Billy Joel Is Movin’ Out of His $49 Million Long Island Mansion

Billy Joel’s roughly 26-acre, waterfront estate on the North Shore of Long Island is coming on the market for $49 million.

The Grammy winner paid $22.5 million for the first roughly 14 acres of the Oyster Bay, N.Y., estate in 2002, public records show. More recently, he acquired several adjacent parcels of land, restoring much of an original estate that was broken up in the 1950s, according to listing agent Bonnie Williamson of Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty.

Centre Island, N.Y.: Billy Joel’s Centre Island home, also known as Middlesea. (Photo by David L. Pokress/Newsday RM via Getty Images)

Known as Middlesea, the property was briefly listed for sale in 2006 asking $37.5 million, but was taken off the market soon after, Ms. Williamson said. She said the Piano Man is looking to sell now because he and his wife, Alexis Roderick, with whom he shares two young children, are spending more time in Florida. A spokesperson for Mr. Joel couldn’t be reached for comment.

Located on Centre Island, a small island roughly 40 miles east of Midtown Manhattan, the estate is close to Mr. Joel’s hometown of Hicksville, a hamlet also located in the town of Oyster Bay. The centerpiece of the estate is a roughly 20,000-square-foot mansion. The property also has a floating dock, a beach house with guest rooms, a gate house, two outdoor pools and a helipad, Ms. Williamson said.

Currently under renovation, the five-bedroom main house has covered porches, brick columns and archways, and a two-story entry hall with black-and-white marble tiled floors. Other amenities at the estate include an under-construction playroom, a room designed to be a spa and hair salon, a bowling alley and a wine cellar. Mr. Joel covered up an indoor pool so he could use the space, which has excellent acoustics, as a music room, Ms. Williamson said.

The renovation of the house is expected to be complete by the late summer or fall, she said. Mr. Joel decided to put the house on the market in the midst of the renovation, Ms. Williamson said, because “whoever buys will want to do their own selections of how to paint and decorate and perhaps style the kitchen.”

Mr. Joel, known for songs like “Piano Man,” “We Didn’t Start the Fire” and “Uptown Girl,” is in the midst of residency at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Records show a company tied to Mr. Joel purchased an estate in the Lantana, Fla., area, for about $22 million in 2015. Another company tied to Mr. Joel also owns property in Sag Harbor, N.Y., records show.

Middlesea will be the most expensive home for sale in Oyster Bay, where the next priciest listing is asking $8.5 million, according to Zillow. In the first quarter, Long Island luxury sales were down by about 34% from the same period of last year, according to a recent report by Douglas Elliman.

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt is selling his Northern California estate, which was listed Monday for $24.5 million.

Located in Atherton, an extremely affluent town northwest of Palo Alto and about 30 miles south of San Francisco, the 3.36-acre property is made up of three parcels that Schmidt acquired over the years, according to public records and Compass, who has the listing.

Schmidt, 69, and his wife, businesswoman Wendy Schmidt, purchased the main home in 1990 for $2 million, according to public records accessed via PropertyShark. They remodelled the 1969 home in 2007, and at that time, bought a neighbouring parcel of land, allowing an expansion of the main house and the addition of a guest house, according to Compass, who holds the listing. A third parcel was later acquired, on which the Schmidts added an English garden house and landscaped grounds overlooking the Eastern Hills.

“Finding three contiguous parcels in Atherton is rare. Even rarer are those with views of the Eastern hills,” said listing agent Katharine Carroll of the reSolve Group at Compass. “The location of this residence is ultra private, at the back of a cul-de-sac with the main house built into a hillside that provides privacy and very good security.”

Across the estate, there are five bedrooms, five full bathrooms and six half bathrooms.

The 5,265-square-foot main house also offers a number of private outdoor spaces on its upper level, including a large terrace off the primary suite, another large terrace off a secondary bedroom, plus a third smaller terrace and two balconies.

Behind the main house is a patio with a pool and spa. For even more outdoor space, there’s an entertaining pavilion, an open lawn and an outdoor fireplace area near the guest quarters.

The grounds themselves are also a standout feature, with an array of mature plants and specimen trees. The upper portion of the property’s landscaping is designed around an Amdega-designed conservatory, which was imported from the U.K. Around the greenhouse, there is a garden of raised beds and fruit trees, Carroll said.

“From the moment you step onto the grounds, it feels as if you’ve been transported to a private botanical sanctuary,” she said.

Schmidt served as Google’s CEO from 2001 to 2011, and then became the company’s executive chairman until 2015. He could not be reached for comment.

This article first appeared on Mansion Global

Billy Joel Is Movin’ Out of His $49 Million Long Island Mansion

The Grammy winner wants to sell the roughly 26-acre waterfront estate now that he and his wife are spending more time in Florida