by James Kindall
Imagine yourself poised on a rooftop three stories in the air with a golf club arched above your shoulders. A hundred yards away on the lawn below is a 3-par putting green fronting the Long Island Sound. You crush the ball. It sails out over the green and plunks into the water, missing the target by a mile. So what?
For $38 million, give yourself a mulligan.
You are on top of one of the most expensive homes ever put up for sale in Nassau County — a Xanadu of perks and pleasures combined with environmentally friendly features that make it unique on Long Island. The three-story-high tee box on the roof?
Included, of course.
“This is the coolest house I’ve ever seen,” says Shawn Elliott, the broker who is selling the Sands Point home, which was completed in June and is the most expensive he’s ever placed on the market and the highest priced home now for sale in Nassau County.
What do you get for 38-million smackers? Nearly four acres of land, lots of nifty features and water views that stretch to Connecticut.
Guests enter a soaring living room with five seating areas (the home has room to entertain up to 500 guests) and a glass wall facing the Sound. The gourmet kitchen on the second floor has restaurant- quality appliances, most hidden from view behind a pocket door, while downstairs are two similar kitchens, one inside the pool/spa area and the other outside on a deck separated by a sliding-glass door.
Floating staircases set into the walls and suspended by cables increase the suggestion of openness. Eight ethanol-burning fireplaces, which are self-contained and use a fuel that does not emit dangerous fumes while burning, are situated throughout, including one in the master suite that hangs from the ceiling like a giant metal teardrop. In the suite’s bathroom, the cover of the heated, self-flushing toilet automatically rises in welcome.
The bar in the Ferrari-red billiard room on the entrance- level second floor boasts three temperature-controlled wine racks that can hold 450 bottles, eliminating the need for a dusty old wine cellar.
Elliott, showing off the property, jumps into a golf cart and heads toward the beach on a concrete path that circles the home.
“Look at this,” he says, pointing to lights and speakers placed at intervals along the pathway. “It’s exactly a quarter-mile track. You can play music while you jog.”
Like to work hard and play hard? No problem.
In addition to the billiard room, the home contains a basketball/racquetball court, a room with a $100,000 golf driving-range simulator (which doubles as a home theater), a home gym and an opulent indoor swimming pool with a waterfall and Jacuzzi. All this is in addition to a spa area that includes a sauna, steam room and a blue, backlit massage room. If you get bored doing laps in the pool, you can head to your private beach for a brisk saltwater workout in the Sound. If you’re tired when you come back, take the elevator.
Twenty-four surveillance cameras on the property can be viewed on any of the 17 televisions in the home or via an iPad or iPhone anywhere in the world.
Building the home was both a labor of love and an ordeal, says the owner, a tech businessman who asked not to be named. Delays because of design changes, difficulty finding contractors who could build to his specifications and the up-and-down economy turned construction into a six-year project. The owner says he hoped the home would be something his three children could enjoy, but by the time it was finished, they were grown and gone.
He wanted to create two things, he says. One was a home where the water was visible from every room. The other was a residence that was environmentally friendly. “I wanted everything green,” he says.
This was accomplished with such things as geothermal heat, solar panels, radiant floor heat and maintenance-free, porcelain and zinc facade exterior walls. Roof gardens use reclaimed rain water for irrigation. The driveway leading to a five-car garage is a patchwork of concrete grid pavers that allows water to flow into the ground and grass to grow within the square patterns. The home has a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification as the largest environmentally sustainable residence in the United States, Elliott says.
“You can heat and cool this home probably for less than $1,000 a month, which is incredible for a 15,000-square-foot home,” he says.
“The home’s security system, lights, audio and temperature can be controlled by an iPad or iPhone,” he adds. Just in case that’s not enough, it comes with $2 million worth of furnishings by Roche Bobois. Services of a chef, driver and housekeeper are free of charge the first year.
“I thought that might be a good idea in case the buyer was foreign and didn’t know the area,” Elliott says.
The question is, is anyone going to pay that much money for a home?
Elliott says he already has had several inquiries, one from a hedge fund manager, another from an overseas client and one from a professional athlete. He contends that the price is reasonable compared to the cost of square footage in places like New York City or Malibu. There are, in fact, several homes in Suffolk County that are pricier, including one for $140 million in East Hampton and another for $85 million in Amagansett.
“For me, it’s an incredible value,” Elliott says. “You get to live by the water and have all the amenities you can imagine and still be close to the city.”
Paul Mateyunas, a salesperson with Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty and the author of two books on Long Island’s Gold Coast homes, notes that the high-end market has been busy in recent years, drawing a mix of national and international buyers.
“The world is becoming global,” says Mateyunas.
Yes, $38 million is an aggressive asking price, he says, but the North Shore remains one of the best places to buy a luxury home on the Island.
“It’s an amazing value in comparison to the Hamptons,” he says.
ASKING PRICE: $38 million
ANNUAL TAXES: $93,678
ACREAGE: 3.71
SQUARE FOOTAGE: 15,000
BEDROOMS: 8
FULL BATHROOMS: 9
HALF-BATHROOMS: 4
AMENITIES: Indoor basketball court, indoor swimming pool, tee box on roof, putting green, golf simulator, spa, sauna, steam room
EXTRAS: Furnished, plus housekeeper, chef and driver for one year
LISTING AGENT: Shawn Elliott, Shawn Elliott Luxury Homes & Estates, 516-364-4663
Shawn Elliott Luxury Homes & Estates 