Greenwich, Connecticut real estate, politics, and more.
Greenwich, Connecticut real estate, politics, and more
Not representative of what’s appearing
Suddenly, there’s a flood of graphic porn showing up in the comments section, even on my machine, which had been immune before, when I use Safari or Firefox browsers, but curiously, not on Chrome. I don’t know why that is, but I suggest that you try using Chrome to access this site until I can fix it.
Valery Mikhailovich Kogen is about to finally unload his property at 18 Simmons Lane, currently priced at $12.995 million and comprising 7-acres with a derelict 19,000 sq. ft, 1924 mansion built by Zalmon Simmons of mattress fame and a sale is pending. Kagen paid $18.5 million for the place in 2005, but he can probably take the loss and never notice it.
New York Magazine published an amusing recounting of the oligarch’s fierce battle in 2008-2009 to build a 54,000 sq.ft. Winter Palace; it can be found here. If you weren’t around then, you missed a fun food fight between the rich and the uber-rich.
Wikipedia has a biography Zalmon Gilbert Simmons II who built this edifice on an original estate of 164-acres. Excerpt:
In 1923 Zalmon and Francis moved their family to an "exquisite" manor in Greenwich, Connecticut. The Simmons estate was said to be the equivalent of many of the châteaux in France and stately homes in Europe. The interior was designed by the world-renowned Elsie de Wolfe.
"It featured hand-painted chinoiserie wallpaper, black marble floors with inlaid copper, and a study paneled with pine that had been stripped from a venerable mansion in London. The main house had six maid's rooms. Outbuildings included a stable for horses, two greenhouses, a six-car garage, and a guest-house with its own courtyard; as well, Simmons built a pair of two-family cottages to house the butler, the chauffeur, the head gardener, and the estate superintendent. For their two sons, Zalmon junior and Grant, Zalmon and Francis built two more houses on the estate.
…. In 1932 Z.G. II became Chairman of the Board and his oldest son Grant took over as president of The Simmons Company. This gave "the Chief" an opportunity to enjoy retirement at his 164-acre estate in Greenwich, Connecticut. In the years before his death Z.G. II had become a passionate horticulturist. In the season before his death he planted on 3,000,000 [!] iris bulbs throughout the gardens of the massive property.
shield your eyes!
Coming to the market this Thursday, 3 Random Road ( a Sotheby’s listing, Daphne Lamsvelt-Pol listing agent, but it hasn’t hit the the internet yet) will be offered for $3.795. That’s not an unreasonable price — this same house sold for $3.450 million in 2004, but a sharp-eyed agent at a competing firm has noticed that the Photoshop program that was used to “furnish” the house has filled a bookcase with virtual books, something I warned about just last week. Most young buyers won’t recognize them for what they are, but those who do will be terrified, and flee the house.
The listing agent can be forgiven this faux pas because she just arrived from her native Holland a week or so ago, and probably doesn’t realize that books are as foreign in her newly-adopted home as Edam cheese. Once she masters English, I’m sure Gideon or some other kindly soul will explain this to her.
Still, a rookie mistake; tch tch.
Other than that, this looks like a good buy, especially for those looking to expand an existing house. Random is a quiet dead end, and this lot comprises 0.7 of an acre in the R-12. For FAR purposes, that yields an allowable (if improbable) home size of 9,604 sq. (43,560 X0.7 X 0.315). This price probably rules a spec builder, but not, perhaps, an end user.
1 Stepping Stone Lane was put up for sale in July ‘21 for $2.350 million and when to met with market indifference they rented it out, instead. It came back with a new agent and an new price: $2.650, in April and immediately ignited a bidding war, and three days later was reported under contract.
Unfortunately buyer remorse set in, or perhaps the buyers were abducted by aliens, or Putin reached out for Moscow and disappeared them (that actually happened to would-be buyers of a North Street mansion some years ago), but whatever the cause, the house was returned to the market at $2.8, which we can presume was close to the highest bid in that bidding war. There was a bit less enthusiasm this time, and today the price was reduced to $2.725.
I wouldn’t suggest that a bid of that original 2021 price of a $2.350 will take it now, but at least we know what they were willing to sell it for back then.
The owners 25 Birch Lane tried without success to sell it from November 2022 through July 2023, at a price that began at $4.995 million and stopped at $4.695. They pulled it off the market then, and tried again this past February 28th at that same terminal price of $4.695. The bidding closed in 7 days, and the sale was completed today for $4,810,555.
I’d say that was close enough to that original price to count as a victory.
Good street, pretty standard interior for a house of this price built in 2011.
after
27 Mary Lane, Riverside NoPo, was purchased for $1.2 million on July 28 last year, redone to what appears to be about the same quality as the original, and put back up for sale 10 days ago. Gone.
As I mentioned in the previous post, there’s currently a real dearth of inventory.
before
50 Bote Road asked $1.750 million and is probably selling for more, give the speed with which this has gone off the market. And why not? Bote is a quiet street close to town, and although the house dates to 1959, all the important mechanical stuff has been attended to, and the slim inventory in this price range, together with the large number of buyers looking for a home in move-in condition, practically guaranteed that more than one offer would be submitted, immediately.
From the listing:
Charmer on Bote that was renovated in 2016 from the studs, including new kitchen, amazing primary suite, and behind the scenes....new insulation, wiring, windows, doors, roof, and serious structural support added.
25 Lockwood was listed at $2795, went immediately to contract, and sold Friday for $3.010 million. The property is in the AE flood zone, but the house itself has been here since 1916 and hasn’t floated away yet, so that’s probably not an issue. Besides, down here it’s more the streets that flood, not the houses themselves, and those agents who like to give their buyer/clients a housewarming present (I'm not generally one of them) usually present them with a Zodiac and a pair of paddles, so who’s to complain?
As an aside, I note that, although this house sold for $1.875 million in 2005, the town still appraised it at $1,670,00 in 2023. There are probably some adjustments to be made in the next town-wide reappraisal due …soon.
evacuation day
Over the past few years we (editorial we) have pointed out that the Green’s ambitious plan to convert the count’s energy supply to one based entirely on windmills and sunbeams could never be accomplished by 2035 or any date close to that because federal environmental laws and private law suits to enforce it would stall any large scale projects for decades. Well, someone in Washington knows that, and knows how to fix it: nullify by executive order that part of the law that interferes with the Green Deal:
(Institute for Energy Research)
The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) finalized a rule changing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to streamline permitting for infrastructure for renewable energy and transmission projects. NEPA, a 1969 law that requires environmental reviews for major projects, is a frequent focus of litigation that can delay construction for years. According to Biden’s CEQ, the Bipartisan Permitting Reform Implementation Rule will facilitate agencies moving faster on permits for infrastructure that can help the environment, thus ruling out fossil fuel projects which supply about 80 percent of the nation’s total energy. The rule sets deadlines and page limits for environmental reviews and establishes one lead agency to handle such reviews.
As part of the rule’s review process, climate impacts have to be considered as well as environmental justice — the movement to assist disadvantaged areas — and outreach to those places must be conducted.
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