Filed under: Estates

In Tel Aviv, Israel, the G Tower offers Tel Aviv’s most high-priced apartment, a flat priced at $34-million apartment. The Gindi Group, which developed the G Tower recently announced the selling price for the triplex flat which combines a former duplex and penthouse apartment on the 24th, 25th and 26th floors. The new apartment is located just under the triplex which was purchased by the holder of controlling interest for Bank Hapoalim, Shari Arison, for $13 million.

The tower has 31 floors with 40 apartments. Building amenities include a culture center with a library and bar, a fitness center, swimming pool, conference center, underground parking and tight security. The new apartment has 360 degree views of the city and measures 1,500 square meters (around 15,145 square feet) for a price of over $22,000 per square meter. According to an article on Haaretz.com some real estate agents in Tel Aviv think the price is way too high, especially since a $25 million penthouse in the Sea One Project on Hayarkon Street failed to sell.

%Gallery-19618%

Read

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Estates

For the next couple of weeks we’ll be checking out some homes in the most pricey zip codes in the United Says, up today, 29401. This zip code refers to the beautifully historic town of Charleston, South Carolina. This zip code in the fast-growing Southern city has a median price of $1,590,000 with an appreciation of 228% since 1990.

To explore this town we’ve got one beauty of an old home. This home on King Street in the historic district is the Patrick O’Donnell house it was built by O’Donnell over the period of 1852-1870 who was building the house for his bride but took so long finishing the job that his fianc

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Estates

For the next couple of weeks we will be checking out some homes in the most high-priced zip codes in the United States, up this day, 33924. This zip code brings us to Captiva Island, Florida a spit of land stretching into the Gulf of Mexico. This tranquil and warm area has a median price of $2,060,000 with an appreciation rate of 382% since 1990.

Captiva island is reached by automobile via the Sanibel Causeway and Sanibel-Captiva Road. Its location makes it a bit of a hurricane magnet and the island was damaged in 2004 when Hurricane Charley rolled through. That doesn’t stop people from building some large houses though. Case in point, today’s estate, a large three-story home with six bedrooms. The overall decor relies far too much on the beige but the home does have a salt water aquarium, gourmet kitchen, elevator, arched gallery, marble floors and big mahogany double doors. The swimming pool includes a spa and an area for in-water dining and most importantly a short walk brings you directly to the Captiva Isand’s famously beautiful white sand beaches. This property is listed at $10,900,000.

%Gallery-18485%

Continue reading Most Pricey Zip Codes: 33924, Estate of the Day

Read

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Estates, Celebrity Shopping

Musician Moby is facing real estate woes on both coasts this week. He has been trying to sell his charming New York co-op in the El Dorado since last summer (check out photos from our estate of the day posting here) but seems to be having trouble finding a buyer his co-op board will love. Moby purchased the two-bedroom tower apartment for $4.5 million in September 2005 and it is spread out over four levels and has terraces with terra cotta tiles, stone parapets and of course, mega views. He originally listed it at $7.5 million and found a buyer but the El Dorado co-op board turned the buyer down. Moby got smart and Main Street reports that he is now offering $75,000 as a finder’s fee to anyone who can help him find a buyer that can pass muster.

As we heard a couple months ago, Moby and his friend fashion designer Stacey Bendet bought a $3 million house in the Hollywood Hills with the plans to turn it into a showplace for stylists and celebs with the garage as Moby’s recording studio. Now neighbors aren’t thrilled with idea of a music studio in the area and are warning him not to pursue the renovation. A neighbor stated to the NY Post that they kicked Prince off the street for making noise and so Moby should be careful. Gee, life as a peace-loving vegan millionaire is tougher than I thought.

Read

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Estates, Celebrity Shopping

Controversial pastor Reverend Jeremiah Wright is getting a luxurious retirement home. The Tinley Park Southtown Star reports that Barack Obama’s former pastor will have a four-bedroom home in Tinley Park, Illinois, a southern Chicago suburb. Wright’s home, which is being paid for by his church, the Trinity United Church of Christ, will include an elevator, butler’s pantry, exercise room, a master bedroom with a whirlpool and a spare room for a future theater or swimming pool. The mansion is estimated to cost $1 million.

Wright was recently in the news for his controversial polemics against U.S. foreign policy and Obama’s Democratic rival, U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton. He has retired from preaching and it is the policy of the church to provide housing for retiring clergy even though I’d guess that usually the lodging isn’t quite so lavish.

Read

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Estates

For the next couple of weeks we’ll be checking out some homes in the most expensive zip codes in the United States, up this day, 33037. This zip code lands us in Key Largo, Florida, an island paradise in the upper Florida Keys archipelago . This getaway famous for tourism diving and sport-fishing has been celebrated both in a Humphrey Bogart motion picture and a 1980s pop song by Bertie Higgins. This tropical vacation spot has a median price of $2,740,000 with an appreciation rate of 385% since 1990.

Today’s estate isn’t the most high-priced one for sale in the area but it exemplifies the more luxurious side of Key Largo real estate. The property has both a five-bedroom main house and a guest home. The two-acre retreat on the water has tropical landscaping, a dock and a pool and spa. There is a huge gourmet kitchen a double-height great room and plenty of windows and veranda space. One particularly nice detail is the loft which has a spiral staircase leading to a roof sun deck. This home is listed at $5,395,000.

%Gallery-18486%

Continue reading Most Expensive Zip Codes, 33037, Estate of the Day

Read

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Estates

Another grand old home in Newport, Rhode Island has hit the market. Braden Keil’s Gimme Shelter column in the NY Post alerted me to the fact that Hopedene, a grand home on Newport’s famous Cliff Walk is for sale. Hopedene was built in 1889 and is called Peabody and Stearns’s most monumental Colonial Revival residence. The home is on six acres and is approached via a private lane to gilt and wrought iron gates, The property includes a main house, a massive carriage house with guest quarters, an ocean facing pool and spa, tennis court, gated service entrance, and an FAA approved heliport.

The home itself has gorgeous details including a marble vestibule with a mosaic floor and Italian Renaissance style center hall and a beautiful wood-paneled library. The semi circular ballroom is currently used as a dining room. The home includes remnants of a grander age such as a butler hall, parlor, and cooks and butler’s pantries, kitchen library and a flower room. The upper floors are given over to bathrooms and bedrooms, many of which with marble fireplaces. The carriage home includes a game room with a bar, a full bath, a nautical library and French doors opening to bluestone terraces and the pool, and a heated garage. On the second level there are five bedrooms a full kitchen and laundry and bathrooms.

The NY Post reports that the owners are Palm Beach socialites Craig Millard (the retired chairman of Prudential Preferred Properties) and his wife, Michele. This home is listed at $22.5 million.

%Gallery-19308%

Continue reading Hopedene, Estate of the Day

Read

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Estates, Celebrity Shopping

From the NY Post’s Gimme Shelter:
–Donald Trump is asking a truly stunning amount of rent for one of his unsold Park Avenue penthouses: $200,000 per month for a three-bedroom condominium, shown above, that’s listed at $45 million. The listing is here.
–We first heard rumors of this back in December but now it seems that it is official that the listing for Oscar-winning producer Marty Richards’ apartment went to contract. It’s selling for somewhere just below its $22.7 million asking price. The buyer is said to be fashion-show mogul Elyse Kroll. Her 23-room townhouse is on the market for $29.75 million. The listing is here.
–Hopedene, a fabulous mansion on Newport, Rhode Island’s famous Cliff Walk has hit the market. It’s our estate of the day later this day.

From the NY Observer’s Manhattan Transfers:
–Steven Croman who has been named to The Village Voice’s 10 Worst Landlords List, has picked up a townhouse at 7 East 75th Street,paying $14.5 million to a family that had owned the home for decades. (The home’s facade was used as home on the TV show The Nanny). Croman states he has no plans to make it into a single family home or to raise rent for existing tenants.
–Writer and Oprah scapegoat James Frey has picked up a $985,000 one-bedroom apartment which is next door to his three-bedroom apartment at 505 Greenwich Street.
–One of New York city’s most coveted homes, Brooke Astor’s 778 Park Avenue duplex might soon be on the market. Agents from five of the city’s top brokerages met in the 778 Park duplex’s library to audition for the listing which could be as much as $46 million.

From The Wall Street Journal’s Private Properties:
–Bear Sterns Chief Executive Alan D. Schwartz has taken his Buy, New York home off the market and is renting it instead. The home was listed for $4.5 million. Bear Chairman and former CEO James Cayne closed last month on a $27.4 million purchase of two adjacent apartments at the Plaza in New York.
–Allman Brothers Band drummer Claude “Butch” Trucks has cut the asking price on his Palm Beach, Fla., home again this month to $3.995 million, down 17% from the original $4.8 million. The listing is here.
–In Manhattan, a few new high-profile condo buildings with uncommon designs are selling at high prices for downtown neighborhoods. At 100 11th Ave., an irregular, glass-faceted tower designed by France’s Jean Nouvel, 70% of the building’s 72 original units have sold since sales began in April. Eight of the nine units at Shigeru Ban’s “Metal Shutter Houses” development have sold at full asking price of up to $10.25 million. Herzog & de Meuron’s 28-unit green-glass 40 Bond building still has one original unit for sale after two years on the market, in addition to several resale listings.

From Berg Properties Big Time Listings:
–via WSJ Private Properties, retired quarterback Drew Bledsoe is selling his home in Westlake, Texas. He already lives in Bend, Oregon. The listing is here.
–Sitcom actress Jaime Pressly has paid $2,250,000 for a new five-bedroom home in Sherman Oaks.
–British Television presenter and Simon Cowell girlfriend Terri Seymour, has paid $4.6 million for a home in the Bird Streets area of the Hollywood Hills. Pictures of the beautiful contemporary home are here.
–A modern home in the Hollywood Hills that once was owned by actress Milla Jovovich has been listed for $2,399,000. The virtual tour is here.
–Michael J. Fox has paid $6,300,000 for a new six-bedroom home in Quogue, N.Y.
–Charlotte Bobcats shooting guard Jason Richardson has listed his five-bedroom home in Oakland, CA for $3,100,000. The listing is here.
–O magazine editor-at-large and Oprah BFF Gayle King has closed on the buy of a $7,100,000 condo in Manhattan.
–Rumor has it that Jessica Simpson may have purchased a big house in Nashville, Tennessee but so far she has denied this.
–Danny Masterson has sold his four-bedroom, Spanish-style house in the Beachwood Canyon area of Los Angeles for $1.2 million.
–via TMZ Tom Arnold has listed his five-bedroom, 4,211-square-foot home in Tarzana for $2,275,000. The virtual tour is here.

From the Real Estalker:
–The $81.5 million Sidney Kimmel home in Palm Beach might have already gone to contract for a number over $75 million.
–Actor Enrique Murciano has listed his home in Los Angeles for $1.795 million. The listing is here.
–via NY Daily News, Mary J. Blige has paid $12.3 million for a home in Saddle River, NJ that was originally listed at $17 million.

From the LA Times: Hot Property:
–Another look at the home that DJ Paul Oakenfold has put on the market for $10 million. It was our estate of the day in February.
–Hotelier Jason Pomeranc has purchased a former Hollywood Hills home of actress Sandra Dee and singer Bobby Darin for about $3 million.
–Frank Sinatra’s Palm Desert hideaway,Villa Maggio, has hit the market for $4.995 million. The compound sleeps up to 22 people and there’s a helicopter pad, movie theater and outdoor dance floor. The listing is here.
–Actress Dedee Pfeiffer, sister of Michelle Pfeiffer, has listed her home in Mandeville Canyon for $1.195 million. It looks like the three-bedroom home with hot and cold Japanese-style dipping pools has already gone to contract. The listing is here.
–Actor Gregory Harrison has listed his southern Oregon home at $5.9 million. We covered this home as an estate of the day back in January but were unaware of its celebrity provenance

Permalink

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Estates

Last January, we heard about the plans for a $155 million home planned for the Yellowstone Club, the exclusive millionaires’ playground in Montana. The AP reports that Tim Blixseth, the founder of the Yellowstone Club has sold the parcel of land where he had planned to build the home. Big Sky resident Loren Bough purchased the 160-acre parcel.

Earlier this month, The Desert Sun did a comprehensive story on Blixseth’s fight to keep his wealth. He and his wife Edra Blixseth have been involved in a bitter divorce. He’s also been fighting a multimillion-dollar settlement with former cycling star Greg LeMond. When Tim and Edra first split in December 2006 after a 25 year relationship, they were lauded for dividing their property and assets without fights and lawyers. But since then, they’ve been involved in a protracted battle for their shared assets.

Also Tour de France champion Greg LeMond, his parents-in-law David and Sacia Morris, and Jorge Jasson, a family friend have claimed i ncourt that Blixseth tried to purchase their shares at the Yellowstone Club for a total of $13 million, which they state was a fraction of their value. The parties reached a $38 million settlement in the case. Blixseth paid the first installment on the suit but missed a payment in January and interest is now accruing.

Blixseth is trying to sell the 13,400-acre gated community. In January he was working with CrossHarbor Capital Partners LLC, the Boston-based private- equity firm founded by Yellowstone member Sam Byrne to sell assets of the club for $455.7 million.

Read

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Estates

For the next couple of weeks we will be checking out some homes in the most costly zip codes in the United States, up this day, 33404. This zip code is is in the Riviera Beach/Singer Island section of Palm Beach County, Florida and has a median price of $2,890,000 with an appreciation rate of 563% since 1990. Singer Island was founded by Paris Singer, the Singer Sewing Machine company founder who, rumor has it, purchased the island as a present for his mistress.

Much of the Singer Island area is given over to condominiums which so far don’t seems to have suffered the real estate disaster that has plagued so many Florida condominiums. Perhaps this is because there’s only so much of Singer Island to go around. This condo is in One Singer Island, a new complex stocked with amenities that include a private and enclosed parking garage, lobby with a grand salon, social room and Versace patio, private theater, wine room, billiard room, fitness center and a pool and spa deck. There are just 15 residences in the building. The first five floors have two residences per floor. The top five floors have one “ocean to intracoastal” penthouse each. This unique unit is the top full floor and it has a truly dramatic feature, a spiral staircase leading to your own private rooftop terrace with a lounge area and sheltered hot tub. This apartment is listed at $5,995,000.

%Gallery-18476%

Continue reading Most Pricey Zip Codes: 33404, Estate of the Day

Read

Share This

Share This