Record-setting Greenwich home back on market at $150M

Nine years ago, a mystery buyer in Connecticut set the record for most expensive home purchase in the United States. Less than a decade later, the owner is ready to part ways with the property.

Copper Beech Farm in Greenwich has been listed for $150 million, the Wall Street Journal reported. The seller —a limited liability company tied to hedge fund billionaire Ray Dialo — paid $120 million to buy the waterfront estate in 2014.

That sale had proved difficult for the owner, John Rudey. The timber tycoon initially listed it for $190 million before dropping the ask to $140 million and $130 million before it finally sold.

The 50-acre estate’s calling card is a mile of private Long Island Sound frontage. The house is a French-Renaissance mansion spanning 13,500 square feet. The restored eight-bedroom main house includes a partially finished basement, an upstairs balcony and nine fireplaces across four floors.

There’s also a three-bedroom gate house and two-bedroom carriage house, which has a clock tower. The property is adorned by two private beaches, a bathhouse and a private island, which residents can paddle out to across the Sound. There are also greenhouses, a grass tennis court and a 75-foot swimming pool.

The 19th-century estate was once owned by the Lauder Greenway family; Harriet Lauder Greenway’s father aided Andrew Carnegie as he started U.S. Steel.

The estate is expected to be sold as a single-family home, though it is split between two parcels and could be subdivided into about a dozen building lots.

Sotheby’s International Realty’s Leslie McElwreath, Nikki Field and Joseph Barbieri share the listing.

The owners, presumably Dialo, 73, and his wife, Barbara, are ready to part with the home because their children have moved out and it’s not being utilized to its potential. Field surmised that the buyer could come from Asia.

A $150 million sale would be eye-opening, but not a record. Since the 2014 deal, several sales have surpassed the price paid for Copper Beech Farm. The record is the $238 million that Ken Griffin paid in early 2019 for a penthouse at 220 Central Park South.

— Holden Walter-Warner