clubs across the U.S., as well as globally, in countries like England, Mexico, and Thailand. santabarbaraclub.org . 

The University Club of Santa Barbara

This has been a premier social club in the heart of Santa Barbara since 1919. Networking reigns supreme here, via an ongoing schedule of themed parties, mixers, and lectures, including large affairs during major community events like Fiesta. The club hosts various social clubs, too, like the Book Club and regular wine tastings. The property offers members free prime downtown parking, and the manicured gardens feature secluded patios and a firepit. There’s a pool table in the game room, and the club regularly puts works by local artists on exhibit. The club’s executive chef and culinary team have received high marks from discerning foodies for decades. 

The University Club is one of the few clubs in town that’s transparent about its fees. There are four membership categories, including the Junior category, for members ages 21 to 39, with a $1,500 initiation fee and $100 monthly dues. The Resident category for those living within 25 miles of the club, has a $3,000 initiation fee and monthly dues of $175. Members get access to more than 200 reciprocal clubs around the U.S. and the world. uclubsb.org .

Miramar Club

This is the members-only extension of the luxurious and elegant Rosewood Miramar Resort, offering members an oceanfront haven with myriad exclusive amenities. 

“We like to think of it as laid-back luxury,” says Hannah Rock , the hotel’s social activities director. “You are getting that five-star experience, but it’s more like a beach club than a formal private club.”

Launched in May 2019, it’s the newest social club in the area. Located next to the resort’s signature Caruso’s restaurant, the Club also enjoys a right-on-the-sand location and exclusive seasonal and regional menus crafted by the same Caruso’s team, led by executive chef Massimo Falsini . The dining room touts airy, Art-Deco décor, an extensive private wine cellar, and an adjacent wood-panel piano bar that doles out myriad signature cocktails. Members have access to top-line athletic and spa facilities, as well as personalized concierge services.

“The club offers curated events and programming on a weekly basis that focus on culinary, retail, and family events,” adds Rock.

The beach experience is exclusive, too, with private lounges and members-only food-and-beverage services. clubmiramar.com . 

Coral Casino Beach & Cabana Club

The famous private club right on Butterfly Beach is part of Ty Warner Hotels & Resorts. Built in 1937, it was purchased by Ty Warner in 2000, in conjunction with his buy of the historic Biltmore hotel across the street. Both properties, shuttered in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, remain closed.

The club’s Signature membership includes access to an elegant waterfront location, complete with a pool complex that has a heated Olympic-size swimming pool, a whirlpool and a kids’ wading pool, all surrounded by more than 200 chaise lounges and chair-side amenities that change hourly. Cabana rentals are available. The fitness center features state-of-the-art equipment, and a private gate gives members their own beach access. The sundeck on the third floor and the Living Room is for members only. Food and beverages are available at three locations, with Tydes Restaurant & Bar setting the bar for prime dining at the club. coralcasinoclub.com .  

The Club & Guest House at UC Santa Barbara

The COVID-19 pandemic is keeping this unique club closed through the rest of 2021, with most of the staff reassigned to on-campus pandemic efforts. This iconic destination club, though, which was established in 1968, remains known as the “living room” of the UCSB campus. The Guest House, which was renovated in 2014 and features ocean views, emulates a 34-room boutique hotel. Stays are reserved for visiting scholars, families of students, and those on university business, as well as members. Continental breakfast is included. The dining room features gourmet lunch service, with a focus on locally and sustainably sourced food, and it’s open to the public. The facility is governed by a Board of Directors. theclub.ucsb.edu . 

Sports and an active, outdoor lifestyle are also inspirations for some of Santa Barbara’s most sought-after clubs, most of them with an emphasis on golf, tennis, polo, swimming, and sailing.

The Santa Barbara Polo and Racquet Club

Polo pros from all over the world, including the royal variety, trot to this destination club, one of the oldest of its kind in the U.S. It features the country’s longest polo season, too, with games hosted seasonally from May through mid-October. Games are free to the general public on Fridays, while Sunday games require tickets. Polo memberships come with exclusive dibs on mid-level and upper boxes, for prime viewing.

The club also operates its own polo school, the Santa Barbara Polo Training Center.

The social membership option comes with complimentary attendance at weekend polo matches, as well as invitations to special events throughout the year. Tennis memberships, which come with access to the club’s eight courts, six of which are lit, and swim-and-fitness memberships feature use of the heated pool, jacuzzi, and fitness center, which features yoga and fitness classes. 

Dining has received new focus, with the recent opening of the Fieldside Grill, which is open to the public every Wednesday through Saturday for lunch and dinner.

“We felt that because of our members and the condos on the grounds and the community around us, establishing a full-scale restaurant would be a welcome addition,” says general manager David Sigman . “And the food is as awesome as the views.”

Folded Hills, owned by former polo pro Andy Busch , is the eatery’s wine sponsor. sbpolo.com .

The Montecito Club

One of the premier golf clubs in the area recently reopened, following the 100-year-old Spanish-style property’s three-year, $75 million renovation and subsequent COVID closure. The property is part of Ty Warner Hotels & Resorts, which means members get exclusive access and discounts at luxe sister resorts like the San Ysidro Ranch, the Four Seasons New York, and Las Ventanas al Paraiso in Los Cabos.

The par-71 Jack Nicklaus Signature Course was designed around the property’s natural undulating elevation and boasts sweeping views of the Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. There’s a bowling alley in the all-ages clubhouse known as The Hideout, as well as a 21-seat Dolby Atmos movie theater with a 16-foot CinemaScope screen and concession area. The state-of-the-art fitness facility features Peloton machines and private training. The 25,000-square-foot pool complex has two lap pools, a kids’ pool, a whirlpool, and bar service.

Members can host special events, like weddings, in the ballroom, the Great Room, with its 12 Baccarat crystal chandeliers, or the sprawling 20,000 square foot lawn. Fine dining is available in the clubhouse, which also features a library and wine rooms, and is helmed by new chef Alex Bollinger , a Montecito native whose three decades of experience includes collaborations with names like Tyler Florence and Charlie Palmer . The Signature Membership comes with full club access, while the Connoisseur Membership also includes privileges at the Coral Casino. montecitoclub1918.com .

The Valley Club of Montecito

Opened in 1929, the Valley Club features a deluxe 18-hole, par-72 golf course. Designed like an hourglass, the course, along with bunkers, have undergone extensive renovation after the 2018 mudslides. Other amenities include tennis courts and prime onsite dining. The clubhouse features a living room and inner courtyard. Elegance and privacy rank high here, as well as a strict dress code for anyone ages 12 and up. valleyclub.org .

Birnam Wood

There are more than 140 private homes inside this exclusive, gated property along East Valley Road, the oldest ones dating back to the early 1970s. Membership to the Birnam Wood Golf Club gives access to the par-70 course, which was designed by Robert Trent Jones, Sr., opened in 1968 and features Bermuda grass. The clubhouse hosts rotating members-only social events as well as daily gourmet dining options. There are six tennis courts here, too. bwgc.net . 

La Cumbre Country Club

Set on the outer edges of Hope Ranch, La Cumbre Country Club dates back to 1916. It would go on to close for 10 years after World War II, due to waning membership, but it has remained an exclusive haven ever since its reopening in 1957. The 150 shady acres feature a celebrated 18-hole golf course, with various uphill and downhill targets, as well as six championship tennis courts. The social offerings range from card games and tournaments to seasonal parties. Lunch and dinner are offered, with an emphasis on to-go menus during COVID; Sunday champagne buffets have long been popular. The club features multiple membership options. lacumbrecc.org . 

Santa Barbara Yacht Club

It’s all about preserving maritime tradition at this club, which, founded in 1872, is the second oldest yacht club on the West Coast. This is a popular spot on Wet Wednesdays, when dozens of boats take part in several races. Kite boarding draws crowds on Fridays. Food and beverage services are available, including the popular Monday Luncheon Forum, which draws members and their invited guests. Club members are also stewards of the Breakwater Flag Project, which showcases the flags of many of Santa Barbara’s nonprofit groups. Prospective members do not need to own a boat, but they do need endorsement from multiple sponsors. sbyc.org . 

Knowlwood Tennis Club

Located in the heart of Montecito, this club for tennis lovers dates back to 1970. The programs are family oriented, with a bevy of private and group lessons for kids as young as four, and they’re open to non-members, too, though at higher pricing. The club features 10 courts, including two clay courts, as well as a swimming pool. www.knowlwood.club . 

Santa Barbara Tennis Club

Open since 1971, this sports club features 12 tennis courts and various training sessions for adults and juniors. There’s an aquatics program, too, with a 25-yard regulation pool that’s kept at 82 degrees, and a 10-person jacuzzi. The fitness center features yoga and Pilates studios, and the café offers a varied menu and caters various events throughout the year. Local artist receptions are presented the second Friday of every month. “At this point, we have a pretty long waitlist for membership,” says managing partner Amber Bottelsen . santabarbaratennisclub.com . 

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Ty Warner Mansion, Ventanas Al Paraiso Los Cabos

• July 26, 2020

The #1 most outrageous Villa in Los Cabos is the Ty Warner Mansion at Rosewood’s Las Ventanas al Paraíso.Come explore the inside of the Ty Warner Mansion where we show

Los Cabos is home to some of the most amazing high-end resorts and private villas in the world. The expansion of this category continues with many prominent brands jumping into the fray with the New Auberge at Chileno Bay Resort & Residences, The Montage at Santa Maria Bay, Zadun a Ritz Carlton Reserve, Four Seasons at Costa Palmas, The Waldorf Astoria at the Pedregal and the soon to open Amanvari and the new Four Seasons at the Cove Club. But none can compare to the Ty Warner Mansion at Rosewood’s Las Ventanas al Paraíso.

The Ty Warner Mansion is the ultimate hideaway at Latin America’s most lauded resort. The exclusive beachfront mansion is poised directly on the water’s edge with panoramic views over the Sea of Cortez.  Encompassing 28,000 square feet the exceptionally private sanctuary was created by the renowned architect Jorge Torres with interiors by Robert Couturier. Upon arriving at the living wall entry you are swept up in the exceptional lushness and modern styling as you stroll thru the high ceiling foyer with a view to the roof pool. The bright blueness of Sea of Cortez is prominent in every nook.

As huge as this mansion is there are only two twin master suites. This assures the four lucky guests will be personally pampered. The dual oceanfront master suites feature 20’ high ceilings, Indian Silk Sari upholstery, and 30’ wide sliding glass doors opening directly onto the expansive pool deck. The wrap-around infinity pool creates seamless indoor-outdoor living complete with dual spas and a sunken in pool living room.

The Hacienda style kitchen with in house private chef features a custom wood-burning pizza oven and antique Talavera tiles. The tequila library is fully stocked with rare and aged spirits, furnished with carved wooden pieces and silk sari. The cinema room has a 14’ widescreen with surround sound along with an arcade. The game room sets the stage for a relaxed evening gathering.

Top of the Waves terrace is awaiting from the private elevator with an expansive 9,000 sq ft rooftop resort above the villa. Featuring sundeck, glass-bottom lap pool, clear sided whirlpool spa, inlaid Indian bed, nicely stocked bar, pool table, and a massage pavilion.

Mansion guests enjoy the services of a round-the-clock dedicated team, including a personal assistant and butler, with extensive training in many areas, from language and culinary arts to housekeeping. Throughout a guest’s stay, the butler remains discreetly on hand to orchestrate the most personalized, private, and luxurious experiences possible as well as to manage the full staff dedicated solely to the Mansion.

You get all of this and more for a cool $35,000 per day plus tax and resort fees. This video is brought to you by CabosFinest your insider’s guide to Los Cabos. Be sure to click subscribe on our YouTube channel, Facebook page, and please subscribe to our website. Thank you for watching it.

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NYC Four Seasons to reopen in September — ending 4-year battle for ‘Beanie Babies’ tycoon Ty Warner

T he long-shuttered Four Seasons Hotel in New York will finally reopen in September after an epic, four-year battle with reclusive billionaire Beanie Babies tycoon Ty Warner – with the impasse likely broken by converting some rooms into residential units, The Post has learned.

A source with knowledge of the negotiations told The Post that up to 50 of the 368 rooms at the iconic property at 57 E. 57th St. – once known as the most expensive hotel in New York City – will be sold off as apartments.

The new units “would stabilize the operating costs with full-time residents paying hefty maintenance fees,” the source said.  

It’s not clear whether the famous Ty Warner Penthouse on the 52nd floor – which has 360-degree views of the city, four balconies and costs $50,000 a night when it was rented out – will be put up for sale.

Reps for Warner and the Four Seasons did not comment.

The hotel has been closed since the start of the pandemic in March 2020 and has been undergoing renovations for the past few years, according to its website, but there was little evidence that substantial work was going on, according to sources close to the property.

It remained shut long after the Big Apple reopened as the Toronto-based hotel management company and Ty Warner Hotels & Resorts remained locked in fierce negotiations and protracted arbitration proceedings over fees and operating costs, sources told The Post.

Those privy to the heated talks said Warner was outraged by the fees Four Seasons assessed to maintain a high level of service. Warner — who bought the prime property for $275 million in 1999, six years after it first opened — argued that his fees should be tied to the hotel’s profitability.

Last week, however, Four Seasons quietly announced on its web site that it had  “completed agreements” with plans to reopen the property in September 2024.

Warner and Four Seasons also apparently buried the hatchet over a sister property, the Biltmore Santa Barbara – that had been closed since the pandemic. The agreement calls for that hotel to reopen in the Spring of 2025, according to the four-sentence press release .

“For more than three decades, both iconic properties have hosted discerning travelers and locals alike, and Ty Warner’s team and Four Seasons look forward to welcoming guests back to these celebrated properties.”

A tentative agreement reached last year to reopen the hotel fell apart as the powerful hotel union — the New York Hotel and Gaming Trades Council — joined the complicated web of talks, as The Post reported exclusively .

The union wanted furloughed workers to regain their jobs at the prestigious hotel, even if some of them had landed positions elsewhere.

“At this point, only an agreement with the union is still required to open Four Seasons New York, which I’m optimistic will be coming soon,” Warner, the founder of Beanie Babies, told The Post in an interview last August .

Union reps did not return calls for comment.

The reclusive Chicago billionaire built an empire on stuffed toys—and now he’s narrowly escaped a prison sentence.

F or an intensely private billionaire, one who had spent much of his adult life behind an impenetrable wall of plush, January 14 had to have been as agonizing as a bolt-up-in-bed naked-in-the-classroom night terror.

Yet, with no choice left him, there he stood, like a circus curiosity on full display, in the harsh fluorescence of a packed 23rd-floor courtroom in the Everett M. Dirksen U.S. Courthouse, the media and onlookers straining for a glimpse at the entrepreneur who has been called Chicago’s Howard Hughes. For a 69-year-old, he had oddly taut skin. His eyes darted behind rose-colored lenses set in tortoise frames. He rubbed his upper lip nervously. His hands fumbled with a set of headphones provided to help him better hear the arguments on which rested the potential for an even more unthinkable indignity: prison. “He looks like he should be in a wax museum,” someone whispered.

When U.S. District Court judge Charles P. Kocoras swept into the room, the man rose. He rose again when a name pierced the silence of the hushed room: H. Ty Warner.

The mastermind behind Beanie Babies—still considered the most successful toy launch in U.S. history—is among the richest people in America, and one of the most secretive. But on this day, Warner had nowhere to hide. As he walked to a court lectern in an impeccably tailored dark suit, his ginger-colored hair flaring copper under the stark lights, he looked as tentative as a modern-day Willy Wonka clomping across the plaza of his ruined reclusiveness. “I never realized that the biggest mistake I ever made in life would cost me the respect of those most important to me,” he told Kocoras, his voice a murmur.

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A few months earlier, in federal criminal court, Warner had wept as he pleaded guilty to that most clichéd of rich-people crimes: stashing millions (by the time he was caught, more than $100 million) in a Swiss bank account and lying about it to the Internal Revenue Service. “This is a crime committed not out of necessity, but greed,” argued federal prosecutors in a sentencing memo to the judge.

But once Kocoras began to speak, it became clear that Warner wouldn’t spend one day behind bars for tax evasion. The judge all but produced a sword, asked the toy man to kneel, and tapped him on each shoulder. “Mr. Warner’s private acts of kindness, generosity, and benevolence are overwhelming,” Kocoras said after reading aloud letters from Warner’s supporters.

He further lauded Warner for already paying a civil penalty of $53 million (which amounts to just 2 percent of the billionaire’s estimated net worth), plus back taxes. “I believe . . . with all my heart, society will be best served by allowing him to continue his good works,” the judge concluded. In lieu of the four-year-plus prison term recommended by federal guidelines, Kocoras sentenced Warner to two years of probation, 500 hours of community service, and a $100,000 fine.

A few weeks later, the prosecution team, led by the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, Zach Fardon, filed a notice of appeal for a new sentencing hearing. (At presstime, Fardon’s office was still awaiting approval from the Department of Justice.) But reversing the sentence of a federal judge is a long shot, so the mysterious man behind Banjo the Dog and Buzzie the Bee is likely to triumph.

If Warner was gloating on January 14, however, you couldn’t tell. At hearing’s end, he thanked his lawyers, caught an elevator downstairs, and, without a word, ducked through a cold rain into a waiting limousine.

Warner’s success at dodging the public eye for decades is quite an accomplishment for someone Forbes routinely lists as one of the world’s wealthiest people. (This year he ranks 663rd, with $2.6 billion; court documents filed by Warner’s lawyers say that his net worth is only $1.7 billion.) To date, Warner has granted only one in-depth interview that I could find: in 1999, to People magazine. Not surprisingly, he declined my interview requests through his publicist. (Prosecutors also declined to comment, citing the pending appeal.)

The more I pored through court documents and spoke with those I could persuade to talk—including former classmates and coworkers, plus a rare interview with the daughter of Warner’s former girlfriend (a young woman whose family lived with the billionaire as the Beanie Baby craze was taking off)—the more the mystique of this never-married college dropout unraveled. Warner began to seem like the great and powerful Wizard of Oz: mysterious until a dog named Toto—a pet that might have made for a great Beanie Baby—yanked a curtain with his jaws and revealed the lonely person behind it.

In a memo to the court pleading leniency, Warner’s lawyers paint a classic Horatio Alger up-by-the-bootstraps picture. “Ty emerged from an unhappy family and a youth devoid of educational advantages to become a self-made American success story,” the memo says. Warner’s “humble” beginnings were described as days of little money and parental indifference that were almost Dickensian.

But the house in which H. Ty Warner grew up with his parents, Harold “Hal” and Georgia, and his much younger sister, Joyce, is no hovel. It’s a lovely two-story Prairie-style home designed in the late 1800s by Frank Lloyd Wright. (The real-estate website Trulia currently values it at more than $600,000.) Known as the Peter Goan House, it is in La Grange, ranked in Chicago’ s April issue as one of the five best places to live in suburban Cook County.

In the People story, Warner told correspondent Joni Blackman that his father was a jeweler, omitting the fact that for the bulk of his career Hal was a toy salesman. (Joyce, 57, who lives in Washington State, declined to comment for this story.)

From kindergarten to the age of 13, Warner attended the historic Cossitt Avenue Elementary School; at 14, he entered Lyons Township High. After just three terms there, his parents packed him off to boarding school at St. John’s Northwestern Military Academy in Delafield, Wisconsin.

It’s unclear why he was sent away, says the writer Zac Bissonnette, who is finishing a book about the Beanie phenomenon scheduled to be published this fall. Apparently, Warner was neither unruly nor in need of discipline. In the People interview, Warner told Blackman that at the academy he played baseball, football, and basketball and became a member of the Stars and Circles, a school honor society. A photo from his student days shows a handsome dark-haired teen in a pristine military tunic, gazing off into the distance. (On Warner’s instruction, the school would not release information about his time there.)

Graduating from St. John’s in 1962, Warner entered Kalamazoo College in Michigan that fall. There he studied drama, winning the lead role of Creon in the student production of Antigone Succeeds! in his freshman year. “He is to be praised for his near and sometimes completely successful acting,” wrote a reviewer in The Kalamazoo College Index. (One criticism: “His voice was a bit tiring.”)

“He just loved commanding the stage,” recalls classmate Amy Hale, now a retired executive in Virginia. “He was very dramatic, with very broad gestures. One friend said she thought he continued to wear makeup for days afterwards, he loved the theatre so much.”

At the end of his freshman year, Warner dropped out of Kalamazoo—forced to, according to the leniency memo filed by his lawyers, “because he could no longer afford tuition . . . [and had] no family support.” True? Who knows. But rather than seek loans or a part-time job, he left for Hollywood to try his luck at acting. He had to hustle to make ends meet, busing tables, parking cars, and selling cameras and encyclopedias door to door.

After five years, with no big breaks in sight, Warner returned to Chicago. Despite his lawyers’ insistence that he received no parental help, some digging reveals that Hal Warner actually set his son on the path to riches by giving him a job with his own employer, the San Francisco–based Dakin Toy Company. To be precise, Hal “gave Ty a job as a ‘sub rep’ [representative] in Ohio,” recalls Harold Nizamian, Dakin’s CEO at the time.

Nizamian says that the “very personable” Hal had a rather distant relationship with his son. “I had the feeling that it was hard for them to communicate,” says Warner’s former boss, who now lives in Palo Alto, California.

The fate of Warner’s mother, Georgia, sheds some light on that distance. She suffered from untreated mental illness for years, and in 1971 Hal and Georgia divorced. Later that decade, at Elgin Mental Hospital, she would be diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic. From court filings, it’s clear that Warner blamed his father for not taking a more active role in her care.

Whatever problems the family may have had did not hurt Warner’s job performance. Nizamian says that he was a “darn good salesman” who earned six figures. On calls, he reportedly pulled up in a white Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow and stepped out in a fur coat and top hat, carrying a cane. “I figured if I was eccentric looking in Indiana, people would think, What is he selling? Let’s look in his case,” Warner told Blackman in 1996. “Then it was easy to sell.”

In the office, recalls Virginia Kemp, a former Dakin designer who now owns a small gift shop in Pacifica, California, “he would talk to all the young pretty girls.” But his flamboyance wore thin. “He wasn’t particularly well liked,” she told me. “He thought a lot of himself, let’s put it that way. Ego. Very much so.”

Part of that ego, she says, manifested in a sense of mystique he seemed determined to cultivate. As she told Blackman, “I think he likes the public to feel he’s like Howard Hughes, because it makes people want to know more about him.”

In 1980, after Warner had been at Dakin for about ten years, his career there came to an ignominious end. Nizamian recalls getting a phone call from one of the company’s customers saying, “What’s going on? Ty’s [selling] some plush of his own, and he’s still selling your line.” Nizamian says the company “got an investigator, and it proved correct. My sales manager fired him on the spot.”

Rather than immediately plunging into business himself, Warner packed his things and flew to a village near Sorrento, Italy, to visit friends. He wound up staying three years. “Everyone knows each other,” he told Blackman. “They have a three-hour lunch, swim, lie in the sun. It’s a very enjoyable lifestyle.”

It also proved pivotal. In Italy, he came across a line of plush cat toys unlike anything he’d seen in the United States. “I decided to come back and do something that no one has done,” he told Blackman. “Make a good cat.”

Once again, his father played a key role that Warner never mentions. In May 1983, while playing tennis, 81-year-old Hal collapsed and died from a heart attack. A substantial bequest from his father, combined with cash from a mortgage on his Hinsdale condo and his own savings from his time at Dakin, enabled Warner to launch Ty Inc. out of his home in 1986.

Warner produced his company’s first toy cats in Korea and gave them whimsical names such as Smokey, Ginger, and Peaches. At an Atlanta toy fair, he rented a table from another wholesaler and sold $30,000 worth of the cats in one hour. “I knew I had a winner,” he told Blackman.

But cute names didn’t make the toys a success. It was a genius production decision: understuff the animals with tiny PVC pellets. “At first everyone told me I was cheap,” he said to Blackman. “They didn’t get it. The whole idea was it looked real because it moved.”

Around this time, the still-unmarried Warner traded up from his Hinsdale condo to an all-white contemporary 4,500-square-foot split-level in the Oak Brook subdivision of Ginger Creek. During renovations, he brought in a divorced 35-year-old lighting designer named Faith McGowan. In the first and only interview she has granted about Warner, McGowan’s daughter Lauren Boldebuck says her mother “didn’t really like [Warner] at first.”

But Warner eventually won her over, adds Boldebuck, 31, a naturopathic doctor in Lombard. (McGowan’s other daughter, Jenna, did not return calls.) In 1993, McGowan and her elementary-age daughters wound up moving into Warner’s Oak Brook house. “Ty was very much a part of our lives,” says Boldebuck. “We really thought of him as a dad.”

Later that year, Warner introduced the first Beanie Babies—palm-size versions of his original full-size plush animals—at the World Toy Fair in New York City. He set the price at $5, another stroke of genius. “At that time, there wasn’t anything in the $5 range that I wouldn’t consider real garbage,” Warner has said.

The toys easily supplanted other fads such as Ninja Turtles and Cabbage Patch dolls partly because of Warner’s strategy of deliberate scarcity. He rolled out each one—Spot the Dog, Squealer the Pig—in a limited quantity and then retired it. That, Forbes observed, “pumps up word-of-mouth demand to a frenzied level.”

“At the height, they were shipping more than 15,000 orders per day to retailers,” says Bissonnette, the author. “It just never seemed as ubiquitous, because he was limiting each store to 36 of a style. That’s actually why they were able to work as a collectible: People just had no idea how many of them he was shipping.”

It also created a huge secondary market on eBay, feeding the frenzy still more. Suddenly a $5 Chocolate the Moose was selling for four figures. In Oak Brook, it wasn’t uncommon to see 100 mothers and their kids lined up in front of Galt Toys for the new shipments.

Three years into the Beanie craze, Warner boarded a plane bound for Zurich, where he would make the biggest mistake of his life. In 1996, at UBS, one of Switzerland’s largest banks, he opened a secret account invisible to the IRS. The exact amount he deposited is unknown, but by 2002 it had grown to $93 million. To keep the account’s existence from prying eyes, including those of his own accountants, he signed a “hold mail” form that instructed the bank not to send any mail related to the account to the United States and to destroy any documents in his file when they became five years old.

The money Warner stashed in Switzerland remained there, compounding tax-free, for the next dozen years. And each time Warner got to the part on his tax return that asks if the taxpayer has any foreign accounts, he checked the box that said no.

As his net worth skyrocketed over the next few years, thanks to his 100 percent ownership of Ty Inc., Warner couldn’t help bragging about his success. In 1998, experts questioned his claim to be the world’s top toy seller. (Unlike public companies, private companies are not obliged to release revenue figures.) Miffed, Warner took out a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journa l stating that his company had $700 million in profits in 1997. If true, that would have made it more profitable than his two top competitors at the time, Hasbro and Mattel, which reported $560 million in combined profits that year.

By this time, Warner’s mystique was firmly established. He refused interviews. He refused to put Ty Inc.’s name on its Westmont headquarters. He made it extremely difficult for anyone to reach the company by phone, even customers. He maintained such a low profile that Forbes initially left him off its 1998 list of wealthiest Americans. (He debuted on the list in 1999 with an estimated net worth of $4 billion.)

Then, when it looked as if the Beanie fervor might be waning, Warner seemingly pulled the rug from under his own company. At the end of 1999, a news flash (the typical way a line’s retirement was announced) snapped on the Ty Inc. website, terse and cryptic: “All beanies will be retired.”

Hysteria seized the toy industry. “Internet chat rooms went crazy,” The New York Times reported. Some smelled a publicity stunt.

Sure enough, another news flash appeared on the site three months later, on Christmas Eve. “After much thought, I am willing to put the fate of Beanie Babies in your hands,’’ Warner wrote, asking the world to vote on whether he should bring back the Beanies. Not surprisingly, collectors voted overwhelmingly to keep them going.

Great wealth seemed to change Warner, and around 2001 he and Faith McGowan broke up, says Boldebuck. He became distant, had less time for the girls, and didn’t seem to care for the fact that they didn’t “kiss up” to the billionaire the way everyone else did. What’s more, McGowan grew to resent that she had been an active participant in Ty Inc.’s rise yet was not a paid employee.

Her daughter says that after the breakup, Warner gave McGowan a lump sum for an undisclosed amount. The girls got nothing. “No tuition help, nothing,” says Boldebuck, who nonetheless insists she has no hard feelings toward Warner. Apparently, however, the two stayed in touch. When McGowan died last June, Warner attended the funeral.

After bringing the Beanies back from retirement, Warner began to do what any smart businessman would: diversify. In his case, that meant real estate. For his first big splurge, in 1999, he plunked down a cool $275 million for the six-year-old Four Seasons Hotel New York. The crown jewel—and his personal pet project—was a lavish $41,000-a-night penthouse with 360-degree views of Manhattan that he outfitted with fabrics woven with platinum and gold and equipped with the services of a personal butler, personal trainer, and private chauffeur.

The next year, for an undisclosed sum estimated to be as high as $200 million, Warner bought a five-parcel getaway compound in Montecito, a palatial estate dominated by an Italianate mansion. (One California real-estate website says the property is currently assessed at $160 million.) He continued to round out his portfolio through much of the early to mid-2000s, adding the nearby Montecito Country Club, the San Ysidro Ranch, and the Four Seasons resort hotel in Santa Barbara, among other high-profile properties.

The splurge turned out to be shrewd. In 2002, his estimated net worth ballooned to a staggering $6 billion, Forbes estimated, placing him at No. 65 on its annual list. By then, he’d also introduced Teenie Beanie Boppers (launched by McDonald’s as part of its 25th anniversary celebration for the Happy Meal), Punkies, Pluffies, and Beanie Buddies.

As with any fad, however, the inevitable crash came. While Ty Inc. has never disclosed sales figures, by the mid-2000s it became clear that demand was tapering. As the sole owner of the company, Warner saw his estimated net worth begin to drop as well, from its $6 billion high to $3.2 billion in 2009, according to Forbes. At the same time, thousands of investors suffered big losses as the secondary market began to plummet, says Beanies expert Leon Schlossberg, who runs the website Ty Collector. “There were just too many of them,” says Schlossberg. “He oversold the market.”

As the craze receded, so did Warner, vanishing ever further from the public eye.

Still, year by year, Warner continued to maintain his secret account, reporting neither the income he earned on the stashed funds nor their existence. In 2002, in fact, he transferred what was then more than $93 million in funds to a different Swiss bank, Zürcher Kantonalbank, and had them listed under the name of a shell organization: the Molani Foundation. The move was prompted by rumors that the IRS was pressuring Warner’s original bank, UBS, to expose some of its suspect clients, according to prosecutors. As he had with UBS, Warner ordered his new bank not to discuss his account with anyone in any way. “Non-compliance will have consequences,” a letter bearing his signature threatened darkly, court documents revealed.

But in 2008, tired of wealthy Americans parking vast fortunes in secret overseas bank accounts, the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission launched a crackdown*. The initial target was UBS. Among the first to fall was one of its bankers, Bradley Birkenfeld, who was indicted for helping a U.S. customer evade taxes.

A year later, the bank agreed to secretly provide a list of 285 U.S. clients with undeclared accounts. According to prosecutors, that list included Warner’s name. Now known to the government as a tax scofflaw, he was blocked from joining an amnesty program started around this time that spared thousands of others from criminal prosecution.

In 2009, major newspapers reported that a fellow toy manufacturer, Jeffrey Chernick, had pleaded guilty to hiding funds in a UBS account and was headed to prison. That was bad news for Warner. The two men, as it turned out, shared the same banker at UBS, a man named Hansruedi Schumacher.

Later that year, Schumacher himself was indicted on conspiracy charges. (At presstime, he was a fugitive.) Meanwhile, Warner, not knowing he was on the government’s list, tried to enter the amnesty program, only to be denied.

One morning last October, Warner stepped out of a car at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse downtown, rushed past the media gathered for a rare glimpse of him, and swept into an elevator bound for the courtroom of Judge Kocoras.

With his attorney, Gregory Scandaglia (pronounced scan-DAY-leeah), at his side and a packed courtroom looking on, he answered the judge’s boilerplate questions patiently, one after another. Yes, he admitted, he had opened the Swiss bank account in secret. Yes, he had lied about its existence on his tax forms for a dozen years. Yes, by 2008, he had amassed more than $107 million in the account.

When it came time to recite his crime, his voice thickened. “I opened up a foreign bank account in Switzerland about 20 years ago,” he said, sounding like a child forced to confess that, yes, he had driven the family car without permission. “I didn’t tell my accountants. I didn’t tell the government. I didn’t tell anyone.

“There is no excuse for these actions,” Warner said, beginning to sob. “I made a mistake. I am fully responsible. I am pleading guilty because I am guilty.”

In the days after, neither the media nor the public offered much sympathy. “What a cry baby!” smirked Britain’s Daily Mail.

The blowback spread when Warner escaped prison time, especially in light of his defense team’s suggestion that his difficult childhood may have played a role in the crime. “So an unhappy childhood is a valid defense for a rich asshole?” one commenter fumed on the local website Chicagoist. “Why isn’t it a valid defense for others who aren’t billionaires?”

Even Warner’s old boss at Dakin was appalled. “It’s the usual justice in favor of celebrities,” Harold Nizamian told me. “You have money, you buy yourself out of anything.”

Not surprisingly, Scandaglia scoffs at the idea that Warner bought his way out of jail. Instead, he paints his client as someone whose generosity far outweighs a dumb mistake. At the sentencing, the judge clearly agreed, reading verbatim from some 70 letters of support written by beneficiaries of the billionaire’s largess.

“Over the last 13 years, Warner and Ty have donated to the Children’s Hunger Fund more than 11 million plush toys that have been distributed to children in need all over the world,” said the organization’s president.

From the Andre Agassi Foundation, which predominately serves at-risk youth in Las Vegas, came a letter praising a $6 million donation. “Mr. Warner’s gift remains in the top ten most generous the Foundation has received to date,” said a letter signed by the organization’s chief executives.

The letters prove, Scandaglia argues, that his client does not merely write checks but invests himself deeply in causes he chooses to support. For example, though the billionaire could just as well supervise from Chicago, he has scheduled a trip to China to personally oversee production of a Leo the Lion mascot for Leo Catholic High School in Auburn-Gresham, one of three local schools Warner must assist in order to meet his community service requirement.

Prosecutors portray his charity in a different light, saying in court documents that Warner’s giving—barely more than 1 percent of his net worth—is “hardly exceptional” and often comes in the form of boxes of plush toys. More to the point, they argue in the sentencing memo, “charity is not a get-out-of jail card.”

But unless something unusual happens with the appeal, Warner will have gotten just that, escaping prison time and paying relatively minimal fines. Meanwhile, he continues to push new lines of plush, including a family of toys called Beanie Boos. Introduced in 2008, the tinier, doe-eyed versions of the palm-size Beanies have been marketed in almost exactly the same way as the originals. But it’s unlikely that lightning will strike again, says Leon Schlossberg. “Unfortunately for Ty, the old Beanie Baby collectors remember the sobering experience of declining values,” he says. “They aren’t likely to repeat that experience with the Boos.”

Then again, Warner has been underestimated before.

At the end of a winding driveway in suburban Westmont, past a row of low-slung, nondescript industrial offices, rises an unmarked building of blue-green curving glass. There is no visible address or mailbox. Only a “No Trespassing” sign guards the driveway.

These are the headquarters of Ty Inc.

For a moment, I consider pulling a Michael Moore–like stunt, swinging into the drive and then striding up to the front desk, demanding to see Warner. He is in town, I understand. As I continue to drive by, I notice smaller warning signs every couple hundred feet, like sentries silently warding off intruders. And then I remember what somebody told me, someone who has seen the inside, that there’s a different reality behind the Oz-like façade. When the glass curtain is pulled back, it is really just an office.

*Correction 4/23/14:  This story incorrectly stated that a crackdown on offshore tax-avoidance schemes began under the Obama administration. The crackdown began while George W. Bush was still in office.

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The Story of Ty Warner, the salesman who made a billion dollars selling stuffed toys

March 21, 2022

The name Ty Warner may be familiar to anyone who grew up in the 90s, as it's the name that graced the tag of every Beanie Baby they ever snuggled with (or placed on their shelf to gather value). It may also be familiar to anyone who was alive in 2014, when he pled guilty to stashing over $100 million in a Swiss Bank account, though (as expected), he spent zero time in jail. ‍

At his trial, Warner’s lawyer insisted that he is a completely self-made man, but that’s not exactly the full story. Warner secured a job as a salesman at the toy seller Dakin through his father, who also worked there at the time. Warner was a natural salesman (it probably helped that he studied drama in college), making six figures in his first year. He reportedly drove a Rolls Royce to all of his sales calls, sporting a fur coat and top hat, while carrying a cane. “I figured if I was eccentric looking in Indiana, people would think, What is he selling? Let’s look in his case,” Warner told People Magazine correspondent Joni Blackman in 1996. “Then it was easy to sell.”  ‍

Warner cultivated a mysterious persona that made people want to know more about him–those who worked with him said it was born of his overinflated ego, but it seemed to work.  ‍

Warner’s career at Dakin came to an unceremonious end when he started selling his own toys to customers. For this, he was immediately fired. In response, he jetted off to Italy for a few years, where, fatefully, he saw a plush toy cat that piqued his interest. He decided he wanted to make his own toy cat–a lifelike one.  ‍

Warner came back to the states and launched Ty Inc. in 1986, thanks to a generous bequest from his father, who had passed away three years prior. He started making toy cats that, due to being stuffed with PVC pellets, looked exceedingly lifelike. When he carried the toy under his arm in public, people thought he had a real cat. In 1993, he released the first set of nine beanie babies. He priced them at $5 a piece, seemingly a play on the “why not, it’s so cheap” mentality. ‍

The lifelike quality of the toys was Warner’s first stroke of genius. The second was creating deliberate scarcity (he was, after all, a salesman) by selling each type of animal for a short period of time, usually only about six months. Additionally, Warner would only allow each store to have 36 of each animal, creating a frenzy around snagging the last one at your neighborhood toy shop. The rise of eBay created a second market for the toys, where $5 Beanie Babies were suddenly pulling in five figures. In 1997, eBay sold over $500 million worth of Beanie Babies, accounting for 6% of their total sales. People even started creating counterfeits.  ‍

The deliberate scarcity tactics combined with the collectible nature of the toy made Beanie Babies even more desirable. By now they were less of a toy for kids and more of a collector’s item for adults. By 1998, Ty Inc brought in $1.4 billion. And how did Ty celebrate? By creating a limited edition Beanie Baby for his employees, of course. A USA Weekend poll estimated that at least 64% of Americans had at least one Beanie Baby in their house.  ‍

By 1999, Warner made the Forbes 400, and his net worth was estimated to be $5 billion. But the market for his toys was waning, as new crazes like Furbies and Pokemon captured kids’ attention.  So he decided to pull one last stunt and tease the retirement of the entire Beanie Baby collection on Millennium Eve. But this time, the public was skeptical, and the move didn’t inflate values on the secondary market. As sales declined by more than 90% in the early 2000s, Warner was forced to infuse the company with his own cash.  ‍

Leon Schlossberg, who is determined to open the first Beanie Baby museum with his daughter Sandra, speculates that it wasn’t Beanie Babies themselves that lost popularity, but the traders who lost mojo. “The speculative craze just bottomed out and crashed,” Schlossberg told Business Insider. “We’ve coined a new phrase: it’s the rise and fall of the Beanie Gamblers.” ‍

Although Beanie Babies have begun to recede into the collective memory of America, there are still some schoolchildren who are receiving the toys as thoughtful gifts–the Chicago schools that Ty Warner has been mandated to assist as part of his court-mandated community service. Once a brilliant salesman, Ty Warner is now forever enshrined in business and pop-culture history. 

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TY Warner Mansion – Probably The Most Luxurious Holiday Home in Mexico

Rosewood Hotels and Resorts launch their stunning 28,000 sq ft Ty Warner Mansion, treating guests to a personal chef and butler, a glass-bottom swimming pool and a Tequila library, plus more

The newly-launched TY Warner Mansion looks set to become known as the most luxurious villa in Mexico, tucked away on the water’s edge with panoramic views of the Sea of Cortez.

This highly exclusive resort is the latest addition to the Rosewood collection – a unique and ultra-luxurious set of residential-style hotels.

Guests of the mansion, based in Los Cabos, will be treated to a range of superior services which go far beyond expectations. Such services include a round-the-clock personal assistant and butler, a dedicated private chef preparing every meal, an on demand chauffeured car service and a fireworks display on request.

Renowned architect Jorge Torres and interior designer Robert Couturier worked to create a property that’s not only immense in size (at 28,000sq ft) but also astounding when it comes to amenities and décor.

Set on the beachfront, the mansion’s large roof terrace boasts a glass-bottom pool, glass-sided whirlpool spa, inlaid Indian bed, putting green, private bar, custom pool table and massage pavilion – all accessible via the private elevator.

On the lower level, 40 ft wide glass doors reveal a breathtaking beachfront infinity pool complete with two spas.

The two ocean-view master bedroom suites benefit from sky-high ceilings, Indian silk sari upholstery and sliding glass doors that open up to the stunning pool deck.

Entertainment spaces include a cosy cinema room, a games room, several fine dining areas and in the true Mexican spirit; a Tequila library filled with rare and vintage labels.

The mansion is owned by billionaire toy manufacturer and businessman Ty Warner .

TY Warner Mansion – Where and How

TY Warner Mansion is located in the Baja Peninsula in Los Cabos, Las Ventanas al Paraíso. For information or to make a booking, contact [email protected] .

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A spectacular hideaway in the famous Mexican resort of Los Cabos, the Ty Warner Mansion offers a truly luxurious escape on its secluded stretch of white sandy beach.

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Recently opened in the Summer of 2016, the Ty Warner Mansion is a contemporary property in a prime beachfront position in Los Cabos. Where the Sea of Cortez meets deserts and mountains, the dramatic beauty of Los Cabos has drawn visitors from far and wide; now guests at the Ty Warner Mansion can have their own peace of this paradise, with panoramic ocean views and near constant sunshine year-round.

An expansive property of 28,000 sq foot, with a further 7000 sq feet of outdoor space, the Ty Warner Mansion has more than enough room for its guests to relax and enjoy a little privacy. The Mexican vacation property sleeps four guests across two master suites (equipped with wood burning fireplaces and luxury furnishings), with living and dining spaces, a tequila library, a cinema room, games room, roof terrace and stunning infinity pool looking out onto the ocean. Designed by architect Jorge Torres with interiors by Robert Couturier, the property is simple and elegant in design, featuring Mexican-made furnishings and subtle influences throughout.

For guests venturing away from the infinity pool, there are plenty of activities in the nearby area, from using the resort golf course and fitness facilities, to water sports, horseback riding and cookery lessons.

Whether you are looking for a quiet getaway on the beach or to explore the sights of the local area, the Ty Warner Mansion is a truly magical retreat in Mexico’s beautiful Los Cabos.

Exclusive Benefits

USD 100 equivalent Spa Services credit to be utilized during stay Early check-in/late check-out, subject to availability

Amenities & Services

Butler service Two villa hosts Chauffeured car service for the length of stay Mansion manager Dedicated private chef to expertly prepare all meals Large selection of exclusive wine, champagne and tequila from the Mansion’s private cellar Signature Mansion Massage for each guest Fireworks display on request Access to resort spa and fitness facilities Access to resort golf course Access to resort tennis courts Yacht chartering available at additional cost

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Inside the rise and fall of the Beanie Babies billionaire: How Ty Warner went from college dropout to toy-maker extraordinaire behind 90s collectable craze before his secret Swiss account left him a disgraced tax fraud

• Ty Warner introduced Beanie Babies to the world at a toy trade fair in 1993 
• His pretax salary hit $700 million, with over $1.3 billion in sales in 1998
• But in 2007, he admitted evading tax saying he felt 'shame and embarrassment'

By Fiona Connor, Senior Reporter For Dailmail.Com

Published: 14:08 EDT, 19 August 2023 | Updated: 13:43 EDT, 22 August 2023

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He's the billionaire behind Beanie Babies, the plush soft toys that triggered a whirlwind craze throughout America - and the world. 

But Ty Warner, who made a fortune from the collectables, was once an unlikely business icon, dropping out of college and failing to qualify for the Army.

He took odd jobs as a young man, working as a busboy, bellboy and even an encyclopedia salesman before he landed at toymaker Dakin.

It was there he started secretly making his own line of products, beanbag-like animals, distinct from the traditional, rigid stuffed toys that filled shelves at the time.

After he was fired, he started producing Beanie Babies and masterminded an ingenious marketing strategy by making the toys scarce - creating limited editions and restricting how many could be sold in stores.

Business boomed and Beanie Babies captured the zeitgeist of the 1990s.

But the dizzying rise precipitated a fall from grace, as Warner's greed ultimately led him to stash millions in Swiss bank accounts and he was ordered to pay back more than $53 million. 

Ty Warner in a rare appearance to celebrate the 10th anniversary

Characters, such as the special commemorative Princess Diana (pictured), became highly-sought after and could be resold for more than their original price

Warner's success enabled him to purchase a sprawling 6.58-acre Montecito estate off Butterfly Beach 

Born in Chicago in 1944, Warner had a tough upbringing in an unhappy family, claiming later in life to have been 'a youth devoid of educational advantages'. 

He was packed off to military school aged 15 and then began college at Kalamazoo in 1962 but was forced to leave because he couldn't afford his tuition. 

Attempts to enroll in the military were unsuccessful after being deemed unfit to serve due to hearing loss. 

Warner's mother was diagnosed as a paranoid-schizophrenic, and he helped take care of her.

To make ends meet, he worked random odd jobs, including as a busboy, bellboy, and encyclopedia salesman.

His job with toy-maker Dakin was his first up-close look inside a company that produced stuffed animals and figurines. 

The enterprise was the market leader at the time, selling almost 70 million toys a year. 

Warner was the best person they had at getting their products out the door, but he wanted a bigger slice of the action and began creating his own line on the side. His 15-year tenure ground to a halt when bosses found out. 

He was prompted to form his own company, Ty Inc., where he launched Beanie Babies, first introducing prototypes at the World Toy Fair in 1993 before manufacturing began in 1994. 

The range began with nine original Beanie Babies including Splash the Whale, Patti the Platypus, Chocolate the Moose, Squealer the Pig, Spot the Dog, Flash the Dolphin. 

Warner said until then toys were 'stiff and hard'. He credits part of Beanie Babies' success to the design and flexibility to 'wave, dance, and cuddle' at the will of their owner. The adorable little toys were small enough to be carried around. 

With a $5 price tag, Beanie Babies were also affordable enough for kids to be able to buy them with pocket money.

But the key to their unrivalled success was in creating scarcity.

While sales were slow initially, Warner made the inspired decision to pull back the quantities of toys on sale. 

A five-year-old with arms full of Beanie Babies in 1999

Warner came up with a strategy to limit the number of Beanie Babies at each store 

By restricting stores to 36 of each character people became obsessed with getting their hands on one while they could. 

More than this, carefully electing which characters to retire, created a market for reselling the toys for more than what was initially paid. 

One collector, who started buying Beanie Babies direct from the company's German distributor, spent $2,000 on toys.

Within months, their worth had shot up to $300,000, author  Zac Bissonnette wrote in his book 'The Great Beanie Baby Bubble'.

Sales hit more than $280 million by the end of 1996. Warner's personal income for that year, pretax, was a whopping $90 million. 

The next year, a collaboration with McDonald's continued to amplify the Beanie Babies mania. The fast food chain manufactured 100 million Teenie Beanie Babies for their Happy Meals. 

It was expected the promotion would run for five weeks, instead, it lasted only two. 

By 1998, more than half of America owned at least one of his creations. His pretax salary skyrocketed to $700 million, with over $1.3 billion in sales. 

He had shaken off the shackles of the humble beginnings of his home office and eventually operations included a 370,000-sqaure-foot warehouse.

But within another year, the novelty appeared to be waning. When a series of retirements were announced, resale prices stayed about the same.

Another collection of 24 new Beanie Babies was announced, flooding the market which put collectors off. 

In 2000, Beanies were being flogged in three for $10 bargains and began to appear in dollar stores. 

Beanie Babies were affordable enough for kids to be able to buy them with pocket money 

Their adorable designs pulled in a legion of fans 

Sales dropped substantially at the start of the new millennium, and in 2004 Warner's tax return claimed losses of more than $39 million. 

He'd made investments in the four years prior, purchasing hotels, and property including the Four Seasons Hotel  in New York, the San Ysidro Ranch in Montecito, the Montecito Country Club and the Sandpiper Golf Course in Santa Barbara. 

Warner's success enabled him to purchase a sprawling 6.58-acre Montecito estate off Butterfly Beach where he lived from 2010 to 2020 with his former long-term partner. 

By 2007, he moved onto Ty Girlz, a series of dolls with unique patterns which were connected to a website, but both were discontinued in 2013. 

That year on September 18, Warner distinguished reputation was challenged when he was charged with one count of tax evasion for failing to report more than $24.4 million in income, and evading nearly $5.6 million in federal taxes from millions hid for more than a decade in a secret account at a Swiss bank. 

The toymaker pleaded guilty, admitting that between 1996 and 2008 he opened and maintained undeclared foreign bank accounts.

He said he felt 'shame and embarrassment' for what he had done. 

Warner could have been sentenced to up to five years in prison, with prosecutor Michelle Petersen asking U.S. District Judge Charles Kocoras to give Warner at least a year behind bars. 

He was handed two years' probation and complete 500 hours of community service for at least three Chicago high schools as well as pay a $100,000 fine.

Warner also paid more than $53 million in a civil penalty, representing 50 percent of the highest balance of his unreported foreign bank accounts. 

His well-known philanthropic efforts, which exceed donating over $300 million to charities since launching Ty Inc, were considered in the judge's decision. 

This year, his endeavors were have been reimagined in the new Apple TV+ film ' The Beanie Bubble '. 

A fan holds an armload of special beanie babies from the Disneyland gift shop 

Warner entered a guilty plea for tax evasion, apologizing in a choked-up voice and telling a federal judge he had known his tax forms weren't accurate

The toymaker's career has been reimagined and retold in the new Apple TV+ film The Beanie Bubble 

The movie was adapted from Bissonnette's 2016 book and is said to, 'pull back the curtain on the absurdities and injustices of the American Dream — particularly the female relationship to it.' 

Of the flick, Warner said he appreciates the creativity used to the story of the Beanie Babies boom. 

'I applaud the filmmakers for capturing the unprecedented energy and excitement — though not the facts - surrounding the original release of Beanie Babies 30 years ago,' he said. 

'The movie is, by its own admission, partly fiction. But, like the filmmakers, I am in the business of dreams, and I admire their creative spirit.'

Last week, Warner announced plans to introduce a limited edition gold Beanie Baby teddy bear, 'Aloha', to raise money for Maui relief efforts. Ty Inc. will donate 100 percent of the profits from the sale of Aloha to the American Red Cross to support its efforts helping local residents who have been affected. 

The Hawaiian island has been devastated by wildfires which have killed at least 115 people, while an estimated 850 are missing. 

'Loss can strike at any time. The speed and savagery of the Maui wildfires are an especially horrific, heartbreaking reminder of that,' Warner said. 

'While I can't undo what has happened, I can try to help those who are suffering in the aftermath.' 

The poem inside the bear's tag states: 'Helping each other all day long / We forever will stay Maui strong.' 

As of August 2023, Warner's net worth is $5.7 billion. He is ranked 469 on Forbes' Billionaires list. 

The 78-year-old lives in Oak Brook, Illinois. He has never married or had children.  

Share or comment on this article: Inside the rise and fall of the Beanie Babies billionaire: How Ty Warner went from college dropout to toy-maker extraordinaire behind 90s collectable craze before his secret Swiss account left him a disgraced tax fraud

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An Exclusive First Look At Ty Warner’s Cabo Mansion

Back in December 2007, Robb Report`s senior correspondent Jack Smith, reported on a new crop over the top suites crowning the Manhattan`s premier hotels. It was the Ty Warner Penthouse at the Four Seasons Hotel in New York, a nine-bedroom, 4,300 sq.f. extravagance that was described as the “most expensive” suite on the planet.

Now, Warner i at it again , nine years later. This time Mr. Warner is bringing his flair for the dramatic to the beaches of Los Cabos. He is proud owner of one of the world’s finest beach resorts, Las Ventanas Al Paraiso, located on the Los Cabos corridor.

The Rosewood managed resort is going to unveil this July, it`s new La Mansion del Señor Warner, a $35,000/ night luxury villa that promises to do for the resort rooms what the Penthouse at the Four Seasons did for the suites..

As Mr. Warner earlier said: “ I have the best Penthouse in the World, now i want to have the best hotel villa on the world” – and he did it!!!

This unmatched property, which spans 22,500 sq.f. from it´s vertical garden courtyard entrance to it`s 328 foot long private overlooking the sea of Cortez pool.

The team- including Vidal, the local architect Jorge Torres and the interior designer from New York- Robert Couturier, executed down to the very last square inch the vision of Mr. Warner.

Once you enter through a carved wooden door designed by Torres, guests of the villa stroll past a reflecting pool and below a retractable sunroof before descending to the living room. The room’s Wall of sliding glass doors, magnified the motif of the name of “Las Ventanas al Paraiso”, which translates “The Windows to Paradise”.

White concrete framses the view, rising to a 20 foot high domed ceiling that encapsulates the unconventional style of the villa. The upholstered in silks from India sofás and chairs, were designed by Couturier. A wooden Dragon by the Oaxacan artista Claudio Ojeda Morales can be seen as part of the decoration.

Holding it all up is what might be the villa masterwork: $7.5 M hand–laid white marble tiles floors.

A lap pool above the master bathroom, is an idea that Warner came up with. After the bathroom was built, they had to demolish the whole room and completely rebuild it, to the ground. Now the pool became part of a sprawling rooftop that includes a plunge pool, indian silk laden bed, a bar, outdoor pool table, SPA area, and a putting Green. Just outside the bathroom, on the ground floor, a lawn stretches past a chess set to a hot tub has been carved from a rocky ridge above the beach.

Vidal cites the kitchen and the master bedroom’s palapa-covered patio as two of La Mansión’s best spots for casual gatherings. “You can go and sit down in the kitchen and have a drink while the chef makes some quesadillas, tacos, tamales,” he says. “You can ask for anything you want, anytime.”

The patio’s pair of 16.5-foot-long sofas offer an ideal setting for afternoon chips, guacamole, and coctails. Should guests retire to the area after dinner, they might be handed a metal control box that, with the push of a button, launches a fitting finale to a few days in paradise: a private fireworks show on La Mansión’s beach.

By Valentino Sartev

Owner/Broker

Original Source: Robb Report

Saudi Arabia Shines As Guest Of Honor At Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week In Los Cabos

Los cabos luxury rental takes the spotlight in international vacation rankings, seaside grandeur: unveiling the baja bay club’s exclusive golf retreat in los cabos, reflecting on the fairways: the 2024 cabo collegiate golf tournament, whale watching wonders: embracing the 2024 gray whale season in puerto chale and beyond.

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• A onetime bellman, car valet and fruit market vendor, Warner found his calling as a salesmen--peddling encyclopedias and later stuffed animals at toymaker Dakin.
• Warner was convicted of tax evasion and paid a $53 million fine in 2013 for stashing money in a Swiss bank, but avoided jail time.
• Zach Galifianakis played Warner in the 2023 fictionalized drama film ?The Beanie Bubble."
• Ty Warner is the creator of Beanie Babies, the plush toy fad of the 1990s.
• Warner used the profits from selling Beanie Babies to assemble a high-end hotel portfolio, including the Four Seasons in New York.
• His Ty Inc. still sells a related Beanie Baby toy called a Beanie Boo around the world.
• His Las Ventanas al Paraiso resort in Mexico rents its Ty Warner Mansion for $35,000 a night.
• Warner has donated $100 million in cash and toys to the Children's Hunger Fund since 2005.

• World’s Finest

Ty Warner Mansion, Las Ventanas al Paraiso, A Rosewood Resort

Hotel Name Las Ventanas al Paraiso, A Rosewood Resort

Booking contact [email protected]

Phone +52 877 341 8786

Website rosewoodhotels.com

Location San José del Cabo, BCS, Mexico

If there is a suite with a grander entrance than at the Ty Warner Mansion at Las Ventanas al Paraiso, we’ve yet to find it. The famous suite spans a colossal 28,000 sq ft and is entered via a stupendous 360-degree vertical garden along a walkway with a reflection pool. Open the intricately carved wooden front door where more delights await — two master suites with soaring 20-ft high ceilings each have sliding glass doors that open out onto the expansive pool deck. The 328-ft infinity pool has dual spas and a sunken in-pool living room — fireworks displays can be arranged for guests of the mansion (yes, really) so this would be our seat of choice to watch. Other exceptional amenities include a cinema room, tequila library, bar and a rooftop terrace with a glass-bottom lap pool.

Gold 2024, Access

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Grand Reserve Villa, Zadún, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve

Four Bedroom Waterside Villa & Nanny Bedroom, Viceroy Los Cabos

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