La Selva, Estate of the Day

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Oct 11th 2007 at 1:02PM

As Ellen Yan writing for Newsday documents, this home has quite a story behind it. She reports that this home was put on the market by Sylvia Kumar, the wife of imprisoned, former Computer Associates chief Sanjay Kumar. The home in Upper Brookville, New York is on 24 acres. The home known as La Selva was once used by the Roman Catholic Church as the St. Francis Retreat House.

Sanjay Kumar was ordered by a federal judge to pay back $798 million to shareholders after he pled guilty to securities fraud. Even if the home sold at list price, $17 million, it will be just a drop in the bucket. The home was bought by Sylvia Kumar from St. Francis Monastery for $6.75 million in 2001. The 1915 Italian Renaissance-style mansion has a domed rotunda, a loggia, a winding staircase, a library, two dining rooms, seven bedrooms and seven bathrooms. There is also a three-bedroom cottage and a walled carriage house with six bedrooms, a workshop and a heated garage or space for five stables on the grounds. It probably needs some updates but it is a real beauty if for the rotunda alone.

Gallery: La Selva

Tags: estate of the day, la selva, LaSelva, new york, NewYork, sanjay kumar, sylvia kumar, upper brookville

Filed under: Estates

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Bob Oct 11th 2007 2:35PM

Per the listing agent's site: "Subdivision of five acres plots in progress."

Sounds like they are trying to milk every dime out of it.

Spectacular Bid Oct 11th 2007 5:47PM

A lovely estate of wonderful lines and subtle cues that add up to a very gracious mansion yet not of an overbearing design. The interior is a bit spartan and cavernous in the hallways and public spaces. It will be a challenge to future owners to soften those areas.

If only the builders and so-called architects of today could just appreciate for a moment this home's graceful design and grasp how violent, by comparison, most "mega mansions" are today.

The price is competitive for Upper Brookville however it would be very nice if it could be somehow acquired by the Planting Fields organization. It would make for a nice buffer of protected lands. Perhpas the Friends of the former Coe estate will raise the money to buy at least the vast majority of the 24 acre estate.