Once asking $39M, NJ estate finally sells for 88% discount

Bureaucracy, taxes, dated decor sink Englewood mansion’s closing price to $4.6M after 8 years on market

83 North Woodland Street in Englewood, NJ Michelle Paid Group (Signature Realty/Michelle Pais Group)
83 North Woodland Street in Englewood, NJ Michelle Paid Group (Signature Realty/Michelle Pais Group)

After eight years of price cuts and abandoned sales, a New Jersey mansion finally closed recently for $4.6 million, an astounding 88 percent discount on its original ask, according to the New York Post.

The “Gloria Crest” mansion in Englewood first hit the market in 2013 for $39 million, making it one of the priciest listings in Garden State history. Over the course of eight years, however, the price dropped to $25 million in 2014, $24 million in 2015, $12 million in 2018 and $9.99 million in 2019 before the recent sale closed.

Michelle Pais, the broker ultimately responsible for getting the home off the market, pointed toward a number of factors to explain the precipitous drop for the eight-bedroom, 24,000-square foot mansion, including bureaucracy.

Pais said the building was corporate-owned and had a number of decision makers who needed to vote on a sale, which only happened after multiple appraisals.

Another factor driving the anonymous buyer’s need for a discount was the annual tax bill that came with the property: a whopping $168,000.

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The home is also in need of renovations, including an update to the decor. The interior of the mansion includes gilded moldings, ornate fireplaces and a stained-glass ceiling in one of the kitchens.

Rumored former owners of the mansion include Golden Age film star Gloria Swanson and Joseph Kennedy, John F. Kennedy’s father, according to the post. A 2013 Wall Street Journal story described it as having “the feel of a ‘Fabergé egg.”

“When you first step in, you feel like your time traveling into a different era,” Pais said.

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[NYP] — Holden Walter-Warner