Stone Chateau in Northern N.J. Sells for US$17.7 Million, the State’s Biggest Home Sale in Three Years
The custom megamansion is located in the affluent town of Alpine, not far from New York City.
2 min
A Versailles-style chateau in Alpine, New Jersey, has just been sold for US$17.7 million, the state’s highest home sale in the past three years.
The sale of the custom megamansion, which closed Tuesday, is also the highest-priced in the affluent town and in the Rio Vista neighbourhood since January 2022.
David and Mindy Kwon bought the vacant Bergen County land in 2011 for $3.95 million, according to records on Property Shark. They declined to comment on the sale.
The Kwons spent four years building their dream house, which they christened Chateau de la Roche for the boulder that had to be blasted out of the ground before the project could commence.
Designed by Zampolin & Associates Architects, the cast stone, limestone and travertine residence presides over 2 acres.
The interiors are by Denise Albanese, who, in her dual role as realtor associate at the Christie’s Mahwah-Saddle River Sales Gallery, also represented the Kwons in the sale.
“Among the luxury homes in Rio Vista, Chateau de la Roche is the cream of the crop,” she said. “It’s one of the most elegant—there’s a general feeling of grandeur and luxury.”
The seven-bedroom, 10.5-bath house, which was completed in 2017, is palatial enough to suit royalty.
The 25,700-square-foot house, which is about a half hour from Manhattan, has a 15-seat theatre, an elevator, a gas fireplace, a billiards room, two bars, a wine cellar, two indoor plunge pools, a sauna, a steam room, a conservatory and a central-vacuuming system.
Other features include a grand central staircase illuminated by a massive crystal chandelier, a great room warmed by a mammoth fireplace, a conservatory, a mezzanine and an ornately wood-panelled library with a fireplace. The garage can accommodate four vehicles.
Outside, there’s a resort-style swimming pool and a spa.
It’s the details, Albanese said, that set the chateau apart.
“It has soaring ceilings, custom fireplaces and bridal staircases,” she said. “In one of the powder rooms, there is glass-beaded wallpaper.”
Mansion Global could not immediately confirm the identity of the buyer, who was represented by Richard Orlando and Jason Pierce of Prominent Properties Sotheby’s International Realty and Taylor Lucyk of Christie’s International Real Estate Group
Albanese said that the Kwons, who own several other homes, are downsizing.
The transaction, she said, was a “full-circle moment for me as an interior designer and real estate agent. It’s a little sad to see the chateau go, but I’m already working with the sellers on their next interior design and real estate venture.”
Kwon is the corporate vice president and chief legal officer of ADP (Automatic Data Processing), a Roseland, New Jersey., company that provides human resources management software services. And he’s a trustee on the board of SEEDS, a New Jersey-based nonprofit that helps high-achieving students from low-income families.
Chateau de la Roche was originally put up for sale in 2021 for $25 million. Since 2023, the asking price has been $22.49 million.
Copyright 2020, Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. LEARN MORE
Rising rates, construction inflation and shrinking investor confidence are pushing Australia deeper into a dangerous housing spiral that monetary policy alone cannot fix.
Automobili Lamborghini and Babolat have expanded their collaboration with five new colourways for the ultra-exclusive BL.001 racket, limited to just 50 pieces worldwide.
Kit Braden, an executive at French beauty empire L’Occitane, has spent every winter for the past 13 years at the stone vacation home.
2 min
A historic Barbados estate with a 300-year-old villa and 11 acres overlooking the Caribbean Sea is now for sale with a guide price of $22.5 million.
The seller is Kit Braden, chairman of the U.K. branch of French beauty empire L’Occitane Group, whose family has spent every winter for the last 13 years at the island property, known as Fustic Estate.
“It’s very much a family house,” Braden said. “We love having a lot of people there. It’s a collection point to keep everyone together.”
The main villa dates to 1712, though it’s been reimagined and expanded substantially over the years.
It spans 13,000 square feet and features seven en suite bedrooms across three wings, as well as expansive verandas, stone courtyards and rows of louvered doors in gay Caribbean pastels.
In the 1970s, when the home was owned by Charles Graves—brother of British poet Robert Graves—it was reimagined by stage designer Oliver Messel, one of the foremost theater designers of the last century. Messel expanded the home, added a lagoon pool with a natural waterfall and other theatrical features, according to Braden.
“The whole place is a little bit magical,” he said.
The home sits about 350 feet above the water, and surrounded by lush gardens that slope towards the water.
“We look down through our garden—which is about 12 acres of tropical gardens and palm trees and wonderful old mahogany trees—onto the Caribbean,” Braden said.
He and his wife first saw the property on New Year’s Eve 2013, during a quick trip from where they were staying in Grenada.
The couple spent an hour walking the perimeter, some of it still untouched jungle, in the pouring rain.
“By the time we got back, I had fallen in love with it,” Braden said.
His wife, however, wasn’t so sure. But in Braden’s telling, a second visit in sunnier weather with two of their children brought her around.
“She had to be talked into that it was a jolly good idea; now she absolutely loves it,” he said.
When they bought the property, the edge that runs along the waterfront was a jungle, so they cleared the ridge and transformed it into gardens.
They also bought an additional sea-level parcel with two beach cottages, giving the property direct access to the water and the town below via a five-minute walk.
The property also has a 15-person staff, a reflecting pond, an outdoor pavilion suitable for yoga and a commercial grade kitchen that can serve more than 100 guests, according to a brochure from Knight Frank, which posted the listing in March. They did not provide further comment.
For Braden, the property is special because of its natural beauty, its proximity to the town of Saint Lucy and its history—which dates way way back to when the island of Barbados was first formed via tectonic activity.
“It was basically tectonic plates that collided about a million years ago so the seabed is the top of the hill,” Braden said. “We’re on coral rock.”
As a result, Fustic Estate includes an extensive network of caves that were likely used by the Arawaks, a Venezuelan fishing tribe that followed the fish to these islands about a thousand years ago.
“If the fish were good they’d camp here,” Braden said. “There’s evidence that they stayed there in those caves, they lived there in good winters.”
Now it’s someone else’s turn to live on the land shared by Arawaks, the plantation owners of 1712, Charles Graves and the Braden brood.
The PG rating has become the king of the box office. The entertainment business now relies on kids dragging their parents to theatres.
Rugged coastal drives and fireside drams define a slow, indulgent journey through Scotland’s far north.
