$40 Million Estate in Need of New Owner

Nicholas Yulico

Alpine Manse From Air

An unnamed, very rich businessman is trying to set the record for the most expensive home sale in New Jersey's history.

But with an eye-popping list price of $40 million, the Alpine, N.J. mansion has languished on the market since last spring, and the listing price still hasn't dropped.

To be fair, there's very little about this home that fits the definition of "languish" -- quite the contrary, in fact. Easily one of the largest homes in the Northeast, the 60,000-square-foot mansion is situated on 7.35 acres in Alpine, a rich enclave about seven miles north of the George Washington Bridge where Gary Sheffield and Sean "Diddy" Combs live.

There are 13 bedrooms, 17 bathrooms, and seven half-bathrooms. The guest house is 2,000 square feet (making it bigger than many starter homes) and features a living room, fireplace and kitchen. The property has one indoor pool and one outdoor pool. Other features include a 2,000-gallon aquarium, a wine cellar that can hold 20,000 bottles, an ice cream parlor that looks like you're in an ice cream store, and a regulation-sized bowling alley with two lanes. There's also about a half-mile of walking paths on the property.

"There is so much to say about it. It's very difficult to pinpoint one outstanding quality because the house is very overwhelming," says the listing agent, Dennis McCormack with Prominent Properties Sotheby's International Realty.

So why no buyers? "There have been several buyers who have expressed interest. Everybody from entertainers to royalty," McCormack says.

But no sale. That's probably because it's priced too high, says Jack Turpin, owner of Turpin Realtors, which specializes in luxury residential sales in Somerset County, which rivals Alpine for its wealth and beautiful homes.

"I know they get some pretty lofty prices in Alpine, but I just sort of scratched my head when this one came out," Turpin says. "There's no law saying people can't put a house out for any price they want. It always just sort of makes me chuckle a little bit when I see things like this. For all I know, maybe the George Washington Bridge comes with it, and maybe it's worth it. I just find it a little hard to get a picture to see what would make it worth so much money."

According to Turpin, the highest residential sale in New Jersey history came when the 750-acre Clarence Dillon estate in Bedminster was sold in 2001 and 2002 for $37.3 million. Sotheby's was the lead broker, but Turpin's firm handled part of the two-piece sale.

Nothing has really come close ever since. The next highest New Jersey sale came in 2004, when Somerset County bought the 500-acre King of Morocco estate in Peapack for $22 million.

Step Into the Dining Area

But while the Alpine mansion might have a huge living space -- 60,000 square feet puts it on par with a Wal-Mart (WMT) supercenter -- the land is just over seven acres. But McCormack, the broker for the property, says it sits in a residential zone where lots are two acres at minimum.

To buy a two-acre lot in this neighborhood costs more than $5 million, he says. That means the land alone on the property is worth around $20 million, according to McCormack's land prices.

If you're looking for a quick drive from suburbia to Manhattan, it doesn't get much better than Alpine. And for $40 million, the home also has its own power plant. So if the purchase price leaves you with a short-term cash crunch, you can always sell off excess electricity to Diddy when he throws his lavish parties in your new hood.

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