Kelly Behun Husband Net Worth: Estimate, Assets & Bio

Jay Sugarman, Kelly Behun's husband, has an estimated net worth of approximately $50 million to $70 million as of August 2026. That range is anchored to publicly disclosed holdings: roughly $34.3 million in Safehold Inc. (SAFE) shares and $4.4 million in Star Holdings (STHO) shares, valued at market prices from August 7–8, 2026, plus a long career of executive compensation, private investments, and significant real estate. This is a moderate-confidence estimate, the public filings give us precise share counts and dated prices, but private assets, family trusts, and outside investments are not fully disclosed.

Who Is Kelly Behun's Husband?

Kelly Behun is married to Jay Scott Sugarman, born April 12, 1962. He is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Safehold Inc., a publicly traded real estate investment trust that pioneered the modern ground lease market. Sugarman has been the company's CEO since 1997, nearly three decades, making him one of the longest-tenured CEOs in the public REIT sector. He is also a key figure at Star Holdings (STHO), the entity that spun off from iStar (Safehold's predecessor) to hold legacy assets. His net worth matters in this context because it represents the household financial foundation behind one of the most recognized names in American interior design. Kelly Behun is herself an AD100 designer with her own studio, so this is genuinely a dual-income household where both parties bring independent wealth to the table.

Net Worth Estimate: August 2026

The share valuations are the hardest numbers here, calculated using share counts from Safehold's 2025 Proxy Statement and Star Holdings' 2025 Proxy Statement, crossed against market prices pulled on August 7–8, 2026 ($16.29 for SAFE and $9.64 for STHO). Everything else involves reasonable estimation. Real estate is the biggest variable, a 22,000-square-foot oceanfront Southampton estate could command values at the very high end of Hamptons pricing, but without a recent arms-length sale, any figure is an estimate. The conservative floor of $50 million rests almost entirely on the documented public equity positions. The upper range of $70 million reflects a realistic private asset load for a CEO with nearly 30 years at that level.

Career Background and Education

Jay Sugarman's career path runs from private wealth management into the specialized world of real estate finance. Before founding the entities that became iStar and then Safehold, he managed private investment funds on behalf of prominent family offices, including the Burden family and the Ziff family. That background in managing concentrated, multigenerational wealth gave him a specific lens on capital structure and long-duration assets, the intellectual foundation for what eventually became Safehold's ground lease model, which separates land ownership from building ownership to unlock capital for developers.

Sugarman has been a board member of the predecessor entity to Safehold since 1996 and CEO since 1997. That tenure is remarkable in corporate America, particularly in REITs, where leadership turnover is common. The continuity reflects both his ownership stake and the fact that the company he built is genuinely his original concept rather than a role he stepped into. His educational background, while not prominently featured in filings, is consistent with the pedigree typical of private investment fund managers of his generation.

Career Timeline and Major Financial Events

1. Pre-1996: Managed private investment capital for the Burden and Ziff families, building expertise in real estate finance and structured capital.
2. 1996: Joined the board of the predecessor entity to iStar/Safehold, establishing the foundation for what would become a decades-long leadership role.
3. 1997: Became Chief Executive Officer, a position he has held continuously through 2026 — nearly 29 years at the helm.
4. 2017: Safehold Inc. launched as a standalone public company trading under the ticker SAFE, creating a new publicly traded vehicle focused on ground leases and generating a significant equity event for Sugarman.
5. 2022: iStar merged its operations with Safehold in a transformative transaction; legacy iStar assets were subsequently separated into Star Holdings (STHO), giving Sugarman equity positions in two public vehicles.
6. 2023 (December 29): Sugarman made a documented charitable gift of shares to educational and charitable recipients, as reported in SEC Form 4 filings.
7. 2024: Received a base salary of $600,000 and an equity award valued at $1,950,000 per Safehold's 2025 Proxy Statement; no cash annual incentive was paid for prior years 2022–2023 per company disclosure.
8. March 3, 2026: Safehold Form 4 filing confirmed issuance of 90,149 shares as part of an annual incentive award (net of tax withholding), adding to his disclosed beneficial ownership.

Income Streams and Annual Compensation

Sugarman's documented annual income from Safehold is a combination of base salary and equity awards. His 2024 base salary was $600,000, relatively modest for a CEO managing a multi-billion dollar public company, which is actually a common structure in REITs where executives are compensated more heavily through equity. The 2024 equity award was valued at $1,950,000 in the proxy tables, bringing the publicly disclosed compensation figure to roughly $2.55 million for 2024 before any other benefits or perquisites. Notably, no cash annual incentive plan (AIP) payouts were made for 2022 or 2023, which the company disclosed directly, reflecting Safehold's performance-linked compensation design during a challenging period for REITs in a rising-rate environment.

Beyond direct salary and annual equity awards, the largest income driver is capital appreciation on his ownership stake. With roughly 2.1 million Safehold shares, a $1 move in the stock price translates to approximately $2.1 million in paper wealth change. Over a long tenure with equity accumulation, the compounding effect of those shares, even at current depressed REIT valuations, represents the dominant wealth driver. His Star Holdings position adds another layer of equity exposure to the legacy assets being wound down from the old iStar platform.

Business Ownership, Investments, and Passive Income

Sugarman's primary business interest is his role as founder, Chairman, and CEO of Safehold Inc. He beneficially owns 2,105,909 shares of Safehold common stock as reported in the 2025 Proxy Statement, representing approximately 2. Safehold Inc.'s 2025 Proxy Statement Security Ownership table reports Jay Sugarman beneficially owns 2,105,909 shares of common stock, representing about 2.9% of shares outstanding as of the March 21, 2025 record date Safehold Inc. 2025 Proxy Statement — Security Ownership table (shows Sugarman beneficial ownership = 2,105,909 shares, ~2.9%). 9% of shares outstanding as of March 21, 2025. That stake is held across a combination of direct shares, spouse-attributed shares, family trusts, a foundation, and restricted stock units (RSUs) scheduled for issuance, a diversified ownership structure that is typical for a long-tenured REIT founder and that provides some insulation against forced sales.

In Star Holdings, Sugarman beneficially owns 457,746 shares representing approximately 3.4% of that company's shares outstanding as of March 27, 2025. Star Holdings was spun out to hold the legacy real estate and finance assets from iStar's balance sheet, and its stock trades at a material discount to book value, which means Sugarman's exposure here carries both upside optionality and meaningful downside risk depending on how those legacy assets are resolved. Combined, the two public equity positions were worth approximately $38.7 million at August 2026 market prices.

The Jay And Kelly Sugarman Foundation, documented in IRS filings and searchable via ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer, serves as the couple's joint philanthropic vehicle. Jay Sugarman is listed as President and Treasurer; Kelly is Vice President. While a private foundation is not a wealth-generating asset, it does indicate a level of accumulated wealth that supports meaningful charitable giving and provides insight into the household's approach to managing concentrated equity wealth, including the documented charitable stock transfers in prior years.

Real Estate and Tangible Assets

The most prominent documented asset is the couple's Southampton oceanfront estate. Multiple interior design publications, including Elle Decor and the One Kings Lane blog, describe the home as a 22,000-square-foot beachfront residence. The property has also served as the venue for the couple's hosting of God's Love We Deliver's Midsummer Night Drinks charity events, which places it in the public record through the organization's annual reports. A 22,000-square-foot oceanfront property in Southampton, New York, would rank among the most significant residential holdings in the Hamptons market, comparable properties in that market have traded anywhere from $20 million to well over $50 million depending on ocean frontage, lot size, and condition. Without a documented purchase price or recent appraisal, it is not possible to pin down a precise valuation, but it is a major asset category in any reasonable estimate of household net worth.

Beyond the Southampton estate, the couple likely maintains a primary New York City residence given Kelly Behun Studio's Manhattan-based practice and the typical lifestyle pattern for this demographic, but no specific property has been publicly documented with enough detail to include a valuation here. Vehicle holdings and art collections are not separately documented in public filings. Kelly Behun's work as an interior designer with access to the design world's highest-end objects suggests an art and furnishings collection of meaningful value, but none of it is on public record in a way that supports a standalone estimate.

Liabilities, Legal Claims, and Recent Material Transactions

No personal legal claims, judgments, or publicly documented personal debt obligations have been identified against Jay Sugarman in the research underlying this article. His corporate role at Safehold exposes him to the normal indemnification environment of a public company CEO, and Safehold itself has navigated the significant headwinds facing the REIT sector during the 2022–2024 interest rate cycle, but those are corporate-level risks rather than personal liabilities.

The most material recent transaction affecting his net worth is the March 3, 2026 Form 4 filing confirming receipt of 90,149 Safehold shares as an annual incentive award (net of tax withholding). At the August 2026 price of $16.29 per share, that award was worth approximately $1.47 million at current market prices. On the outflow side, the December 29, 2023 charitable gift of shares to educational and charitable recipients, as reported in SEC filings, represents a documented reduction in his share count, a deliberate tax-efficient wealth transfer rather than a distressed sale. See Safehold IR / SEC exhibit, Form 4 / company disclosure noting charitable gift of shares (Dec 29, 2023) for the filing reporting the transfer Safehold IR / SEC exhibit — Form 4 / company disclosure noting charitable gift of shares (Dec 29, 2023). There are no documented prenuptial or settlement disclosures in the public record related to the Sugarman marriage.

Kelly Behun's Independent Wealth and Combined Household Finances

Kelly Behun is not a passive spouse in financial terms. She operates Kelly Behun Studio, an internationally recognized interior design practice that has earned her a spot on Architectural Digest's AD100 list, which represents the top tier of the global interior design industry. Design studio revenues at the AD100 level can be substantial, project fees on high-end residential commissions in New York and the Hamptons routinely run into the hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars per project, though exact revenue figures for her studio are not publicly available. Her professional standing, combined with product licensing opportunities, press coverage in Cultured Magazine and other outlets, and an active client practice, means the household's income profile is genuinely dual-track.

The Jay And Kelly Sugarman Foundation further underscores that the couple manages their financial lives jointly. The combination of Sugarman's public equity wealth and Behun's professional income stream creates a household net worth picture that almost certainly exceeds any conservative estimate focused solely on Jay's documented holdings. For readers interested in how design-world professionals build independent wealth alongside high-net-worth spouses, profiles like those of other prominent creative professionals married into finance offer useful comparison points. For a comparative example, see Kelsea Ballerini's ex-husband net worth. For a comparable profile, see a breakdown of Kate Bolduan's husband's net worth. For a similar case study, see our profile of Caroline Baudino's household finances (Caroline Baudino husband net worth). For a comparison of a creative professional married into finance, see the Binky Felstead husband net worth profile.

How This Estimate Was Built

The foundation of this estimate is documentary: Safehold's 2025 Proxy Statement and Star Holdings' 2025 Proxy Statement provide audited beneficial ownership figures down to the share. Those share counts were then multiplied by market prices pulled on August 7–8, 2026, for SAFE ($16.29) and STHO ($9.64) respectively, producing the $34.3 million and $4.4 million valuations. Compensation figures come directly from the Executive Compensation tables in Safehold's proxy. The charitable stock gift and recent equity award are from SEC Form 4 filings. Real estate information comes from interior design media coverage that has specifically cited the square footage and location of the Southampton home. The Jay And Kelly Sugarman Foundation is documented through IRS filings available via ProPublica. Every figure presented as a range rather than a precise number reflects the absence of a public record that would support higher precision. This article will be updated as new proxy statements, Form 4 filings, and market data become available.