The billionaire developer who became the principal owner of the Washington Nationals, Ted Lerner, died over the weekend at age 97.

The Washington Post reports that he died of complications from pneumonia inside his Chevy Chase home.

The pinnacle of Lerner’s career as a team owner was in 2019, when the Nationals won the World Series over the heavily favored Houston Astros. No Washington team had been champion since 1924, before Lerner was even born.

In 2006, Lerner purchased the team for $450 million from Major League Baseball, one year after the team moved from Montreal to D.C.  “He loved his family above all else. He was stubborn and tough,” says the Post’s sports columnist.

https://twitter.com/Nationals/status/1625173587119202304?cxt=HHwWgICz6Yqx440tAAAA

Lerner started his real estate empire in 1952 with a $250 dollar loan from his wife. At the time, he sold homes to developers. He sold 22,000 of them, became a builder, and eventually Lerner Enterprises became one of the biggest real estate owners in the D.C. region.

The Nationals, his most popular investment, have only become more valuable over time; Forbes assessed it’s worth at $2 billion last March. Lerner transferred daily operations to his son Mark in 2018.

https://twitter.com/councilofdc/status/1625175170221588483

While saying he would never sell, Mark told the Post last year that he hired a New York investment bank to look for possible partners or buyers. He said he didn’t set any expectations or timetable. His father Lerner died with his family still owning baseball’s 12th most valuable team.