Richard Gere has backed the building of a new cell tower in the town of tony Bedford, riling wealthy residents — including Jerry Seinfeld’s sister and the parents of actresses Rooney and Kate Mara, The Post has learned.
Gere, who co-owns the Bedford Post Inn in Westchester County with real estate developer Russell Hernandez, is offering up land on their 14-acre estate for a 130-foot cellphone tower to fill service gaps and communications for emergency responders in one of America’s richest enclaves.
If approved, the site would settle a Verizon lawsuit filed by the telecom giant after the Bedford Planning Board rejected two previous proposed sites. But a growing chorus of moneyed locals, including NFL “royal” Kathleen Rooney Mara, are miffed over the looming tower.
Mara, whose family owns the Pittsburgh Steelers, has lived in Bedford the last 39 years with her husband Chris Mara, son of New York Giants’ late co-owner Wellington Mara and the team’s senior vice president of player evaluation. The couple raised their four children — including actresses Kate, 39, and Rooney, 37 — in a place Mara described as “magical” in a Nov. 21 email to the planning board.
“In the winter I have a gorgeous vista,” the message reads. “And I look forward to it every year. Now I’ll be looking at an ugly tower that will soon be obsolete if the location is approved.”
A much “less intrusive” cell tower is the only path forward, Mara told The Post, who said the structure will likely be replaced by satellites in the future due to advances in wireless technology.
“I don’t understand why they would want to have it there,” she said Friday of the proposed site at the Bedford Post Inn. “Isn’t that how everybody is? Like, not in my backyard or whatever, you know?”
Seinfeld’s sister, Carolyn Liebling, is also an opponent of the tower, pleading to the town in a Dec. 8 email to find another location.
“[T]he decision you make will affect the life of our family if you put the cell tower practically in our backyard,” Liebling and her husband Larry wrote to the planning board.
Carolyn, who manages her brother Jerry Seinfeld’s career, and her husband declined to comment when reached by The Post, but insisted in the email that the 12 acres they’ve owned for 17 years “weaved their way” into their souls — a “sanctuary” that’s no place for a cell tower.
In July 2021, Verizon filed a lawsuit against the town of Bedford, challenging its denial of two previous proposed sites for the tower. The company claims a location must be found to fill the cell coverage gaps, according to a mandate by the Federal Telecommunications Act.
But the lawsuit has been paused as the Bedford Post Inn plot is reviewed.
Other boldface names who live in Bedford and its surrounding hamlets of Bedford Village, Bedford Hills and Katonah include A-listers like Martha Stewart, George Soros, Ralph Lauren, Matt Damon, and celebrity couple Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively.
The Lieblings, along with two other neighbors, are now seeking a pre-motion conference with a Southern District of New York judge to block the 130-foot cell tower, its associated equipment and the new access road that will need to be cut across a hillside to accommodate it.
Meanwhile, Roxanne Spruance, Gere’s own executive chef and co-owner of the Bedford Post Inn’s Michelin-rated bistro, The Barn, is accusing her boss and his partner of colluding with Town Supervisor Ellen Calves of benefitting from a “quid pro quo” in the town’s quest to settle Verizon’s lawsuit.
Spruance, 38, alleged at a Dec. 5 planning board meeting that Gere and Hernandez saw their long-pending expansion plans for the hotel suddenly approved in late September — paving the way for 10 additional guest rooms, a pool and a spa at the property where king deluxe suites cost $1,075-per-night on weekends.
“I just want to make it very clear that the restaurant and the hotel are very separate,” Spruance told the Bedford Planning Board. “The actions of my landlords in thinking this was a good idea with Ellen is completely separate from my wishes [and] desires as a business owner.”
Gere, Hernandez and Spruance did not respond to multiple messages seeking comment by The Post. But Calves dismissed Spruance’s “quid pro quo” allegations as unfounded.
“That statement is not based on reality or fact,” Calves said. “The owners of the inn have been working on expanding their operations and have had plans before various boards of the town for several years and all of those have been received with enthusiastic support.”
Calves said Gere and Hernandez “generously offered” the location because they “care deeply” about first responders.
“It definitely came to our attention because they are working on their property, but in no way, shape or form was this idea put forward asking for any kind of favor or preferential treatment,” Calves said. “Their project was well underway and already on the path to approval.”
But other residents in the town — where six-bedroom lakefront properties list for $12 million and equestrian estates demand $65 million — aren’t so sure.
Jim Hoffman, 63, who has lived on Paddock Lane for 25 years, said he had “no reason” to doubt Spruance’s allegation as he called for an independent investigation. The retired father-of-four, who lives down the block from the Bedford Post Inn, claims in court documents the tower would “inflict maximum adverse impacts” to his ridgeline view and the value of his home, which he estimates at $2.5 million.
“It’s going to be right in our faces,” Hoffman told The Post of the tower, insisting he and his wife Susan will be able to see it from nearly every room. “Anytime we look outside we’ll be reminded somewhat of the distrust in and corruption of our town.”
If the cell tower is ultimately approved at the Bedford Post Inn, Hoffman will “never” return to The Barn, where he loves the food and atmosphere, he said.
“It doesn’t make any sense,” Hoffman said of the planning board approving the hotel’s expansion after years of delays. “All of sudden in one month that goes away?”
The Bedford Planning Board will continue its review of Verizon’s proposal to build at 954 Old Post Road at another public hearing at 7:30 p.m. Monday.
Gere, who has never lived in Bedford, currently resides in a $10 million, seven-bedroom North Salem estate in Westchester County with 37-year-old wife Alejandra Silva and their two sons. The actor-turned-humanitarian previously owned a 50-acre, $24 million estate in nearby Pound Ridge with ex-wife Carey Lowell.
Hoffman noted the irony of Gere, a noted conservationist and practicing Buddhist, green-lighting a project that would lead to cutting down more than an acre of trees, including up to 50 precious mature oaks.
“Yeah, him and the Dalai Lama planted a million trees,” Hoffman said of the 2019 climate change campaign backed by Gere and the Buddhist spiritual leader. “The biggest environmentalist is about to chop down the most valuable resources we have.”
