A Designer’s Montauk Home With 180-Degree Views of Block Island Sound
Esha Soni, who designs luxury handbags and jewelry, bought and renovated the four-bedroom hilltop house a decade ago.
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Designer Esha Soni, whose sculptural purses and accessories are sold at stores like New York’s Bergdorf Goodman, bought and renovated this four-bedroom, four-bathroom house in Montauk, New York, 10 years ago.
The hilltop home enjoys “breathtaking views and spectacular sunsets,” according to Zachary Tunick of Douglas Elliman, one of the listing agents.
Its location overlooking Block Island Sound “also means you get 180-degree views,” he said. “And you hardly need air conditioning because the ocean breezes are so spectacular.”
The home’s location “on a quiet cul-de-sac ensures there is absolutely no road noise or drive-by traffic,” Tunick said. “But there are trendy restaurants and terrific seasonal shops within walking distance.”
With a designer’s touch from Soni, the home is “beautifully renovated,” Tunick said. “It can be taken to the next level, but it’s already very livable.”
Open-plan living, dining and kitchen spaces anchor the home’s main level, with water views from walls of windows. There is a wood-burning brick fireplace in the living room.
The kitchen, with a granite-topped island at its center, features Wolf appliances. The primary suite includes two closets, a foyer, a large bathroom and walkouts to the home’s broad wooden terrace. The main floor includes a second bedroom, office, pantry and mudroom.
The lower level—“which is not subterranean, because of the topography,” Tunick said—includes two more bedrooms, a bathroom, a living room and storage space.
“I love my house because the view of the water and the sunset, the wide-open space, and the lush, old trees create a deep sense of calm,” Soni told Mansion Global in an e-mail. “In the evenings, the white walls and floors reflect the colors of the sunset in a simple, beautiful way.”
Before launching her eponymous handbag line in 2022, Mumbai-born Soni designed accessories for labels including Ghurka, Michael Kors Collection, Ralph Lauren and Proenza Schouler. “
The bags feel like they could easily double as home decor,” enthused fashion blog WhoWhatWear in August.
Furniture is available by separate negotiation.
Stats
With four bedrooms and four bathrooms, this 3,400-square-foot house occupies a 0.88-acre lot.
Amenities
The large wooden deck, about 15 feet deep by 80 feet wide, features a mechanical canopy.
Talking Points
The 3,400-square-foot house “could easily get expanded to 6,000 square feet,” Tunick said. While there is no pool, the property is permitted for one; because of the home’s large legal setback, a new owner could also add a garage, Tunick said.
Neighborhood Notes
Montauk is on the eastern tip of Long Island’s South Shore, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean and the Block Island Sound.
While Montauk has a reputation for nightlife—the village is home to more than 50 bars—“there is a community within the community of very successful, sophisticated parents with kids in the incredible schools here,” Tunick said. “These are people at the top of their fields, but down-to-earth. Montauk is about a laid-back lifestyle.”
Celebrity residents have included Julianne Moore, Robert De Niro and Bad Company drummer Simon Kirke. A-listers like Taylor Swift and Leonardo DiCaprio have also reportedly hung out at local hotspots like The Surf Lodge.
Private airports nearby include East Hampton Airport, about 20 miles west, and Francis S. Gabreski Airport in Westhampton Beach, about 40 miles west. Midtown Manhattan is about 117 miles west.
Agents: Zachary Tunick, Nicole Tunick, Douglas Elliman
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The 1860s Darlinghurst mansion Stoneleigh could become Sydney’s most expensive home ever sold under the hammer when it goes to auction. Clint Ballard is giving buyers a $28 million guide for the heritage-listed mansion on Darley Street, opposite Iona, the former home of Hollywood royalty Baz Luhrmann. Stoneleigh is being offered for sale for the …
Set on one of the city’s last absolute riverfront sites, The Riversdale by Mosaic combines irreplaceable waterfront ownership with one of Brisbane’s most significant residential opportunities.
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The 1860s Darlinghurst mansion Stoneleigh could become Sydney’s most expensive home ever sold under the hammer when it goes to auction.
Clint Ballard is giving buyers a $28 million guide for the heritage-listed mansion on Darley Street, opposite Iona, the former home of Hollywood royalty Baz Luhrmann.
Stoneleigh is being offered for sale for the first time in 36 years. The home is owned by jeweller Vanessa Wong, who took the keys in 2016, after the Wong family paid $3.18 million in 1990. Wong renovated the home shortly after taking ownership, adding a pool to its 650 sqm grounds.
A Landmark on the Heritage Register
‘Stoneleigh’ is recognised on the NSW State Heritage Register for its architectural elegance and historical significance, and remains a defining presence within the tightly held Darlinghurst Ridge heritage precinct, an enclave prized for its concentration of intact colonial and Victorian-era residences just minutes from the CBD.
While the bones of the home date to 1860, its current form reflects a considered architectural transformation by Brian Hess, with landscaping by Dangar Barin Smith, that reconciles the villa’s historic fabric with the demands of contemporary living.
Stoneleigh was added to the State Heritage Register in 1999. It features a hipped corrugated steel roof, a bank of 12 paned timber framed double hung windows to the first floor, and arched colonnade to the ground floor, all set behind a Victorian cast iron palisade fence and colonnade extends around one side of the building.
Two of its previous owners have included Richard Jones, who was Chairman of the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney and the founder of the Maitland Mercury newspaper. He owned the home for around two decades from 1870. From the mid-1890s, J. Russell French, who was General Manager of the Bank of New South Wales, had the keys.
Grand Interiors, Resort-Style Grounds
Inside, the home unfolds across multiple levels, anchored by a statement marble kitchen with integrated dining that flows into expansive formal and informal living zones. These spaces open out to a private terrace and tropical gardens, blurring the line between indoor and outdoor living in a way that’s become the calling card of Sydney’s top-tier renovations.
The outdoor offering is a standout in its own right: a 3-metre-deep mineral pool with geothermal heating anchors a resort-style entertaining garden designed for year-round use, an increasingly sought-after feature among buyers at the top of the market.
Accommodation is generous with six bedrooms in total. There are two master suites, including a primary retreat built around a Japanese Hinoki bath, along with additional bedrooms, terraces and substantial storage, a rare inclusion in an inner-city heritage home of this era.
Finishes throughout run to French Oak flooring, hand-applied Marrakech plaster walls, bespoke lighting by Michael Anastassiades and a Stuv fireplace, all supported by advanced geothermal climate control, ducted air conditioning and a full security system. A cellar on the lower ground floor houses a functioning heritage well, a genuinely rare survivor that underscores just how much of the property’s 19th-century character has been preserved.
Perhaps most notably for an inner-city heritage property, ‘Stoneleigh’ offers secure parking for up to five vehicles, a feature agents will no doubt lean on heavily, given how scarce multi-car garaging is within walking distance of the city.
Key Features
- Architecturally redesigned by Brian Hess with landscaping by Dangar Barin Smith
- Landmark c.1860 Victorian Regency residence with a refined contemporary transformation
- Resort-style outdoor living with mineral pool, geothermal heating and tropical gardens
- Designer marble kitchen with integrated dining and Sub-Zero, Wolf and Miele appliances
- Multiple formal and informal living zones flowing to an outdoor entertaining terrace
- Two master suites, including a primary retreat with a Japanese Hinoki bath, plus additional bedrooms
- French Oak flooring, Marrakech plaster finishes and bespoke lighting throughout
- Advanced geothermal heating/cooling, ducted air conditioning and full security system
- Stuv fireplace, Michael Anastassiades lighting, retractable awnings
- Secure parking for up to five vehicles — a rare inner-city offering
- Level walk to fine dining, bars, cafes and train stations; 2km to the CBD
- Moments from some of Sydney’s finest schools, including Ascham, SCEGGS and Sydney Grammar
A New Record?
The highest price ever paid for a residential house sold under the hammer in Sydney is $24.6 million, for a home in Vaucluse in September 2020.
Bidding opened at $13 million for the 1,085-square-metre block against an $11 million price guide, and the hammer fell at $24.6 million — well above the $14 million reserve. A young Australian-Chinese couple who’d never bid at auction before walkedaway with the keys. That result broke the previous auction record of $23 million, set by media scion Lachlan Murdoch’s purchase of the Bellevue Hill mansion “Le Manoir” in 2009.
Late last year, Iona, across the road from Stoneleigh, sold by private treaty for $37.5 million. It was bought by Bryant Stokes, son of the billionaire Channel 7 chairman Kerry Stokes, and his wife Dominique. It was sold by investment banker Tim Eustace and his partner Salvador Panui, who bought it from film director Baz Luhrmann for $16 million in 2015.
From citrus oils to warming spices, the classic G&T is being reimagined at home as a more thoughtful, seasonal ritual for modern entertaining.
A Vaucluse masterpiece by MHNDU with interiors by Poco Designs brings architectural ambition and breathtaking ocean outlook to the auction block.
