Filed under: Estates

Today’s estate is classic upstate New York. The Wiccopee Home in East Fishkill was built in 1894 and redesigned in 1929 by Aymar Embury II who was best known for designing the Brooklyn Bridge and Central Park Zoo. Th three story colonial has a traditional white clapboard exterior with black shutters with a wooden elliptical fan over the front door and a widow’s walk. There are over 7,000 square feet of space including a beautiful formal library with built-in book shelves and fireplace, a study with hand painted tiles surrounding the fireplace and half round book shelves, and a drawing room with French doors to the side terrace. The formal dining room fills out the window-ringed half round and the kitchen has obviously had a redesign with state of the art appliances. Upstairs there are four bedrooms and a huge master suite in the process of being renovated. The third floor is home to a game room, bedroom, bath (in progress), and a storage area. The land is almost 18 acres with lawns, gardens, an in-ground pool with a cabana, clay tennis court, paddocks and a carriage house with two bedrooms. It is listed at $2.495 million.

%Gallery-16902%

Continue reading Wiccopee Home, Estate of the Day

Read

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Estates, Celebrity Shopping

Being a celebrity ex-wife often nets you some lovely real estate. Research god Bob Goldsborough of Berg Properties Huge Time Listings unearthed the listing for the Encino, California home of Kelly Van Halen. Kelly Van Halen is the second ex-wife of Alex Van Halen the drummer in Van Halen and Eddie Van Halen’s older brother. After their divorce, Kelly Van Halen paid $1,565,000 in November 2002 for this home. The home was built in 1951 and has five bedrooms.

The property is quite nice. The home is on a tiny over an acre and has a wonderful pool area and a pergola with a lovely stone outdoor fireplace. There is also an outdoor kitchen with a barbecue area. The back of the home has great veranda space that looks out over the hilly property. The home has many lovely features including a formal dining room, a study and a master bedroom with a fireplace.The interior with its foofy design style reminds me of the Suzanne Somers home, all bright colors and chandeliers and zebra print rugs. The listing says that’s was redesigned by Kelly Baron Design and a swift search led me to the Kelly Baron website which is under construction but features two photos of this home. The name is curious, it makes me wonder if the ex-Mrs. Van Halen planning a career as a designer? She has listed this home for $4.495 million.

%Gallery-18406%

Continue reading Kelly Van Halen’s Home, Estate of the Day

Read

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Estates, Celebrity Shopping

From the NY Observer’s Manhattan Transfers:
–The official listings for Julian Schnabel’s Palazzo Chupi have hit the market. We covered these listings as our estate of the day recently but the listings have a few more photos. The $32 million listing is here and the $27 million listing is here.
–Springsteen guitarist and Sopranos star Steven Van Zandt and wife Maureen have closed on a three-bedroom penthouse in a converted Methodist church at 135 West Fourth Street for $6 million.
–A townhouse at costly Beekman Place that belonged to the late William Rupp is now listed at $25 million. It sounds like Rupp was a bit of a grump, he built a huge wall on top of his home which he refused to remove. Now the wall is being torn down. The townhouse is one of only nine on the river side from 50-51st Street. The 12-room townhouse also has plans for a three-story addition on top of the existing two-story extension which have been approved by the city and would add another 1403 sq. ft. The listing is here.
–Yankees player Bobby Abreu has listed two-bedroom condo at One Beacon for $7.9 million. The spare and bare apartment, shown above, is listed here.

From the NY Post’s Gimme Shelter:
–Cameron Diaz has picked up a five-room renovated residence in a prewar doorman building, with an asking price just under $3 million.
–Brooke Shields has been spotted looking at homes in New York City. She and husband Chris Hency have been seen checking out a four-bedroom townhouse on West 20th Street with close to a $7 million asking price.
–Holly Speyer Lipton, the daughter of Rockefeller Center owner Jerry Speyer, has bought a 12-room Park Avenue co-op for $12 million.
–Alain Levy, the former head of EMI Music, has paid $6.274 million for a two-bedroom, two-plus-bath apartment with Fifth Avenue views from the 18th floor.

From the Wall Street Journal’s Private Properties:
–As previously reported by the Real Estalker back in November, Vera Wang has listed her family’s Palm Beach oceanfront mansion for $19 million. In November, the estate, which belonged to her dad Cheng Ching Wang, was listed for $23 million.
–Jason Brand, president of Merrill Lynch Pacific Rim, has purchased a Hawaii oceanfront house for $15.9 million, which is a full 39% below its original listing price.
–As we mentioned in January, the former Atlanta estate of the late Robert Woodruff, longtime chairman of Coca-Cola Co., is for sale for $13.9 million. Check out photos at the estate of the day post here.

From Berg Properties Celebrity Massive Time Listings:
–It’s official, Richie Sambora has paid $4 million to buy a Calabasas home from San Diego Padres starting pitcher Randy Wolf.
–Model and actress Kelly Van Halen (formerly married to Alex Van Halen) has listed her five-bedroom house in Encino. It is our estate of the day later this day.
-TV speak show host and entertainment mogul Byron Allen has gone into escrow on the Hollywood Hills home that he had listed for $6.995 million.
–An Encino mansion that Macy Gray sold in December 2006 for $4,750,000 was listed at $11.7 million after a major rehab. It is now down to $9.96 million. The listing is here.
–Movie producer Gilbert Adler has listed his house in Beverly Hills for $7.9 million. The listing is here.

From the Real Estalker:
–Home makeover television host Ty Pennington has picked up a two-bedroom condo in the West Chelsea neighborhood in New York City. It had a $2.495 million asking price.
–Rumor has it that the nearly one-million-dollar two-bedroom apartment in New York that Nicole Richie and Joel Madden recently bought might be back on the market soon.
–via Page Six, Jon Bon Jovi has sold his Upper West Side condo for $5.484 million.
–via Newsday, the home next to Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony’s estate in Brookville, New York has been listed at $2.229 million. To get to the five-bedroom home you have to pass through the same “million-dollar gates” that Lopez and Anthony installed for protection. The listing is here.
–Also the nine-bedroom home next to Lopez and Anthony in Bel Air is also for sale for $6.995 million. The virtual tour is here.
–Jude Law has reportedly bought the London home he’s been leasing in the Maida Vale neighborhood for around

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Estates

For a while it seemed that Miami might be one part of Florida that was if not immune from the real estate slowdown, protected a bit by its size and cachet. But now prices have started to plummet and putting many real estate speculators in trouble. The Miami skyline is dotted with cranes as buildings continue to go up but thousands of condo units are waiting either unsold or in foreclosure.

The numbers in Miami are startling, According to a report in Canada’s Globe and Mail, prices citywide were 17.5 per cent lower in December than a year earlier with the value of some condos down by as much as half. And as more condo projects in progress are completed up the numbers could even go lower. Condos with sexy names and alluring promotions such as Jade and Vue are now facing millions of dollars in mortgage defaults and foreclosures. It’s been a disaster for both investors and developers. In fact, two prominent Miami condo developers who were facing condo problems have died of heart attacks.

The problem in Miami is just part of Florida’s boom and bust cycle. Whole towns sprung up over the last few years and many have gone bust just as swiftly often leaving half-built homes abandoned (for a great pic series on this check out this piece on Rotunda Sands in Mental Floss). At this point, practically the entire state of Florida is in some sort of foreclosure crisis making it easy pickings for those from across the country and around the world looking for a real estate deal. Both homeowners who owe more than their homes are worth and developers forced to sell condos at cost or in some cases for even less than it cost to build them are ready to accept all sorts of offers.

For now, the temporary bandage seems to be real estate auctions. The other day I mentioned that two prominent real estate firms in Florida are working with a major real estate auction company. And just about each day I learn of a new auction of a condo complex in Florida. Many of the auctions are absolute, meaning that bidders will take whatever they can get. The good news is that this slump can’t last forever and for those who have the means to pick up a warm weather getaway there are major bargains to be had. Maybe this is the time for Miami developers to reach out to Russian investors looking for a place to wait out the winter chill.

Read

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Estates

Usually I don’t write up pieces of land without homes on them but this one is pretty impressive, a massive 1,507-acre spread (1,374 deeded along with 133-acre BLM lease) in Montana on the Yellowstone River. This area was named Black Bluffs by Capt. William Clark of Thomas Jefferson’s Corps of Discovery and has been basically untouched for over 200 years. The property is bordered on the north by 2.5 miles of private Yellowstone River frontage and has dramatic upriver views framed by the Beartooth Mountains, Montana’s tallest peaks. The river is full of wild brown and rainbow trout and the area is rich with wildlife including sage grouse, wild turkey, elk, moose, black bear, antelope, eagle and osprey. The property is located about 30 minutes away from Billings, Montana. Hopefully whoever purchases this land will preserve this beautiful open space. It is listed at $5,750,000.

%Gallery-18331%

Continue reading Black Bluffs, Estate of the Day

Read

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Estates

A new building in the West End/Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington D.C. is one of the priciest complexes in the area. The $100 million building called 22 West, is located at 22nd and M streets and will be home to 92 condominiums ranging in price from $838,500 one bedrooms to penthouses going for as much as $3,868,500. All two bedroom and more massive units get two parking spaces and the smaller units get one space each. Also each unit gets a storage locker. Each unit has floor-to-ceiling windows, natural oak wood flooring and plenty of wiring for all audio-visual devices and building wireless and high-speed world wide web access. The building will have a rooftop pool, a garden terrace, a restaurant and retail stores on the ground floor. The GW Hatchet reports that the building is currently around 30% sold. it is scheduled to be finished this summer.

Read

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Estates

For $12.5 million this gorgeous estate in Potomac, Maryland could be your new abode. A colonial style home built in 2004, this huge house has ten bedrooms, eleven baths and five powder rooms. With 2.7 acres to care about, including the 50-foot swimming pool with waterfalls and lighted outdoor tennis court, this 25,000 square feet house affords plenty of space for amusing guests or hosting huge family gatherings. Each room that could be conceived of is included — media room, wine cellars, staff quarters, exercise room and sauna, and a six-car garage. Plus it is conveniently close to downtown Washington D.C. and a few nearby airports. All it needs is a barn for horses to make it complete — at least in my eyes.

[Thanks, Matthew F.]

%Gallery-18266%

Continue reading Potomac, Estate of the Day

Read

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Estates, Celebrity Shopping

Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, has become the latest member off the celebrity foreclosure club. According to the Detroit Free Press she has said that an attorney’s mistake is the reason that her $700,000 mansion in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan has slipped into foreclosure over a mere $445 in 2005 taxes and late fees. She now owes a total of $19,192 in back taxes on the property through 2007. She has plans to pay up and get the slate-roofed brick mansion on Hamilton Road (see pic at the Detroit Free Press article) back before the March 31 foreclosure deadline. TMZ has Aretha’s official foreclosure documents.

In related celebrity foreclosure news, Michael Jackson’s attorneys state that he has worked out a deal with Fortress Investment Group to save Neverland, his huge California estate which has been flirting with foreclosure for months now. The move will avoid the March 19 auction date for the home. I still say this is just a case of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Jackson likely cannot afford the home and he can’t seem to find anyone who will purchase it from him.

%Gallery-9913%

Read

Share This

Share This