He is best known for his portrayals of bumbling blue-collar everymen on hit TV shows such as “King of Queens” and, more recently, “Kevin Can Wait,” as well as a bunch of low-brow comedy films, the “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” and “Grown Ups” franchises among them. But, when it comes to his personal real estate holdings, Kevin James has decidedly more aristocratic tastes. For the last handful of years he and his bit-part actor wife Steffiana De La Cruz have shacked up in a stately manor house in Long Island’s famously patrician village of Old Westbury, New York. And, as was first divulged by the eagle-eyed property gossips at The New York Post, they’ve just dropped a whopping $14 million on a massive, newly built getaway mansion in sleepy and somewhat unsung (though by no means inexpensive) Delray Beach, Fla., about 60 miles north of Miami and 20 miles south of Palm Beach.
Set on about two-thirds of an acre directly across a busy road from the beach, the hulking three-story Colonial Caribbean-inspired mansion, which arguably looks more like a swanky motel than a private residence, sprawls across about 11,500 square feet with six bedrooms and seven full and two half bathrooms between the ocean-facing main house and generously proportioned guesthouse (or staff quarters) that stretches out atop the semi-detached five-car garage.
The front door opens informally (and some might say inelegantly) directly into a colossal combination living and dining room where sunlight pours through floor-to-ceiling windows and reflects off the pale, nearly white polished marble floor. The lounge area is dominated by a minimalist flannel-grey stone fireplace, while the dining area comfortably seats a dozen or more under and ethereal light fixture that resembles a jellyfish.
With translucently golden, slightly pearlescent stone countertops, and a boatload of superior quality culinary accouterment, the sleek and all-white double-island kitchen is flanked by spacious lounges, a circular one that overlooks the gated motor court at the front of the house and another more conventionally rectangular one that spills out to the backyard and swimming pool. Several other less formal living rooms are sprinkled throughout the home, including a spacious games lounges that’s replete a bar and gigantic, semi-circular terrace that offers panoramic views up and down the coastline.
Surrounded by palm trees, sculpted plantings and buff-colored stone terracing, the T-shaped swimming pool is long enough to swim laps for exercise and includes a beach-style sloped entry. A covered patio off to one side has a freestanding outdoor fireplace, as does the uncovered patio above it that connects the main house to the guesthouse, while a sunken spa is discretely tucked under an overhang next to the pool. Access to the beach, where locals keep their catamarans and sailboats, requires a quick dash across the street and a short walk down a sandy public path over the vegetated dunes.
The property was available at $15.95 million through Nick Malinosky at Douglas Elliman, while the Jameses were repped by Jack Elkins at William Raveis.
Avid celebrity real estate aficionados may recall this is not the first time at the Delray Beach real estate rodeo for the Jameses. And indeed they really seem to like that particular stretch of sand — they previously owned an even larger spread that’s just one-tenth of a mile up the road from their new place. They acquired the 2.75-acre property in two transactions, the first in 2012 and the second the following year, for a total outlay of $22.75 million. They decided to sell up in early 2016 and hung a $28.85 million price tag on the eight-bedroom and 12-bath compound that traded just a few months later to a mysterious buyer for $26.35 million.
Tax records show the James’ primary home, in the blue-blooded village of Old Westbury, N.Y., comprises three contiguous estate-sized parcels that combined span about 16.5 acres. Two vacant (and still undeveloped) parcels were acquired in 2011 for almost $8.37 million, while the third, anchored by a 13-room mansion, was scooped up in 2015 for almost $12.1 million.