A sprawling estate just 45 minutes outside of Manhattan in Connecticut’s ritzy, bucolic New Canaan has finally been sold for $10.8 million, after more than three years of waiting.
By any standard, the sale price is hefty, but it’s a staggering $5.7 million below the $16.5 million records show the innovative singer-songwriters paid about 20 years ago for the nearly 32-acre spread — married for 30 years, Simon is 25 years older than Brickell. Simon recorded “many of his hit albums here” according to reports when the property first appeared on the market with an overly optimistic price tag of $13.9 million in 2019.
Even those with overflowing bank accounts can feel the pinch of such a pocketbook-draining loss, but it seems comfortably weathered by the 12-time Grammy-winning singer of the song “Bridge Over Troubled Waters,” who sold his entire catalog to Sony Music Publishing last year for an undisclosed amount estimated to be around a quarter billion dollars.
This estate’s main residence was designed by Harold Reeve Sleeper in 1938, and is a whitewashed brick Georgian mansion that complements rolling lawns, perennial gardens, and surrounding woodlands. A three-story home with half a dozen bedrooms and eight bathrooms, plus a trio of powder rooms, lends itself to gracious entertaining or relaxed family life.
An antique stone fireplace in the living room and French doors lead to the spacious, tile-floored sunroom. Other features of this home include a paneled library with a curved corner fireplace, an eat-in kitchen that flows easily into the dining room, and a mudroom between the kitchen and a three-car garage.
A private bath is located in each of the main house’s five guest bedrooms. Additionally, one of them includes a private sitting room with fireplace, while the main suite includes two bathrooms, a closet-lined dressing gallery, a fireplace, and a large terrace.
Located on a grassy plateau with meditative views over a tranquil private pond, the grounds provide a secluded idyll with sweeping meadows, walled gardens and a swimming pool. The couple used the cottage as a recording studio and kept it as a caretaker’s home or guesthouse, which is just inside the main gates and within walking distance of the main house.
Taylor Tait and Libby Mattson of Houlihan Lawrence listed the property, while Bruce Baker of William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty represented the buyer. Affluent New Canaan is perhaps best known for Philip Johnson’s Glass House, which is home to business tycoons, sports stars, journalists and entertainment industry types, including David Letterman, Glenn Beck and Chris Meloni.
Even though Simon and Brickell are relieved that their New Canaan house has finally been sold, they still own three other properties: a duplex apartment on Manhattan’s Upper West Side where some of the other units belong to Annie Leibovitz, Lorne Michaels and Robert De Niro; a 30-acre oceanfront compound in the Hamptons, in the far reaches of Montauk; a ten-acre estate in Allen, Texas, on the semi-rural outskirts of Dallas;
