Richard Tayar and the Tuscan estate

With a new offices and new hires seemingly every day, Keller Williams NYC has been expanding its operations within Manhattan. But the Ilan Bracha-led firm’s reach has gone as far as Italy.

Forbes reported that the brokerage recently picked up a 46,620-square-foot Medieval Tuscan mansion complete with restored frescoes and terracotta floors that’s asking €38 million, or about $53 million. The estate, located in Torrita di Siena, also has 74 acres of grape and olive vineyards and an operating winery that produces about 11,000 bottles of wine a year. [more]

A city proposal to demolish a neo-Tudor home on 74th Street and 34th Avenue in Jackson Heights to make room for a junior high school has riled preservationists, who say the historic mansion should be preserved, according to the New York Daily News. However, parents support the decision to demolish the home to combat overcrowding in schools.
The mansion was built in 1941 and 1942 and later sold to a Korean church. The church sold the property to a developer who then flipped it to the city.
Peter Mariotti, a retired Revlon executive, tried to buy the home in 2007, but failed. “I would dream of living in that house and I came so close,” he said. “If I did, that house would be the shining star of Jackson Heights.” [more]

From the South Florida Web site: For
a third time this year, the Palm Beach office of the Corcoran Group,
looking for ways to move mansions in a slow market, brokered a deal so
that two clients could swap mansions for an even $6 million. “Trading
houses is a creative solution in this market,” said Bill Yahn, director
of sales for Corcoran in Palm Beach. The swap earlier this month is an
extreme example of how to get business going when the market is nearly
moribund, he said. “Swapping is a way to get the maximum values, the
highest and best price in a market where there are no takers.” Yahn
said they have only done swaps when both homes are local and both
parties are working “internally with Corcoran.” [more]

From the South Florida Web site: Local brokers say former Miami Heat basketball star Shaquille O’Neal has finally sold his Miami Beach mansion, listed first in 2005 for $35 million. The buyer is Vladislav Doronin, Naomi Campbell’s boyfriend. Shaq’s 20,000-square-foot mansion has been an object of fascination and a high-end symbol of the housing crunch ever since. No details on the sale have been released, though it reportedly closed Wednesday. O’Neal had reportedly arranged a November 2007 sale to baseball star Alex Rodriguez for a price between $25 million and $27 million, but deflation took its toll in both sports and real estate and the deal fell through. A November 2008 report put the manse back on the market for $19 million. At the start of this year, another broker listed it for $25 million, and the listing price was dropped in March to $22.5 million. [more]