Helmsley To Rest in $1.4M Mausoleum

The Queen of Mean’s last property is fit for a king.Leona Helmsley, for years the imperious head of a multibillion dollar real estate and hotel empire, will spend eternity inside a $1.4 million suburban mausoleum with a magnificent view, alongside her beloved husband Harry.“You know what they say: location, location, location,” the mayor of the quiet Westchester County town where Helmsley will be buried this week, Philip Zegarelli, said. “It’s very nice setting, well picked and well positioned.”The ornate granite mausoleum boasts 1,300 square feet, with a dozen Doric columns and stained glass windows recreating the Manhattan skyline — including the Empire State Building, once the crown jewel of the Helmsley properties.The Pocantico River gurgles past the Helmsley holding in the tree-lined Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, a historic 19th century locale where Washington Irving and Andrew Carnegie were joined last week by philanthropist Brooke Astor.Helmsley, who died yesterday at her Connecticut home, was expected to be buried in Sleepy Hollow this week. She became known as a hardhearted harpy with a hair-trigger temper after her 1988 indictment and subsequent conviction for tax evasion, when a Helmsley employee quoted her as snarling, “Only the little people pay taxes.”Harry Helmsley came to the northern suburb of Sleepy Hollow last year after Leona engaged in an ugly battle with Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, where the real estate magnate was originally buried in 1997. The expansive family mausoleum there was memorably described as a “tomb with a view.”But the sweeping vista disappeared when a public mausoleum — potentially filled with those “little people” who paid taxes — went up nearby three years ago.An irate Leona called the new construction “a disgrace,” and resolved to relocate the remains of her husband and her son, Jay Panzirer.She purchased a piece of land in the cemetery, 14 miles north of New York City, to construct a new mausoleum — and quickly alienated her husband’s new, living neighbors. In typical take-no-prisoners style, a wooded section of the cemetery was stripped clean of trees in summer 2005.The new construction lacked permits, and village officials quickly shut down the project, Mr. Zegarelli said.“We tried to be amenable,” Mr. Zegarelli said. “There are still procedures to go through, whether you’re dead or alive — no offense, but it still has to be done.”The two sides worked out their differences — fines were paid, donations were made by the Helmsley group to repair some of the damage. Last August, the mausoleum was approved for the reinterment.Mr. Zegarelli said the Helmsley mausoleum is already a popular spot for visitors touring the historic cemetery, with its 45,000 permanent residents. It’s easier to locate than Carnegie’s grave, with its simple Celtic cross, and a reflection of the Helmsleys’ lifelong pursuit of quality real estate.“You can’t take it with you,” the mayor said. “But this is certainly an image of the Helmsley style and elegance, the New York skyline, and her pieces of property.”

Helmsley To Rest in $1.4M Mausoleum

Helmsley To Rest in $1.4M Mausoleum

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