Jack Ma buys $23 million property in New York

Jack Ma Yun, lead founder and executive chairman of Alibaba Group, at the World Internet Conference, Wuzhen, Zhejiang province, Nov 20, 2014. [Photo/IC]

Jack Ma, founder and executive chairman of e-commerce behemoth Alibaba Group, has bought a 28,100-acre property in New York's Adirondacks for $23 million for conservation purposes, reported the Wall Street Journal.

The estate, known as Brandon Park, includes more than 9 miles of the St. Regis River, as well as lakes, streams, ponds, forests and a 1940s log camp behind its gated entrance, and was once owned by William A. Rockefeller Jr.

The purchase was principally motivated by a desire to preserve the property, but Jack Ma also plans to use it as an occasional personal retreat, said Jim Wilkinson, the billionaire's spokesman, to the paper.

There are two homes on the property, as well as lean-tos and a horse barn, according to the Wall Street Journal, which he bought in May through an entity named New Brandon LLC.

The Internet tycoon plans to form a nonprofit entity to manage Brandon Park, as the land is a white-tailed deer habitat, according to the newspaper.

Back home in China, Jack Ma co-chairs the Peach Garden ecological conservation foundation. The Ningbo-based non-profit organization, set up in April, aims at alleviating water pollution and smog.