SELLER: Christie Brinkley
LOCATION: East Hampton, NY
PRICE: $29,500,000
SIZE: 11,037 square feet, 9 bedrooms, 7 full and 4 half bathrooms
YOUR MAMA’S NOTES: With her youngest son about to head off to college in New York City where her other two adult children also reside, and, hence, her humongous Hamptons nest about to be empty, modeling industry mandarin Christie Brinkley put her picture perfect Hamptons estate in the Bridgehampton area up for sale, as was first revealed by the high-end property gossips at the New York Post, with an asking price of $29.5 million. As best as we can tell from a careful if not forensic perusal of property records, Billy Joel’s second ex-wife acquired the compound-like estate, which she dubbed Tower Hill, in several transactions — two contiguous ones in August 1996, just a few months before she married her philandering fourth ex-husband, architect Peter Cook, and another in May 1998 — for a total outlay of $2,671,500. Veteran celebrity real estate watchers will recall this is not the first time the now 62-year-old three-time Sports Illustrated cover model has had Tower Hill up for grabs. The estate first came up for sale in 2002 and again popped up over the summer of 2006 at $26.5 million before it was taken off the market and re-listed the following year, in the turbulent wake of her scandalous and heavily publicized break up with Mister Cook, with a substantially higher asking price of $30 million. It was also listed in 2010 at the familiar $30 million.
Current online marketing materials and other online resources show the three-parcel spread spans 20.79 mostly wooded acres and includes several structures that together have 9 bedrooms and 7 full and 4 half bathrooms in 11,037-square-feet of carefully restored, expensively updated, meticulously cared for, and eclectically decorated interior space. The main house, which dates to the late 1800s, sits on 475 tons of locally harvested rock and includes a 50-foot observation tower from which the estate derives its name, measures more than 8,400-square-feet and includes four bedrooms and five bathrooms along with a wood-paneled double-height great room, separate living and family rooms, a fully paneled formal dining room with built-in china cabinets, a sun room, gym, and an over-sized country kitchen where there are two — ahem — ceramic cocks sitting on the marble-countered center island. A spacious and self-contained guesthouse offers four more bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms plus an all-glass greenhouse conservatory sometimes called a winter garden and a separate barn/art studio that has additional although unspecified living quarters along with a four-car heated garage. The exceptionally private, park-like property provides extensive outdoor entertainment and recreation amenities such as multi-level stone terraces that give way to vast swathes of rolling and tree-shaded lawns, a swimming pool and spa, mature flowering gardens and, nestled into a dense wood a short golf-cart ride from the main and guest houses, a tennis court and viewing pavilion.
According to a press release kindly provided by a representative for listing agent Enzo Morabito at Douglas Elliman Real Estate, Miz Brinkely plans to decamp Tower Hill for a waterfront property she owns in Sag Harbor and, according to our research and best guesstimate, that’s likely to be a 4.44-acre bay-front spread with a an approximately 5,500-square-foot 19th-century Greek Revival captain’s residence she scooped up in April 2004 for $7.15 million and unsuccessfully attempted to unload over the summer of 2010 with an asking price of $15.75 million.
Listing photos: Douglas Elliman Real Estate
