dunnellen hall

In August we learned that Leona Helmsley's former home, Dunnellen Hall in Greenwich, Connecticut might finally be sold. Now the Greenwich Time gives us a sold price and it's even lower than had been anticipated. This home hit the market in 2008 for $125 million. Price cut after price cut followed until it hit $60 million. The Greenwich Time says that the home has been sold for $35 million, a full $90 million discount. The buyer is listed as a trustee, Cynthia L. Smith of the Greenwich law firm Whitman, Breed, Abbott & Morgan LLP. Jane Basham of David Ogilvy & Associates was the selling agent.

The traditional brick mansion is approximately 23,0000 square feet with seven upstairs bedroom suites, a glass-walled music room, a wood- paneled library with a 15th century fireplace mantel, formal dining room, family room with a bar and much more. The back wing is home to the staff area which has six bedrooms. The indoor pool has four exposures and includes areas for sitting and changing. There is also a 75-foot outdoor pool with a terrace and a cabana with a kitchen. There are also brick cottages with an additional six bedrooms total. The Helmsleys bought Dunnellen Hall in 1983 for $9 million (paying an extra $2 million for the furniture) and later picked up another 14 acres bringing the total to 40 acres. We've heard from those who have visited the home that it is in a state of disrepair and will cost millions to fix. The sale will be a boon for the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, which supports health care and medical research.

The home is just the latest in Greenwich in a year that has seen Tommy Hilfiger pick up a new home for $31.375 million and Mel Gibson's Old Mill Farm sell for almost $24 million. The top of the market is now the Point of View estate listed at $42 million.

Could one of the country's most extravagant and expensive homes finally be sold? The NY Post says that Dunnellen Hall in Greenwich, Connecticut is at the contract stage. Leona Helmsley's former home first hit the market in 2008 for an astounding $125 million. Price cut after price cut followed until it hit $60 million. The NY Post's source revealed that the home may sell to a mystery buyer for under $55 million. The listing still appears on the David Oglivy & Associates website.

The traditional brick mansion is approximately 23,0000 square feet with seven upstairs bedroom suites, a glass-walled music room, a wood- paneled library with a 15th century fireplace mantel, formal dining room, family room with a bar and much more. The back wing is home to the staff area which has six bedrooms. The indoor pool has four exposures and includes areas for sitting and changing. There is also a 75-foot outdoor pool with a terrace and a cabana with a kitchen. There are also brick cottages with an additional six bedrooms total. The Helmsleys bought Dunnellen Hall in 1983 for $9 million (paying an extra $2 million for the furniture) and later picked up another 14 acres bringing the total to 40 acres.

The sale will be a boon for the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, which supports health care and medical research. We've heard from those who have visited the home that it is in a state of disrepair and will cost millions to fix. The Post article echoes that saying that it has a leaky roof and other problems. It also has astounding property taxes, a total of $183,000 a year according to the Post. The MLS lists the most expensive piece of property on the market in Greenwich right now as a 27-acre piece of property that is "contiguous to and once part of the great estate, Dunnellen Hall" for $39 million.

Leona Helmsley's Greenwich estate, Dunnellen Hall is now under the 50 percent off mark. The estate which first hit the market for $125 million has gone tumbling down the entire time it has been on the market. Last we looked it was at $75 million. But a kind gentleman let me know that the home has now been reduced to $60 million.

The traditional brick mansion is approximately 23,0000 square feet with seven upstairs bedroom suites, a glass-walled music room, a wood- paneled library with a 15th century fireplace mantel, formal dining room, family room with a bar and much more. The back wing is home to the staff area which has six bedrooms. The indoor pool has four exposures and includes areas for sitting and changing. There is also a 75-foot outdoor pool with a terrace and a cabana with a kitchen. There are also brick cottages with an additional six bedrooms total. The Helmsleys bought Dunnellen Hall in 1983 for $9 million (paying an extra $2 million for the furniture) and later picked up another 14 acres bringing the total to 40 acres. How low will it go? Rumor has it that the home will require a lot of work to transform it back into a showplace.

Mel can't sell. The soon-to-be-divorced star can't seem to shake Old Mill Farm, his Greenwich, Connecticut home. Gibson first put the home on the market in the summer of 2007 for $39.5 million. He dropped the price to $35 million last September. But with a divorce in the works and an eighth child on the way with his new girlfriend, he's got bills to pay and a home to get rid of and so now he's pared the price down to under $30 million. Old Mill Farm can be yours for $29.75 million.

Old Mill Farm is a design by architect Charles Lewis Bowman built in 1926 for his horse lover client, G.L. Ohrstrom. The home is one of the last great manor homes in Greenwich and is significant not just for the architecture but for the fact that it has 77 acres of land. The home itself is an Elizabethan-inspired Tudor mansion of 15,800 square feet and the property has 15 bedrooms and 18 bathrooms total. The jaw-dropping room of the place is the great hall which has a 40-foot cathedral ceiling with a stone minstrel's gallery, walk-in fireplace and leaded glass ceilings. The grounds, which were done by landscape designer James Doyle, include formal gardens and a maze. There is also a terrace pool, tennis court, greenhouse, stable, staff houses, log cabin and a pond on the property.

You'd think that this new low price might lead to a sale but in Greenwich, as the NY Times reports, nothing is certain anymore. Greenwich has been home to some of the biggest price drops in the history of residential real estate including the top spot in our recent list of big price cuts, Leona Helmsley's Dunnellen Hall which has dropped in price by $50 million since it first hit the market. One person who seems to have sold in the area is Regis Philbin. His Greenwich home listing has disappeared.

Five months ago when Forbes ranked the world's most expensive houses (in terms of current listings) only three of them clocked in at over $100 million. And in fact, one of those, Leona Helmsley's Dunnellen Hall in Greenwich, CT which started out at $125 million had already been reduced to $95 million by the time the list was published (it's currently being offered at $75 million). The other, Fleur de Lys in Beverly Hills listed at $125 million, was therefore the world's most expensive and one of only two $100 million-plus properties officially on the market.

Re-surveying the field now we've decided it's time for a new World's Most Expensive list, mainly because despite the recession - or, perhaps, because of it - there are now seven properties in what we've dubbed the Hundred Million Club (N.B. - those listed at only $100 million don't make the cut), three of which are in the U.S. These are the modern-day equivalents of the magnates' great estates we wrote about back in February.

Some recent market activity which regular Luxist readers will be aware of makes a new ranking imperative. For starters, last month Candy Spelling listed her Holmby Hills mega-mansion at $150 million, making it the world's most expensive estate. Then just last week a mansion at No. 10 Belgrave Square in London hit the market for around the same price - £100 million, or about $149 million (depending on exchange rates), while a second Belgrave Square property finally completed renovations and has been listed at £80 million, or about $120 million.

We also received confirmation this week that an incredible 40-room private mansion in Paris' Place des États Unis (above), built in 1890, has been listed at €105 million, or about $138 million. Fleur de Lys, whose "world's most expensive" status (though not its "legendary estate" status) was also usurped by the $135 million Manaplan Residence in Palm Beach now languishes in 5th place (sorry, Mariah).

Here is our new ranking of the world's most expensive estates (in terms of current verifiable listings), all members of the Hundred Million Club:

1. The Manor - Holmby Hills, CA: $150 million
2. No. 10 Belgrave Square, London, UK: $149 million
3. Place des États Unis, Paris, France: $138 million
4. The Manalapan Residence, Palm Beach, FL: $135 million
5. Fleur de Lys, Beverly Hills, CA: $125 million
6. No. 31 Belgrave Square, London, UK: $120 million
7. Updown Court, Surrey, UK: $110 million

Forbes has named Fleur de Lys (above), the lavish Beverly Hills estate featured in this week's Classicist column, as the world's most expensive house currently on the market with its $125 million pricetag. The palatial mansion beat out Leona Helmsley's Dunnellen Hall in Greenwich, Conn., which had been listed at $125 million as well, but saw its price cut by $30 million back in October (Forbes has not yet registered the change). Fleur de Lys has been on the market since 2007, but unlike some other major property owners, billionaire's ex Suzanne Saperstein has yet to slash the price. In compiling its list of the world's 10 most expensive estates, Forbes culled from property listings, high-end brokerages and conversations with real estate agents. "We include only publicly listed properties," they note. "In Europe, especially, estates and luxury residences that might qualify are shopped privately for undisclosed prices." You can see a slideshow of the list here.

From the Real Estalker:
--Celebrity hairstylist Serge Normant has put his New York penthouse on West 16th Street, shown above, on the market for $4.49 million. The listing is here.
--John McCain's former home in Phoenix, Arizona will now be sold at auction on October 25. It was our estate of the day back in July.
--Teen actress Vanessa Hudgens has picked up a home in Studio City for $2.75 million. The home has six bedrooms and over 5,000 square feet.
--Rumor has it that Kimora Lee Simmons has bought herself new house in Beverly Hills.
--Will and Grace co-creator Max Mutchnick and his partner Erik Hyman have sold their Manhattan apartment for $4.1 million.
--The Harvey Mudd estate in Beverly Hills is for sale. It is our estate of the day later today.

From the NY Post's Gimme Shelter:
--Natali Portman has gone to contract to sell her apartment in Richard Meier's tower at 165 Charles St. The condo last had an asking price of $6.55 million.
--The price of Dunnellen Hall, Leona Helmsley's Greenwich, Connecticut home, has been lowered by $30 million to a still astounding $95 million. Check out the pictures from when it was our estate of the day back in June.
--The listing of the "Astor Suite" at the Plaza for $55 million was pulled after one day and other listings have disappeared without buyers but 26 apartments are still listed.
--The $70 million listing at the Pierre Hotel has been pulled from the Brown Harris Stevens website.

From the LA Times Hot Properties:
-- Screenwriter, crime novelist and political blogger Roger L. Simon has listed his home in the Hollywood Hills for sale at $2.625 million. The listing is here.
--A Beverly Hills home built in the 1920s for Errol Flynn and now owned by composer Lee Holdridge is listed at $3.2 million. The listing is here.

From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
--Lehman Brothers Holdings' former chief financial officer, Erin Callan, is in contract to sell her two-bedroom condominium in New York's 15 Central Park West which had been listed at $12 million. Callan paid $6.48 million around three years ago.
--Ronald Tutor, chairman and chief executive of building contractor Perini Corp., paid $36.7 million for a massive, not-yet-completed house in the Beverly Park gated community which had been listed at $49 million.
--The widow of Steven T. Florio, the former CEO of Condé Nast Publications, has listed their waterfront Key Largo, Fla., vacation home on the market. We'll check this one out on Monday.

From Berg Properties Big Time Listings:
--via the Chicago Tribune, Ty Warner, founder of the Beanie Babie empire, reportedly has gone to contract to purchase the Chicago Spire's penthouse unit, which had been on the market for $40 million.
--Vivica A. Fox has her put her home in the Granada Hills area on the market for $1.45 million. Records show that the bought in 2002 for $825,500. The virtual tour is here.

From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
--Lehman's ousted president and chief operating officer Joseph M. Gregory has already his home on Park Avenue. He bought the two-bedroom apartment for $2.85 million back in 2004 and sold it earlier this month for $4.4 million. His Hamptons estate was previously our estate of the day and is on the market for $32.5 million.
--Mark Goldstein, a veteran Bear Stearns leveraged finance banker who became the co-head of its European investment banking last year has listed his apartment on Park Avenue for $12 million. He spent $5,275,000 in 2006 to buy two apartments which have now been combined. The listing is here.
--Hairstylist Guido Palau spent $1.9 million on a Chelsea brownstone duplex on West 22nd Street, according to city records
-- Democratic Party fund-raising stars Carl Spielvogel and Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel are in contract to sell their seventh-floor apartment at 720 Park Avenue for around $37 million, though they paid only $20 million just two years ago.
--Last week, while the Fed was agreeing to bailout A.I.G., recently retired AIG executive vice president Robert M. Sandler bought a $3.45 million apartment at the Hampshire House on Central Park South. He and his wife, Annette, paid in cash.

From Newsday's Real LI:
--Interior designer Lorraine Kirke has lowered the price of her East Hampton mansion to $11.5 million, the latest stop on a slide down from $14.5 million last year. The listing is here (no interior pics).

From the Daily Mail:
--The Candy brothers want to convert the US Embassy site in Grosvenor Square into luxury flats after the American Ambassador announced it was moving to south London. These could become some of the most expensive units in the world.

From the Dallas Morning News:
--An interesting piece on Terrell Owens real estate investments. T.O. owns six townhouses and condos in the city, valued at more than $2.5 million based on tax records.

I first mentioned back in February that Leona Helmsley's Greenwich estate, Dunnellen Hall had hit the market for $125 million but at that time I hadn't found the listing. But it turns out that David Oglivy has the listing and some pictures giving a good look at this huge mansion. Like many other homes in Greenwich, it's a traditional brick mansion, it's just incredibly large and lavish. The entrance features iron gates and a long driveway culminating in a courtyard with a 70-foot marble reflecting pool with a three-tier fountain. Once inside there is a huge entrance hall with a cove ceiling and a cross arched center hall with a travertine marble floor, and limestone walls running the 86 foot length and a double-height plaster tracery ceiling. And then there's that stairway, a decadent marble, red-carpeted expanse crowned by a crystal chandelier. At 1,125 square feet the living room is larger than some homes.

The home is approximately 23,0000 square feet with seven upstairs bedroom suites, a glass-walled music room, a wood- paneled library with a 15th century fireplace mantel, formal dining room, family room with a bar and much more. The kitchen and pantry include plenty of storage, serving and cooking areas and there is a separate staff dining and sitting area. The back wing is home to the staff area which has six bedrooms. The indoor pool has four exposures and includes areas for sitting and changing. There is also a 75-foot outdoor pool with a terrace and a cabana with a kitchen. There are also brick cottages with an additional six bedrooms total.

The Helmsleys bought Dunnellen Hall in 1983 for $9 million (paying an extra $2 million for the furniture) and later picked up another 14 acres bringing the total to 40 acres. It's one of the grandest homes in the area but $125 million would stretch the budget even in a town famous for its lavish homes. After all, Mel Gibson's Old Mill Farm is only $39.5 million and that's been sitting on the market for nearly a year.

UPDATE: This home has now been reduced to $75 60 million.