Jonathan Lewis (philanthropist)

Lewis was born on November 1, 1958, in Cleveland, Ohio, to Peter Benjamin Lewis and Toby Devan Lewis. His father, Peter B. Lewis, served as chief executive of Progressive Insurance, the company from which the Lewis family fortune came.⁠[1][1][2][3][1]

He graduated from Shaker Heights High School and then graduated magna cum laude from the Boston University College of Communication. After college he moved to Miami, where he first worked at the Sheraton River House and then helped open the five-star Grand Bay Hotel.⁠[1][1]

In the 1980s, Lewis brought together 10 parcels of land in Miami’s Coconut Grove to create an estate on Biscayne Bay, later known as Banyan Ridge. The 4.5-acre property, with 180 feet of direct water frontage, was assembled and built out over about 25 years and was Lewis’s longtime home.⁠[4][5][5][5][2]

The estate has two primary houses: a 1920s Mediterranean-style residence designed for former U.S. Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan, and a more modern home built for Lewis’s father in 2002.⁠[4]

In 1983, Lewis founded Jonathan Lewis & Associates, an independent design and development firm that managed projects in Los Angeles, Miami, Orlando, New York, Aspen, and Atlanta. In 2012 he signed an article as president of the firm, describing himself as an investor, philanthropist, and civil rights activist.⁠[1][6]

Lewis’s first solo restaurant in Miami, Toby’s, was named in honor of his mother and was recognized in 1985 as one of Esquire magazine’s “10 Best New Restaurants”; the Miami Herald gave it five stars out of four, the extra star for “pure class.”⁠[1][1]

He next opened Cafe Tu Tu Tango in Coconut Grove, known for its small plates for sharing, which earned four stars from the Miami Herald; the restaurant later grew to multiple locations, and he remained involved in its operations.⁠[1][1]

Inspired by his father, Lewis turned to political activism in the early 2000s, focusing on LGBT equality and youth empowerment. From 2003, Paul Yandura, who had worked in the Clinton White House’s gay and lesbian liaison office, served as his political adviser.⁠[1][3][3]

One of his first major projects was funding and incubating the Young Voter Alliance under the Young Democrats of America. The project used a concert tour by hip-hop and R&B artists to motivate young people to vote, along with a new recording of the Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes song “Wake Up Everybody,” produced by Lewis with Russell Simmons, Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds, and Tracey Edmonds. Between 2004 and 2008, he put nearly $14 million into efforts to encourage youth participation in politics.⁠[1][7][3]

His obituary credited the project with helping make youth voter turnout in 2004 the highest since 1972; Lewis himself said in 2010 that it was uncomfortable to take credit for the rise in youth turnout, which could just as easily have been coincidental.⁠[7][3]

Shortly after Barack Obama took office, Lewis joined about 50 to 75 progressive donors who had contributed heavily to Obama’s campaign at a Democracy Alliance conference in Miami. The White House sent deputy chief of staff Jim MessinaJim MessinaJim Messina is an American Democratic political adviser who spent years on the staff of Montana Senator Max Baucus, served as White House deputy chief of staff from 2009 to 2011, and managed Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign. He then founded the strategic consulting firm The Messina Group (renamed Fortius Global in October 2026), which provides campaign and strategic advice to political parties in several countries, including the UK Conservative Party, and to companies.Open the full entry, whose message was “give us time” and “have patience”; Lewis said that at that moment something told him it “doesn’t feel right.”⁠[3][3][3][3]

In December 2009, less than two months after the National Equality March, the march’s organizers Robin McGehee and Kip Williams flew to Miami to meet with Lewis and Yandura. Lewis went on to fund the new direct-action group GetEQUAL, whose aim was to push Obama and the Democratic Party toward LGBT equality, specifically legalizing same-sex marriage and ending the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy that barred openly gay people from military service. GetEQUAL activists chained themselves to the White House fence, disrupted Obama at public events, and blockaded Las Vegas Boulevard.⁠[3][1][1][7]

By Yandura’s estimate, by mid-2010 GetEQUAL had spent only about $130,000 in total yet drew far more press attention than any other LGBT group. Lewis compared the investment to his “Apple Computer stock,” saying it was “better than Apple or Progressive.”⁠[3][3][3]

In 2010, when Obama signed the bill repealing the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, Lewis stood alongside GetEQUAL activists at the signing.⁠[7][1]

On April 27, 2012, Lewis published an op-ed in The Advocate titled “Mr. President: If Not Now, When?” rebutting Democratic National Committee treasurer Andy Tobias’s concern that signing the order could help Mitt Romney win, and urging Obama to sign an executive order prohibiting federal contractors from discriminating against LGBT workers. He noted that Obama had pledged in writing during the 2008 campaign to sign the order once elected, but had not acted in 2009, 2010, or 2011.⁠[6][6][6][6][6]

Lewis funded LGBT groups such as Freedom to Work and gave the maximum individual amount of $30,800 to the Democratic National Committee; angered by Obama’s delay in issuing the order, he threatened to stop giving.⁠[1][1]

The foundation Lewis created was named the Jonathan D + Mark C. Lewis Foundation, after himself and his husband, Mark Christopher Lewis, with Paul Yandura as chief executive. In 2016, the foundation took on Farms Work Wonders in the small town of Wardensville, West Virginia, as a pilot project, providing start-up capital for land, infrastructure, and equipment as well as a guaranteed operating grant.⁠[7][8][8][8][9]

The project began with a farm and an outdoor stand that employed five local adults and five young people; it later grew to include an organic farm, a market, a bakery, a glass-blowing studio, and a restaurant, serving as places of work and learning for local youth.⁠[8][1]

Lewis died of illness at his home in Florida on July 5, 2023, at the age of 64. His husband, Mark C. Lewis, became chair of the foundation’s board.⁠[7][7][7]

Yandura recalled that he and Lewis had always agreed they “would rather make change than friends.” Brian K. Bond, who had been deputy director of the White House Office of Public Engagement under Obama, said Lewis changed the traditional rules of engagement in Washington in the service of equality.⁠[7][7][7]

In July 2024, Banyan Ridge was offered to the public for the first time at an asking price of $135 million, represented by Douglas Elliman agents; it was then the most expensive residential listing in Coconut Grove.⁠[5][5][5][5]

The estate has 13 bedrooms, 15 full bathrooms, and three half-baths, comprising two primary residences, a guest house, a guest pod, a gym and spa, a bayfront cabana, two three-car garages, and multiple swimming pools, along with a 12,000-square-foot dock and boat lift, meditation gardens, a saltwater fish pond, an orchid house, and waterfalls.⁠[5][5][5][5]

In December 2025, Banyan Ridge sold for $101.5 million. The seller was Lewis’s estate, represented by agents of the Jills Zeder Group. By Redfin’s count, it was the most expensive U.S. home sale that month and the fourth-priciest of 2025.⁠[10][10][10][11][12]

The buyer’s identity was not made public at closing. On January 7, 2026, people familiar with the deal identified the buyer to the real estate publication The Real Deal as Google co-founder Larry Page; later that evening The Wall Street Journal, likewise citing people familiar with the matter, said Page had paid $101.5 million in December 2025 for Lewis’s former home.⁠[10][10][10][4]

Lewis served on the board of the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER), which brought together attorneys Ted Olson and David Boies, from different ends of the political spectrum, to challenge in federal court California’s Proposition 8, the voter-approved constitutional amendment that ended same-sex marriage in the state; the challenge succeeded, and the outcome was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2013.⁠[7][1][7]

Chad Griffin, AFER co-founder and former president of the Human Rights Campaign, said that at a time when few thought the country was ready for nationwide marriage equality, Lewis generously supported organizations such as AFER.⁠[7][7]

Lewis was gay. He made sizable donations to the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund and the Human Rights Campaign, including $1 million for the building of the Human Rights Campaign’s headquarters in Washington.⁠[3][3]

Farms Work Wonders: Official website: https://farmsworkwonders.org/ (opens in a new window).⁠[9]