The Ziff family compound in Manalapan, Fla., isn’t listed for sale on any web site. But the 16-acre property, which boasts a 62,200-square-foot main home, is most decidedly on the market, and with a price tag of $195 million—the highest of any home to hit the market in 2015.
“Gemini,” as the property is known, lies on a barrier island, with 1,200 feet of Atlantic Ocean waterfront and 1,300 feet of frontage on the Intracoastal Waterway. In addition to the main home, Gemini boasts a seven-bedroom house, two four-bedroom cottages, staff housing with four apartments, and manager offices. The main home has a living room that is literally a tunnel—a below-ground passageway beneath South Ocean Boulevard—with skylights at each end of the living room for light.
The mansion was originally built for Gerard Barnes Lambert, Sr., father of Rachel Lambert “Bunny” Mellon. Later, it became the Florida home of Gloria Guinness, a socialite and intimate of Truman Capote. The Duke and Duchess of Windsor were visitors; when their beloved pug passed away several Palm Beach dinner parties were cancelled so the would-be party-goers could pay their respects to the dog, contemporary accounts in local society pages report. Carmen D’Angelo, of Premier Estate Properties, an affiliate of Christie’s International Real Estate, has the listing.
With its $195 million price tag, Gemini is by far the costliest home to come to market in 2015. But plenty of homes have hit the market with price tags of $50 million or higher so far this year: in the first five months, some 20 properties in California, New York, and Florida. Here, Forbes tallies America's New Most Expensive Homes For Sale. Note that this list focuses exclusively on properties that have hit the market--or in some cases relisted with a new price--this year.
Designer Max Azria's "Maison du Soleil" in Holmby Hills.
NYC Mega-Townhomes And Wannabes
New York has been flooded with super-skinny, luxury high-rises casting shadows over Midtown in so-called Billionaire Row. But a number of new Manhattan listings this year suggest that sellers are beginning to offer a different brand of grandeur: large, low, luxurious private townhomes.
“The trend of all these super-talls is that it's all about the view,” says Jonathan Miller, of New York City-based Miller Samuel Appraisers and Consultants. “The townhouse has nothing to do with the view. It’s really about privacy.”
The challenge for the uber-rich, Miller notes, is assembling a property wide enough. The average New York townhome is about 18 feet wide. “For the most part these people are looking for wider than 25 feet,” Miller says.
Buyers with this appetite could choose among several properties to hit the market so far this year. Perhaps the most extravagant is the 22,000-square-foot Beaux Arts townhome owned by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim. The telecom tycoon listed his Upper East Side property for $80 million in May. Built in 1901, the Beaux-Arts style mansion at 1009 Fifth Avenue rises eight stories, and is known as the Duke-Semans mansion after Benjamin N. Duke, the tobacco and textile tycoon who bought the home in 1907. The Duke family continued to own the mansion until 2006, when Tamir Sapir purchased it for $40 million. Four years later, Slim snapped it up for $44 million. If he gets his asking price, Slim would pocket a cool $36 million profit—an 82% return in just four years.
Slim’s is the only $50 million+ townhome listed in 2015 that’s ready as is. But several other buildings are being pitched for their potential to become equally grand. On the Upper East Side, three owners of the 10 units inside 1025 Park Avenue listed them all for $65 million in mid-May. Designed in 1912 by John Russell Pope, the 60-foot-wide, 19,000-square-foot mansion was originally a five-story single-family townhome built for the composer Reginald De Koven and his wife, a writer and prominent socialite. Today many of the details at the Reginald and Anna De Koven House was still intact. “If you could bring it back to its original architectural integrity, you would have one of the greatest properties in New York City—in the world,” says Kane Manera, the Douglas Elliman Real Estate listing agent.
In Tribeca, the family that owns 71-73 Franklin Street offered in April to convert the apartment building to a 29,000-square-foot single-family residence for $65 million. Buyers who would rather do the conversion themselves can have the building for a mere $50 million. As the Lipkis family has envisioned it, the conversion would create a residence with seven bedrooms, a pool, gym, elevator and roof deck. Built around 1860, the Franklin Street building was over the years used by vendors of leather goods, silk, and linens. “The fact that the building has 52 feet of frontage is very unique,” Mordy Lipkis said. “The other thing it offers is it’s a clean slate. Anyone who buys this could design this any which way they want.” Leonard Steinberg of Compass has the listing.
The mansion that was once home to fashion designer and heiress Gloria Vanderbilt, mother of television reporter Anderson Cooper, listed for $59 million in April. Originally built in 1881 by architect B. Lynd, the mansion at 39 E. 72nd Street is 27 feet wide. Last year developers B+B Capital snapped it up for a reported $19 million. The price tag includes a historical renovation that would expand the mansion to seven stories and allow the new owner to choose appliances and finishes, according to marketing materials. Ilan Bracha of Keller Williams Realty has the listing.
Even an Upper East Side garage is being presented as a possible mega-townhome, with a price tag of $50 million. Designed by Charles F. Hoppe in 1907, the five-story building at 177-179 East 73rd Street was originally used as a carriage house, according to the WSJ. The garage has the key elements for a townhome conversion: width (40 feet) and square footage (17,232.) Underscoring the townhome trend, Russian billionaire Abram Romanovich has reportedly been working to buy a Manhattan block so that he can build his own mega-mansion.
California Land Gems
California boasts some of the most breathtaking properties among 2015’s most expensive new homes for sale when it comes to the grounds, President Richard Nixon’s former home in San Clemente among them. “La Casa Pacifica,” at 4100 Calle Isabella, hit the market in April with a price tag of $75 million. Often referred to as Nixon’s Western White House, this was where Nixon hosted guests from Leonid Brezhnev to Henry Kissinger, and where the President wrote his memoir after the Watergate scandal. The 15,500-square-foot Spanish-style buildings on 5.5 acres include the main mansion, a guesthouse, and staff quarters. Gavin Herbert, the retired founder and CEO of Allergan, and two associates bought the estate in a private sale in 1980. Because the main house is a historical landmark, an owner might expect to pay just $20,000 to $25,000 in property taxes per year on the mansion and historic gardens, compared to a market rate of about $750,000. “I don’t think there’s anything as large or as wide on the oceanfront south of Santa Barbara,” says Rob Giem, the HÔM Sotheby’s International Realty listing agent.
A three-bedroom, three-bath home in Laguna Beach comes with the same price point as Nixon's former Western White House, though it comprises a meager 1,808 square feet. The $75 million price is based on the land: 2.3 acres property with double peninsulas jutting into the Pacific Ocean. The property has remained in a single family since 1930.
In March, fashion designer Max Azria and his wife Lubov put their roughly 30,000-square-foot Holmby Hills mansion, “Maison Du Soleil,” on the market for $85 million. Designed by architect Paul Revere Williams in the 1930s, the home has 17 bedrooms and 22 bathrooms. The Azrias bought the home in 2006 and completely renovated it, says Jaime Cuevas, who shares the listing with Mauricio Umansky and Billy Rose of The Agency. The two-story foyer of the home features a floor-to-ceiling chandelier with 150,000 crystals that fall to a petrified wood sculpture. Above the 6,000-square-foot movie theater, the home has an office with a gold-plated ceiling. It is at 10250 West Sunset Boulevard.
And in Beverly Hills, a mansion built by a man who makes his living dressing celebrities hit the market in April for $72 million. Built by Albert Elkouby, CEO of JH Design, the 28,000-square-foot home is set on 1.5 acres at 901 N. Alpine Drive. The home is visible from Sunset Boulevard and features a 3,000-square-foot ballroom with 30-feet ceilings, a dance floor, a lounge with a cocktail bar, and space for 200 people to sit down. There is also room for guests to park as many as 50 cars outdoors, and for 16 more in an underground garage. Joyce Rey and Jade Mills, both of Coldwell Banker Previews International, share the listing with Jeff Hyland and Zach Goldsmith of Hilton & Hyland.
North of Los Angeles, in Carmel Valley, Calif., a 14,000-acre ranch hit the market in March for $59.95 million. The spread includes an 8,000-square-foot house with a pool and several staff quarters and agricultural buildings. The land is currently home to 450 head of cattle.
Unique Florida Properties
Florida's priciest new homes listed for sale this year are a waterfront mansion and a four-floor penthouse overlooking the Atlantic. Just last week, a Coral Gables mansion hit the market for $67 million. The nearly 20,900-square-foot home features a large art gallery, a rotunda ceiling with a mural of animals, two saltwater aquariums and an aviary. Jill Eber and Jill Hertzber of The Jills with Coldwell Banker have the listing.
In January, developer Ian Bruce Eichner announced that his four-floor penthouse at the Continuum South Beach 2 was for sale with a price tag of $50 million ($4,519/sf). The apartment was built more than a decade ago, in 2002; its price tag reflects a $5 million (optional) overhaul by high-end Miami-based interior decorator Steven G.
Mansions In The Sky
Though Manhattan is seeing a trend toward townhomes, plenty of mansions in the sky are among 2015’s priciest listings so far.
Actress Demi Moore’s triplex penthouse at the San Remo hit the market in April for $75 million, including a two-bedroom, two-bath “maisonette” on the building’s lobby level. Moore and then-husband Bruce Willis bought the 14-room penthouse in 1990, and renovated it in a “Southwestern Mission motif,” according to the New York Times, which first reported the listing. Designed in 1929 by noted architect Emery Roth, the San Remo, at 145-156 Central Park West in Manhattan, has been home for Dustin Hoffman, Diane Keaton, and Steven Spielberg. “This is the crown jewel of the San Remo. It is the largest single intact park-facing apartment with private outdoor space in the San Remo,” says Adam D. Modlin of the Modlin Group has the listing.
Meanwhile, Penthouse 1 at developer Jared Kushner’s Puck Penthouses hit the market officially in February with a price tag of $66 million. The 7,241-square-foot duplex penthouse has an additional 5,158 square feet in exterior terraces, and includes six bedrooms, 7.5 baths, a library, gym, home theater, wine cellar, and outdoor “Yoga Lawn,” according to marketing materials. This one is ready-to-go—no renovation needed. Nikki Field of Sotheby’s International Realty has the listing.
Downtown, two apartments at The Woolworth Tower Residences are taking a cue from the mega-townhomes and have been listed together with a combined price of $51.35 million. The two 29th-floor units are newly constructed, have private terraces, and can also be purchased separately, for $28.75 million for the four-bedroom and $22.6 million for the three-bedroom. Together, the apartments would comprise about 11,450 square feet and occupy the entire 29th floor. (The Woolworth Building is at 233 Broadway, but residents have a separate address for their entrance, 2 Park Place.)
The Walker Tower penthouse that set a downtown Manhattan sales record last year hit the market again this week, this time with a price tag of $70 million. Neil Moffitt, CEO of Hakkasan Group, purchased the 6,000-square-foot penthouse less than a year and a half ago for $50.9 million. On Monday, the penthouse listed with an asking price nearly $20 million more than Moffitt paid, making it one of New York City’s more expensive listings. The Walker Tower Residences, at 212 W. 18th Street in Manhattan, are a renovation of a 1929 Art Deco building that originally served as an office for the New York Telephone Company, and was later purchased by Verizon.
The developers of One57, the super-skinny tower at 157 West 57th Street, reportedly managed to snag a buyer who put down a $10 million deposit in 2012, and agreed to pay $52.8 million for the apartment. But the sale may have fallen through, because Extell (the developer) relisted the property in March for $58.5 million. A representative for the tower said Extell had no comment.
Howard Marks has also relisted his Ritz Carlton Penthouse, at 50 Central Park South on the 33rd floor. The billionaire investor’s 4,536-square-foot, two-bedroom penthouse at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel overlooking Central Park has been on and off the market over the past several years, repeatedly with a $50 million price tag. Marks relisted it with the magic $50 million price tag again in mid-May. Roberta Golubock of Sotheby’s International Realty has the listing.
More high-priced towers are sure to come. At 53W53, the new Jean Nouvel-designed super-skinny tower on Manhattan’s West 53rd Street, the penthouse duplex will have a price tag of at least $70 million.
Price Chops
A handful of 2015’s most expensive listings are apartments that have actually been listed for a while, but which have faced new price chops in the last five months. The most dramatic drop was at the triplex penthouse at Manhattan’s Pierre Hotel, which saw its asking price slashed from $125 million to $63 million in January. Owned at one time by J. Paul Getty, the penthouse has been on and off the market for years. The owner is Barbara Zweig, widow of the late financier Martin Zweig. Mary K. Rutherford and Leslie R. Coleman of Brown Harris Stevens have the listing.
Million Dollar Listing star Ryan Serhant, a broker with NestSeekers, had priced a trio of Ritz-Carlton Battery Park apartments (10 West Street) at $118 million, at one time the city’s priciest listing. The apartments have a new agent, longtime power broker Dolly Lenz, and a new, much lower price of $75 million--but only two apartments, rather than the original three, are now included. Finally, Tommy Hilfiger in March dropped the price tag of his five-bedroom penthouse on the 18th and 19th floors of the Plaza Hotel to $75 million, down from $80 million last year.
