Could this insane Connecticut property break the record for the most expensive residential property ever sold in the country? Now on the market for $175 million, Great Island spans 63 acres and holds a mansion, beach cottages, a polo field, caretaker’s house with a greenhouse, yacht basin with docks, and a cow barn to boot. Such an impressive estate is owned by the family of the 19th-century industrialist William Ziegler. He acquired it in 1902 to use as a summer destination–one that rivals any other “summer house” we’ve seen. And according to The Real Deal, if this sells for its full asking price it would beat the record for priciest house ever sold in the U.S., which belongs to the 2014 sale of a $147 million home in the Hamptons.
Connecticut
Connecticut, Cool Listings, Historic Homes, Quirky Homes
There are just a select few opportunities to live in a lighthouse outside of New York City—$1.5 million could get you a red lighthouse upstate; $425,000 buys a lighthouse and tugboat in West Haven, CT. It’s not everyday these properties come around, but the government is currently auctioning off six of its lighthouses and one, the Penfield Reefer Lighthouse, is located just 60 miles away from Midtown Manhattan.
Connecticut, Cool Listings, Quirky Homes
Hey, big spender…before you close on that trophy penthouse condo or townhouse duo, take a look at this extraordinary listing.
When you’ve got billions–or even lots of millions–your real estate options are many. From a penthouse in the sky in a Billionaire’s Row skyscraper to a townhouse or two on the Upper East Side or a Hamptons manse with acres of beachfront property, modern-day palaces await. For that eight-figure outlay, this listing is unusual even among the real estate deals of the superrich.
The Post tells us of a private archipelago off the Connecticut coastline, owned by Christine and Edmund Stoecklein, on the market for $78 million. Known as the Thimble Islands, this surprising collection of eight islands boasts beautiful restored 19th century mansions, pools, guest houses, docking for yachts both small and large, a commercial-level greenhouse facility, tennis courts and a golf putting green and tees designed by Jack Nicklaus. The property is at most a ten-minute boat ride from the Connecticut shoreline or a twenty minute helicopter jaunt from Manhattan.
Celebrities, Connecticut, Cool Listings
When Donald Trump was rising up in the real estate ranks in the early ’80s (and when he was still a Democrat), he and then-wife Ivana were looking for their first “trophy mansion.” In 1982, they found it in this 5.8-acre Greenwich, Connecticut estate, paying $4 million for the home on its own peninsula. At the time, Trump was busy refurbishing the Plaza Hotel, so he and Ivana infused their new home with the same ornate style of gold leaf, massive chandeliers, and moldings galore.
When the couple divorced in 1991, Ivana got the mansion (among many other properties and cash), but she sold it seven years later for $15 million to owners who made the property even more opulent, adding an indoor lap pool, sauna, tennis courts, and a 4,000-square-foot guest suite addition. These owners listed the property back in January for $54 million, but it’s now gotten a price chop to $45 million, according to Top Ten Real Estate News.