Ziegler family sells Hay Island for $26.5 million

Hay Island, a private 18-acre island off Connecticut, has been sold for $26.5 million after more than 100 years in the Ziegler family. The sale involved two November 2025 transactions and ushers in a new owner for a property that features an 8,684-square-foot

For more than a century, the Ziegler family treated Hay Island as a world apart—an 18-acre stretch off the Connecticut coast where summer life could stretch into routine and privacy could be taken for granted.

Then, in November 2025, the island was sold.

Hay Island—described as an 18-acre property off the coast of Connecticut—changed hands for $26.5 million. The last owners had held it for over 100 years, according to property records. The Zielgler family acquired the island more than a century ago. and the family traces its roots to industrialist William Ziegler Sr. who cofounded the Royal Baking Powder Company in the 1800s.

The island had long remained in family hands as a summer cottage. but it was most recently used as a full-time residence by Cynthia Ziegler and her husband. Renfrew Brighton. according to Mansion Global. Before the construction of the current residence, the earlier summer cottage was used as a summertime retreat. The older home was replaced with an 8,684-square-foot New England colonial home. The property also includes a two-bedroom guest house, an infinity-edge pool, and two beaches.

The purchase was not a single paperwork stroke. Property records show the island was sold in two transactions in November 2025 to Hay Island CT II LLC—one for $6,360,000 and the other for $20,140,000.

Inside the compound. the scale is unmistakable: most rooms have views of the Long Island Sound. and the main house—designed by architect Austin Patterson Disston—has six bedrooms and seven bathrooms. The listing describes a library with custom bookshelves, window seats, a wet bar, and a fireplace. A breakfast room includes its own fireplace, among six fireplaces in the home. The chef’s kitchen is lit by several windows facing the water.

The island layout also balances seclusion with access. While the island is set apart. it is “very close to the mainland. ” and it is accessible by road to the mainland. In explaining that trade-off. Leslie McElwreath of Sotheby’s International Realty’s Greenwich brokerage said. “You get the benefits of an island. the privacy and 360-degree water views. but you also get the ability to come and go freely.”.

A document from the county’s Planning and Zoning Commission says the new owner proposed to construct additions onto the main house.

The sale lands as the last chapter of a broader retreat collection the Ziegler family built over time. The island was once part of a multi-island portfolio in Connecticut. and Hay Island is described as the family’s last island in that collection. In 2023. the Ziegler family sold another property—Great Island. a 60-acre island across Ziegler Cove from Hay Island—for $85 million to the town of Darien. Darien plans to turn Great Island into a public park.

Even as Hay Island leaves the family, ties to wealth and investment remain part of the backdrop. Forbes estimated the Ziegler family’s net worth at $2.8 billion in 2015, due in part to investments in a cigar company, though the family’s current net worth is unclear.

The Ziegler family appears to have stepped away from the Connecticut retreat. The Zielger family has relocated and no longer regularly visits the Connecticut home.

The story of how a private island gets priced, sold, and repurposed doesn’t end at the final figure. What happens next—how the new owner will shape changes planned for the main house. and how the family’s Connecticut legacy is reduced to property records—will be written in decisions that follow this $26.5 million transaction.

Hay Island Ziegler family Connecticut private island $26.5 million sale Hay Island CT II LLC Renfrew Brighton Cynthia Ziegler Royal Baking Powder Company Sotheby’s Greenwich Darien public park Great Island sale