GIMME SHELTER
Billy Joel is setting the record straight about his ever-changing real estate portfolio, which has kept this and other such columns busy for years.
“I’m just sellin’ away,” he laughed.
The Long Island native, who has owned several high-end abodes in the Hamptons – including the Amagansett estate he sold to Jerry Seinfeld a few years ago for a reported $32 million – has changed his tune about another one of his properties on the East End, having recently listed for sale a waterfront Shelter Island home.
He rarely used it, Joel said. And he believes someone’s going to get a good deal for the four-bedroom, 3.5-bath Tudor-style manse on 1.5 acres in the Smith’s Cove area that he bought two years ago.
“It’s a beautiful house,” he said. “And I put a good chunk of change into fixing it up.”
The unoccupied 12-year-old Shelter Island house features water views from almost every room, five fireplaces, a two-story foyer, a music room, a temperature-controlled wine cellar and a professionally equipped kitchen.
The grounds include a terraced pool with spa and a 190-foot deepwater dock that can fit several boats – “plus I’ve got mooring rights,” added Joel. A buildable one-acre lot is also included.
Sounds great. So why is he selling?
“I have a boat-building business in Shelter Island and assumed I’d be spending a good amount of time there,” he told us. “But I ended up buying another property in Sag Harbor, where I’ve actually been spending more time.”
Perhaps Shelter Island is a little too sheltered, we offered.
“It’s really a boater’s house,” said Joel. “What a lot of people are scared about with regard to Shelter Island is the ferry and the waiting lines – if you miss the last ferry for the night, you’re screwed. But if you’re a boater you’re never stuck. Even if you aren’t a boater, it’s about a minute from the south ferry.”
Both Briana Stephanian and Penelope Moore of Allan M. Schneider are the listing agents on the property.
Earlier this year Joel sold a similarly appointed pad on the water with a dock, in nearby North Haven, a short ferry ride south of Shelter Island, that originally had an asking price of $8.5 million.
And about a mile from North Haven is Sag Harbor, where the piano/boat man is now ensconced.
“I bought two properties in Sag Harbor right on the harbor front,” he said from his present digs. “One was an antique store that was still zoned for residential use. Then I bought the place next door that was a bait-and-tackle shop, which was zoned commercial.
“I was allowed to build a residence on top of that. So I’ve got this incredible residential space and two docks on the harbor and this big balcony and this great view. And it’s just . . . great!”
That’s our East End roundup.
Meanwhile, Joel tells us he’s about to move into his “main residence,” a 15-acre Centre Island estate with a 15,000-square-foot Tudor-style house that includes an indoor pool and (surprise!) a dock on Oyster Bay, which he bought last December (for a reported $22 million). “The interior was renovated over the last year. And I’m about to move there in a week or two,” he said.
Tommy’s new tune
Now that Tommy Mottola has sold both his Upper East Side residences, he’s renting on another side of town. Sources say the music mogul is now shelling out slightly less than $30,000 a month for a large condo with over 5,000 square feet and 160-foot frontage overlooking the Park on one of the higher floors at the recently completed Park Imperial complex in Midtown. He and his stunning wife, Latin pop star Thalia, should have an interesting elevator ride in the morning with neighbors like Deepak Chopra and Donald Sutherland, not to mention Elliott Gould, who is also rumored to have bought there at 230 W. 56th St.
Kate’s $12M cottage
The late, great Kate Hepburn lived out her years the way most of the planet would prefer; in a fabulous mansion overlooking the water.
Now for those well-to-do, die-hard Hepburn-philes hoping for a similar fate, her handsome nine-bedroom, eight-bath home in Old Saybrook, Conn., is for sale.
For $12 million, the 8,000-square-foot, circa-1930s “cottage,” on three waterfront acres, can be had for the first time since the legendary actress built it. The three-story house also has numerous fireplaces.
The property, which is surrounded by conservation land, features some 600 feet of frontage on Long Island Sound, Kate’s English garden and her private beach – but no pool.
Colette Harron of The Mitchel Agency in Essex, Conn., is the lucky listing agent.
Marvin’s not starvin’
Oil magnate Marvin Davis must think he’s living in New York. Why else would he and his wife, Barbara, think of asking $70 million for their Beverly Hills home? The Davises have owned the 11-acre property, known as “The Knoll,” for nearly 20 years, after buying it from singer/chicken mogul Kenny Rogers.
The circa-1955 mansion was previously owned by producer Dino De Laurentiis.
Sure, it’s a nice spread, with a 26,000-square-foot main house, featuring an indoor pool and a theater with a full bar. There’s also a pool house beside the outdoor pool, a tennis court with a pavilion, and two other houses outside the gates.
According to the Los Angeles Times, it’s one of the highest prices ever to be asked for a single-family residence in the area.