Real Estate

The Saga Of The Most Expensive House In New Jersey (PHOTOS)

The most expensive house in New Jersey – you know, the one Oprah was apparently looking at, or maybe not – is still on the market. But at a $16 million price chop. What happened?! The Alpine, NJ home was originally priced at $68 million, but was recently reduced to a mere $52 million, Curbed notes. That’s almost a quarter less! Where the rich people at? Who will buy this flashy palazzo? Questions abound.

But more importantly…who’s selling? Mogulite did some investigation into the matter. Through some research, we uncovered that the 30,000-square-foot mansion was actually built by Richard Kurtz, a property developer who runs the Kamson Corporation. And it looks like he hatched a pretty elaborate plan to make some money off of it, too.

For what it’s worth, Kurtz told The Wall Street Journal in 2010 that he was selling the property because: “For two people with no children at home, it’s kind of silly for us to maintain a home of this size.” True, but we’re fairly certain he never planned to move in.

It turns out Kurtz paid $58 million for 60 acres of land in Alpine in 2006 and subdivided them into eight lots, resulting in “The Estates at Alpine.” The land was formerly the estate of 19th-century industrialist Henry Clay Frick, the chairman of the Carnegie Steel Company and a financier of the Pennsylvania Railroad. We can only imagine what he, or his blue-blooded descendants, would think of this Nouveau Jersey creation.

Back to the flagship property – the one that just got its price decimated. Although the broker didn’t answer our call to confirm this information, the (not too recently updated) website for The Estates at Alpine indicates that the big property sits on nearly 28 acres – almost half the development’s total land.

And, on to the fun part. What goods does the house come with? Well, some of the highlights include: 19 bedrooms, a ballroom, a catering kitchen, a basketball court, a movie theater and an 11-car garage. The listing for the home also explains that the house “can be operated anywhere in the world from an iPhone.” Steve Jobs, looking for a spot near NYC?

And of course, pictures:

Photos courtesy of Sotheby’s via Curbed, and The Wall Street Journal

TAGS: estates at alpine | kamson corporation | most expensive house alpine nj | most expensive house in new jersey | most expensive house nj | nj house 52 million | richard kurtz

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