Michelle Williams and her fiancé, theater and film director Tommy Kail, have purchased a 19th-century in Brooklyn’s historic Brooklyn Heights townhouse for $10.8 million. Avid celebrity real estate watchers know Williams is no stranger to Brooklyn. She first put the leafy Boerum Hill neighborhood on the celebrity real estate map in 2005 when she and late partner Heath Ledger bought a townhouse in the neighborhood — it was sold in 2014 for $8.8 million —and in August 2018, shortly after they were secretly married in the Adirondacks, she and then-husband, Phil Elverum, are said to have dropped $3.5 million on a townhouse in the Cobble Hill neighborhood.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the first outlet to report the purchase, the recorded sale price makes it one of the most expensive deals to ever go down in Brooklyn Heights and property records show Kail, who worked with Williams on the FX show “Fosse/Verdon” and directed the Broadway sensation “Hamilton,” and Williams, a four-time Oscar nominee, purchased the home through a trust.
Since the historic house was not listed on the open market, few details are known other than that its origins date back to the 1820s. Tax records also indicate a second, vacant parcel was included in the sale. The parcel includes a gated driveway for off-street parking, a coveted amenity in a Borough where street parking is a blood sport.
Williams has also long maintained a country retreat in Upstate New York where she currently owns a 20+ acre estate near the itty-bitty and increasingly fashionable hamlet of Accord. The historic home, which had many original architectural features intact at the time of her purchase, is complemented by a quaint guest cabin and classic hay barn. Tax records show the property last changed hands in 2015 for $1.35 million.
The quiet, leafy Downtown Brooklyn neighborhoods of Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill, and Boerum Hill have enjoyed unprecedented price appreciation over the last decade. A recent report by propertyclub.nyc showed homes in Carroll Gardens having increased a meteoric 117 percent over the last decade, with its neighboring’s ‘hoods not far behind. These days, all three areas have seen a number of Hollywood A-Listers call it home, some long-time residents, while newer transplants have fallen hard for the family vibe, historic townhomes and cultural attractions.
