Friday, December 20, 2013

Tidbits and Morsels: Vincent Camuto

High end real estate watchers will recall that in July, 2013, (mid-priced) shoe tycoon Vincent Camuto and his wife and business partner, Louise, heaved and ho-d Wooldon Manor—an historic and completely rehabbed ocean front estate in Southampton, NY—on the open market with a blistering $48,000,000 asking price.

The folks at The Real Deal were the first to report, back in early October (2012), that the property had gone into contract with an unnamed buyer for an unknown amount. Now comes word via The Wall Street Journal that the buyers—still unnamed but revealed to be a couple from New York City—have arranged to purchase not only the 9,600-plus square foot English Tudor mansion and the 5.5-ish acre ocean front parcel it sits on but also a swathe of adjacent properties that ballooned the entire deal to more than 14 acres and swelled the agreed upon sales price to a sky-high and record-breaking $75,000,000.*

We won't take the time or expend the energy to recount the full history and scope of the property and the existing 7 bedroom and 12.5 bathroom mansion—we did that here, iffin yer interested—but suffice to say that a portion of the existing mansion was once the pool house for a spectacular and spectacularly huge, 50-room mansion built by a doctor turned stock broker and later owned by five-and-dime heiress Jessie Woolworth Donahue. The house was torn down by a subsequent owner in the early 1940s to reduce property tax bills.

Believe it or not, Mister and Miz Camuto own a second, equally epic if not ocean front estate in the Hamptons. In 2005 they shelled out $35,000,000 for the so-called Villa Marie, a 15-acre spread with a then-decrepit 21,000 square foot mansion that was long used as a religious and spiritual retreat and is (unappealingly) located on often jam-packed Montauk Highway at the edge of Water Mill's small downtown district. They renovated the entire estate to exacting and expensive standards and had it published for the world to ogle (and/or scoff) at in the glossy pages of Architectural Digest (July, 2013).

The Camuto's also own an also equally epic estate with an early 19th-century French Normandy chateau in über-upscale Greenwich, CT, and, although we have no specific intel, Your Mama would be shocked—shocked, we tell you—to learn they don't maintain a luxury pied-a-terre in one of Manhattan's more expensive zip codes. It also wouldn't surprise Your Mama to learn they had a place in Palm Beach and/or another in Aspen, and maybe even one someplace Alpine like France's Val d'Isere or Klosters in Switzerland. But we digress...

*According to local agents who chatted up the WSJ property gossips, a $75 million sale price would make it the highest price ever paid for a single family residence in the Hamptons.

listing photos: Sotheby's International Realty

11 comments:

lil' gay boy said...

Whether it's the properties to the east or the north, we're talking possibly an additional half dozen homes --- yowza!

Some are run of the mill look-at-me's, some beloved town fixtures; even if the new owners recreate the original main house & grounds, somebody's feathers are sure to be ruffled...

Anonymous said...

LGB, I remember obsessing over a similar house zack posted on OLI. It was Mediterranean ish, torn down and subdivided, but some of the garden features are still there.
Any ideas?

lil' gay boy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
lil' gay boy said...

Could it have been Black Point?

Anonymous said...

LGB! You are da best! Thank you

Sandpiper said...


LGB/LB, Subdividing this land is a frightening thought.

Reminded me of Mama's '07, '08 pieces on Shorewood Manor, Shelter Island because of the subdivide rumblings. Google and zip; but, the house was leveled and replaced. Can't really blame the guy -- it was in rough shape!

RE Woodon Manor, sticking with humble words in May -- it defies adjectives!

Nice that the estate pays contemporized homage to many aspects of the original structure. abstract with pics.

lil' gay boy said...

Ah, my fine feathered friend, I'd almost forgotten about Shorewood Manor; I hadn't been out on Shelter Island (one of my most favorite places on earth) since construction on the new house was largely finished. The property was sensitively divided -- and how could he not? One merely has to skirt 'round the south harbor to get to the South Ferry landing, and from thence to the Hamptons...

I see you've acquainted yourself with the inimitable Gary Lawrance; quite the raconteur -- his tales of Jimmy Donahue (and other Long Island playboys & scoundrels) are legend in these parts.

Would that Wooldon Manor was restored...

Sandpiper said...

LGB/LB, The Diary is always great fun. How else could I keep up with Thurston Howell, III and Mrs. Howell's party circuit shenanigans. Seriously, let's crash a gala, make up outrageous names and get our pictures taken. I'll be Muffy or Missy; you maybe Nigel, Kipton or Williamston? Your better half already has a great first name so his can remain unchanged! Of course we'll foil-line our pockets and steal Hors d'oeuvres.

Anonymous said...

What is OLI?

Anonymous said...

Perhaps I was mistaken, as it seems that only a little reflecting pond is all that survives from Black Point.
There's a similar situation in Lake Forest Ill. Villa Turicum was a giant mansion that has a crazy history. Built by the Rockefeller McCormicks, it was like, hardly ever Iived in.
Torn down and subdivided, many of the new houses have done a fantastic job of restoring the old garden features that were left behind.
One house especially, on Circle Ln, has a pretty cool dock type thing, and a big reflecting pool.
I hate that these house get torn down, but I love what gets left behind.
Capo di Monte in Bel Air is another. One house nearby, designed by RAMSA, has a circular fountain from the Bell days. And of course that retaining wall at Bel Air Rd and Strada Vecchia was once the garden that's pictured on the wikimapia page.

lil' gay boy said...

OLI is Old Long Island; click on my Black Point link above to visit.

I recall seeing photos of Villa Turicum in an old Architectural Record -- you can probably find it on Google books.