President Trump’s “starter” mansion relists at a hefty discount

<em>A Greenwich estate previously owned by President Donald Trump has been relisted after a $15.5M price cut.</em>
A Greenwich estate previously owned by President Donald Trump has been relisted after a $15.5M price cut.

A roughly six-acre Greenwich estate that once belonged to President Donald Trump and his ex-wife Ivana Trump has returned to market at a 29 percent discount.

The Georgian-style mansion at 21 Vista Drive, which overlooks Long Island Sound and first hit the market in January 2015 seeking $58 million, is now for sale at a $38.5 million ask, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. The property is now owned by financier Robert Sternberg and his wife, Suzanne.

The Sternbergs bought the 19,773-square-foot home, which has been called the president’s “starter mansion,” for $15 million in 1998 from Ivana, who kept it after her 1992 divorce from Trump. The former couple bought the property in 1982 for $4 million and the home was part of a nuptial agreement signed by his ex-wife at the president’s insistence on Christmas Eve in 1987, according to Vanity Fair.

A call to the Sternberg’s Greenwich home by The Real Deal went unreturned Tuesday as the couple was out of town, per an individual who answered the phone. The Sternbergs pulled their Greenwich property from the market after Trump’s presidential campaign gained steam three years ago, but relisted it for the first time in early 2018 with a $45 million price tag.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

Tamar Lurie with Coldwell Banker in Greenwich had the initial listing for the home, but the Sternbergs are now being represented by Joseph Barbieri of Sotheby’s International Realty. The Greenwich-based Barbieri told the Journal that he believes the property is now priced close to its land value.

The Greenwich home has eight bedrooms, 13 bathrooms, a tennis court, a private dock on Indian Harbor, a putting green and a guesthouse with an indoor swimming pool. Other amenities include eight eight fireplaces, a five-car garage, three staff apartments, a three-story rotunda, a movie theater and an outdoor pool.

The home was built in 1939 for Robert Hillas, a former president of the New York-based Super Heater Company. It returns to the market at a time when many luxury homeowners looking to sell in Greenwich have taken price cuts or chosen alternative means of unloading real estate assets, such as auctions, in an effort to move their properties. [WSJ] — Mario Marroquin