Last summer, Curbed opined "Boy, HREO just won't be the same without Linden!" when this $49 million estate went into contract after four long years on the market. Well, you'll never guess what's back on HREO.
Let's back up a bit, shall we? Designed in 1915 by Grosvenor Atterbury (who also designed Forest Hills), the Linden estate was purchased by former Esprit executive Juergen Friedrich for $8.5 million back in 2002. Friedrich then invested millions of dollars renovating the place. He then put the Linden estate on the market for a little under $60 million in 2008. By early 2012, the price was $49 million.
The house went into contact in July 2012. In the August 2012 issue of Haute Living (what, you missed your copy?), we were treated to a gushing portrayal of the buyer, Jim Clark, best known for helping to found Netscape, and his much-younger wife, an Australian swimsuit model. (We wish the magazine had asked her, "So what first attracted you to the billionaire Jim Clark?") "'We're really happy here,' she says. 'Who wouldn't be? It's certainly gorgeous—there's a reason everyone comes here. The Hamptons are special, beautiful. The area has its own different light.'" And then the magazine says, "It was New York's educational opportunities and intellectual energy that prompted the Clarks to raise Dylan [their baby daughter] in the area, and the fresh air and open space of the South Fork—and those lush grounds—that drew them to Southampton, where Dylan could 'be a kid and fall over without grazing herself.'"
Sorry, kid, guess not, because it seems like the sale never completed. We cannot find any record of the title changing hands, and the current listed owners are Friedrich and his wife (actually, an LLC with their initials). And now the estate is back on the market, for $45M.
So what does a billionaire get for that scratch? The main house is 18,000 square feet over three floors, with 12 principal bedrooms and staff quarters. There are also two pavilions outside each with full kitchens on the nine acres, as well as an elaborate carriage house. There's also a grass tennis court, fountain, indoor and outdoor pools, paddle court, and greenhouse. We say: throw in the Warhol of Frederick the Great in the media room and we'll talk.
· Southampton Estate [Corcoran]
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