Billionaire’s foundation now owns half of Subway

The foundation created by the late Subway billionaire Peter Buck, of Danbury, reported it will receive a 50 percent stake in the restaurant chain as a bequest — creating a possible complication after Subway reportedly solicited buyers with interest in a purchase of the corporate entity.

The Peter & Carmen Lucia Buck Foundation has its main office in New York City, with its board dominated by the children of the Buck couple. Peter Buck died in November 2021, having supported a number of causes across education, the environment and health care, including to help underwrite a big expansion of Danbury Hospital, owned today by Nuvance Health.

Last July, the PCLB Foundation promoted Carrie Schindele to executive director, with Mystic resident Ben Benoit taking the title of chief financial officer. Schindele is a Wesleyan University graduate who worked in donor development with the Salvation Army before joining the PCLB Foundation in 2008.

The PCLB Foundation and Subway did not respond immediately Tuesday to queries on the nonprofit’s announcement, and how the respective nonprofit and for-profit entities plan to handle strategic corporate decisions. It is the type of partnership that does not always go hand in hand, given the divergent interests between nonprofit philanthropy and corporate profits.

The PCLB foundation stated Buck planned the bequest more than 10 years ago “to build PCLB into an institution designed to promote the best qualities of human nature,” as worded in a Monday press release.

With its Subway stake potentially worth billions of dollars that would generate large annual annuities, the PCLB Foundation could become a far larger player in local philanthropic causes in New York and Connecticut.