Hillandale, Estate of the Day
We've got a pricey one for you today real estate lovers. Let's check out Hillandale, the 263-acre estate of Liberty Travel co-founder Gilbert Haroche and his wife which just went on the market for $95 million. The estate is on the Connecticut-New York border and has five homes, a chapel, a private lake, an authentic tepee and five miles of roads. The Sulzberger family, longtime publishers of The New York Times were one-time owners of this home. The main house is over 20,000 square feet and the home has eight bedrooms and an indoor pool. The Haroches will likely make an amazing return on their investment, they bought for around $6.7 million and have doubled the size of the main house and built a stone chapel with material from France. They are moving on because the property is now a little large for them. Any guesses on what this estate will actually fetch?
[via Newsday]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Adam Oct 19th 2007 2:11PM
Great home, but I think $70 million would be about right
Mehul Kamdar Oct 19th 2007 4:06PM
From $ 6.7 million to $ 95 million in how much time? Either this is the shrewdest investment by anyone in a long time or it is yet another overoptimistic asking price. Would be interesting to see what economists have to say about this kind of price appreciation in the US...
Spectacular Bid Oct 19th 2007 4:10PM
Maybe it is the photo, but externally the peaked roof (from the forecourt image) is exceptionally narrow and mixed with that blank two story window it seems down right quirky.
Looking back to the still unsold but magnificent residence of Mel Gibson ("Old Mill Farm" by Lewis Bowman) in Greenwich for just under $40M - that is much more appealing to me. A big inventory of high-end homes designed by the best of Gilded Age architects are easily found in Greenwich for sale so nothing north of $20M is really moving.
The grounds of this estate look wonderful - mature sunken gardens can't be beat. The 263 acres is the prize as cited in the Newsday and original Hartford Courant article (not linked or cited) which noted the listing.
Even hitting $50M will require a huge demand for building lots, which is semi-soft right now. Not that I'd want to see such a loss of a large parceled estate but economically get that money someone will re-package the manor house on 20 acres and then offer multiple building parcels of 10 - 20 acres each.
In my view the only semi-appealing house by itself on 20 acres still would struggle to find a buyer at $22M. Another $25M might be squeezed out of developing the remaing 223 acres.
Lets be realistic: the highest price in the State of CT, was the former Henryk de Kwiatkowski (of Calumet Farm fame) estate to Thomas Petterfy for $45M and that was magnificent and on 80-acres within Conyers Farm: the old listing still here
http://www.davidogilvy.com/h1399.htm
This offering is just not double the value of that offering.