Corcoran’s A-List
August 2024
by INHABIT EDITORS
A monthly showcase of the most spectacular listings across the Corcoran network.
Enjoy our monthly survey of incredible listings across the Corcoran network. Highlights in this edition: A historic Gramercy townhouse with European flair, an exquisite 118-acre Hudson Valley estate, the Hamptons waterfront home of a legendary interior designer, a Regency-inspired Georgia retreat, and a swoon-worthy conversion in Northern California’s wine country.
Manhattan
What’s Here: For your consideration, a historic Anglo-Italianate style townhouse in Gramercy ready for a starring role. This home hits all its marks, showcasing a meticulously composed mise-en-scène. There are original moldings, five fireplaces, arched doorways, skylights, and more awe-inspiring details throughout. Natural light drapes the parlor-level living room through round-arch windows that sky from the hardwood floor to the 16-foot-high ceiling — and open to a Juliet balcony. All the while, harmonious solitude radiates from the back garden, encircled by ivy-covered walls with dimmable bistro lights strung overhead.
What We Love: The home maintains a distinctly conceived personality yet has inherent versatility, too. Its top floor can function as a separate suite, outfitted with a living room, bed, bath, bar, and gym — everything a person needs in this life. Take the grand staircase or the elevator down to the English basement, which hosts a screening room and space for a home office or studio.
Represented By: Steve Gold of Corcoran’s East Side Office.
What’s Here: You’ll be like a cat, blissfully curled up in a sunbeam at this duplex penthouse solarium. Radiance rains through skylights and copious windows, and every interior inch feels the warmth. The aesthetic is industrial-meets-modern, retaining the space’s original cast-iron beams, columns, and staircase alongside reimagined elements like a custom-designed kitchen. Sunlight continues its reign in a trio of skylit bedrooms, and especially in an upper-level loft — which has a den, a home office, and a media room but may function best as an entertaining lounge due to seamless indoor-outdoor connection with a sprawling rooftop terrace.
What We Love: The terrace spans 1,650 glorious square feet, crowning the c.1887 Albert Wagner-designed 140 Franklin. Its summer kitchen and manicured landscaping flank vast areas for relaxation and al fresco dining as glimpses of the Tribeca cityscape peek above the privacy walls. A neighboring water tower completes a picture only New York City could produce.
Represented By: Danny Davis, Lisa Balbuena, and Lisa Davis of Corcoran’s SoHo Office.
Brooklyn
What’s Here: This c.1847 Cobble Hill brownstone is old but hardly old-fashioned. Inside, the restored prewar sophistication is ample. Intricate crown moldings accent 11-foot tin ceilings. Having endured in Brooklyn longer than any single person can ever, it awaits the author of its next phase. Light trickles down a barley-twist spindle staircase from a central fourth-floor skylight. Hand-carved decorative marble fireplace rosettes accompany parquet floors complement glass pocket doors. These are elements anyone’s personal style can shine through alongside — even if they were born well after the mid-19th century.
What We Love: Wandering into the backyard releases a wondrous sense of escapism, instantly taking you from bustle to bucolic. Take in the violets and hydrangeas as Virginia creeper enwraps the deck railings and Boston ivy swims up the building’s brick exterior.
Represented By: Tita Omeze and Cara Sadownick of Corcoran’s Brooklyn Heights Office.
East End
What’s Here: Rustic Sag Harbor historicity meets inviting 21st-century charm at this turnkey village waterfront home, masterfully reimagined by society designer (and local celebrity) Stephen Gambrel. The property’s main residence, dating to 1800, swells with charisma. Its living room boasts a wood-burning fireplace and an endless warmth that rises to its vaulted, beamed, paneled, double-height ceilings. A bright kitchen enchantingly marries farmhouse scale and chic aesthetics. Beyond the home itself, a stone barn acts as a separate dining pavilion, with an interior seemingly unchanged since the 19th century beneath even more vaulted ceilings.
What We Love: The placid waters of Upper Sag Harbor Cove lap at the shores of this property and are fully accessible via a personal deepwater dock. After a blissful day at sea, traverse the rolling lawn to the bluestone back patio, where you can take a dip in the heated gunite pool or unwind under a covered lounge.
Represented By: Susan Breitenbach of Corcoran’s Southampton Office.
Hudson Valley
What’s Here: This astonishing Amenia estate encompasses 118 brilliant Hudson Valley acres and sweeping mountain and valley vistas. A c.1790 yellow-brick, seven-bedroom Colonial rests at the property’s center. It sports wonderfully restored original details, counting four wood-burning fireplaces and a billiards room with 18th-century wood paneling. Another long-standing element of the property is the back patio’s Camperwood elm; it dates to the 1940s and has since provided shade beneath its unfolding canopy. The entertaining spaces are vast, including a sunroom where you can enjoy omnidirectional light flow via floor-to-ceiling windows.
What We Love: Where else can you find 118 prime acres to call your own? Among them: A heated gunite pool with a hot tub and surrounding terrace, a tennis court, and a two-bedroom/two-bath guest apartment above a four-car garage — a caretaker’s cottage adds three more bedrooms, bringing the property’s total to a staggering 12. The grounds are also an equestrian Eden, with a 28-stall barn, rings for horse jumping and exercise, and a polo field.
Represented By: Cathy Franklin and Alexis Bodenheimer of Corcoran’s East Side Office.
South Florida
What’s Here: If the orange tree out front doesn’t make it clear, this five-bedroom Palm Beach home presents superlative South Florida living. Its breezy floor plan allows you to indulge in elegance at an effortless pace. The first-floor primary suite may draw you in with its dual bathrooms and bay window overlooking custom-designed gardens. Or perhaps you’ll heed the library’s call, enticed by its handsome millwork and built-ins. Even the kitchen has a visual magnetism with its vaulted wooden ceilings and center granite island. Covered loggias expand the home and make the living room feel poolside via seamless indoor-outdoor flow.
What We Love: Tucked away in Palm Beach’s North End area, the home is about equidistant from two separate waterfronts. An entry path to Lake Trail — tailor-made for walking, running, and bicycling along tranquil Lake Worth Lagoon — begins two houses to the west, while access to Atlantic Ocean sands awaits at the end of Merrain Road to the east.
Represented By: Dana Koch of Corcoran’s Palm Beach Office.
Georgia
What’s Here: Dearest gentle reader, make yourself at home in this Regency-era inspired three-bedroom manor that was built in 2021 and combines graceful historic style with every conceivable modern comfort. The house is built on a downward slope, so the lowest terrace level opens up to the splendid garden. This residence is ideal for entertaining, with a grand living space on the ground floor that has a steel-and-glass rear wall, as well as a smaller parlor delineated by a steel-and-glass partition wall. The dining room has a bespoke built-in dry bar, and there’s both an expansive chef’s kitchen and a scullery kitchen with its own prep area. There’s also an exercise room with a full mirror; a laundry room with concealed machines, a sorting closet, and a separate sink; and an elevator.
What We Love: It is a truth universally acknowledged that a house in possession of a good bathroom (or two) must have the most relaxing of bathing opportunities: The primary bedroom’s en suite bathroom has heated limestone flooring, a full marble shower, and a slipper tub, while a second bedroom has heated tile flooring and most unusually, a full wet room with a Japanese soaking tub.
Represented By: Sarah Ellis of Corcoran Classic Living.
South Carolina
What’s Here: This new construction property, designed by KRA Architecture + Design, is spread over a half acre of land, with the primary house boasting four bedroom suites, and an additional separate one-bedroom suite over the garage, complete with its own sitting area, wet bar, and full bathroom. The double-height living room with a fireplace is both grand and inviting, while the dining room is surrounded by floor-to-ceiling windows on three sides. Behind the chef’s kitchen, there’s a butler’s pantry with ample counter space, many cabinets, a sink, and an oven, a helpful additional space for plating and preparing party meals and hors d’oeuvres.
What We Love: There’s a large covered porch that serves as a transition between the inside and the gardens, with its own fireplace for chilly winter nights. And if you want to enjoy fire outside, there’s a fire pit with seating for an impromptu s’mores snack. The house is close to Moreland Village and its amenities, including leisure trails, workout facilities, two pools, and a restaurant.
Represented By: Dave Jarman and the Palmetto Fine Homes Team of Corcoran HM Properties.
Chicago
What’s Here: A light and airy house sits on a prime corner lot in Lakeview’s Southport Corridor and has plenty of space for the whole family to gather and hang out, along with five generously sized bedrooms where people can retreat to relax or focus on homework or work. In addition to the open-plan living room that flows into the dining room and kitchen with a breakfast bar and butler’s pantry, the house boasts a penthouse rec room with a wet bar and a rooftop deck that’s perfect for parties or even a morning cup of coffee. There’s a second rec room with a second wet bar on the lower level with radiant heated flooring that’s just right for movie night.
What We Love: Make getting ready in the morning a peaceful ritual, rather than a rushed affair in the huge primary suite. It’s a relaxing haven with a large walk-in closet and a spa-style bathroom with a standing steam shower, soaking tub, double vanity, and heated floor. (Or take advantage of the house’s surround-sound system to blast some tunes to give an energizing jolt to the day.)
Represented by: Matt Silver of Corcoran Urban Real Estate.
Colorado
What’s Here: A beautiful Park Hill Craftsman house from 1911 has five bedrooms and three-and-a-half bathrooms. Distinct Craftsman details including stained glass in many of the windows, much of the home’s original woodwork, and the original garland-and-fountain frieze in the dining room. The kitchen has been updated to include a cozy dining nook, ideal for casual family dinners or relaxed breakfasts. There’s also a small work station in the kitchen that can be used for a cookbook collection or as a place to pull up a recipe on a tablet. The primary suite has a decorative fireplace and there’s a rec room in the basement, which can be used as an office.
What We Love: Park Hill is one of the city’s most vibrant neighborhoods, with restaurants, shops, the Denver Zoo, the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, and City Park all nearby.
Represented By: Karin Camarena of Corcoran Perry & Co.
Northern California
What’s Here: Put down some roots in this very unusual modern residential barn, which is nestled at the back of a nearly half-acre landscaped plot. (At the front of the property is a commercial building built in 1918, and as the property is zoned to allow a work/live lifestyle, so there are multiple business opportunities possible.) The residential barn has three bedrooms and four bathrooms. The living space has 25-foot ceilings, thanks to its enormous trusses, making it the place to throw the ultimate party. The bedroom suites are up two spiral staircases, while there’s an ADA-accessible full bathroom on the first floor, along with a den or home office.
What We Love: The outside space on this Petaluma property is truly spectacular, with a wraparound deck that has a built-in grill and an imported Italian pizza oven. The deck is partially shaded and has a California-meets-Provence style, decorated with a chandelier over the dining area and surrounded by lime trees and a mini-orchard of olive trees. There’s even an outdoor shower!
Represented By: Bonnie Spindler of Corcoran Icon Properties.
St. Barth
What’s Here: The living is easy in this delightful four-bedroom villa, perched on the hills of Pointe Milou. The house is designed so that the living area is completely open to the stunning view of the sea and mountains, as well as leading directly to the terrace and infinity pool. Two of the bedroom suites are on the same level as the living area, graced with the same panoramic views, while the two bedroom suites on the lower level have a more secluded ambiance, but open up to their own terraced seating as well.
What We Love: Pointe Milou is primarily a quiet residential area, known for its breathtaking views and gorgeous villas. It is, however, home to Le Ti Saint Barth, one of the island’s most famous nightclubs, which parties all night. Most residents of Pointe Milou head to nearby Lorient or St. Jean for shopping and dining or to visit the beach, then retreat back to Pointe Milou for a quiet evening chez vous.
Represented By: Guillaume de Corlieu and Marion Sautereau of Corcoran St Barth.