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It’s no Hackensack — but singer-songwriter Billy Joel has decided to trade out his 26-acre Long Island pad in favor of spending more time in Florida, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
The expansive waterfront property is now listed for $49 million with Bonnie Williamson of Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty.
Joel purchased the first 14 acres of the Oyster Bay estate in 2002 for $22.5 million, according to public records. He more recently acquired several adjacent parcels of land to restore the majority of an estate that had been initially divided up in the 1950s, Williamson told The WSJ.
Joel briefly listed the property known as Middlesea for $37.5 million in 2006 before removing it from the market shortly thereafter. It’s back on the market now as he and his wife, Alexis Roderick, and their two young children have been spending more time in Florida.
The estate, which is located on Centre Island and in close proximity to Joel’s hometown of Hicksville, features a 20,000-square-foot mansion, a beach house with guest rooms, a gatehouse, two outdoor pools, a floating dock and a helipad.
The main house, which is currently being renovated, has five bedrooms and eight bathrooms. It features covered porches, brick columns and archways and a two-story entry hall with black-and-white marble tiled floors. Amenities include a spa and hair salon, bowling alley, wine cellar, elevator and a currently in-progress playroom. In addition, an indoor pool that Joel had covered up, is being used as a music room because of its excellent acoustics, Williamson told The WSJ.
Joel decided to list the property in the midst of renovations so the buyer could potentially choose their own paint or other finishes, Williamson said. Renovations are expected to be done by late summer or fall.
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According to records, a company tied to Joel paid $22 million in 2015 for an estate in Lantana, Florida. Joel also owns a property in Sag Harbor, New York.
Middlesea is currently the priciest home for sale in Oyster Bay, according to Zillow. The next priciest listing is a $9.75 million, 8,700-square-foot home that was first listed for $11.5 million in September 2021.
The median sales price for luxury homes in Long Island was $1.35 million during the first quarter of 2023, up 3.8 percent year over year, according to a report from Douglas Elliman and Miller Samuel. The number of closed luxury sales was down 33.7 percent year over year to 453 sales.
Joel, who is known for hits like “Piano Man,” “Uptown Girl,” “She’s Got a Way,” and “Movin’ Out,” has been nominated for 23 Grammy Awards and has won five, with his first awards received for Record of the Year, “Just the Way You Are,” and Song of the Year, “Just the Way You Are” in 1979. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1992.
