The Shelter Island estate once owned by former Gov. Hugh Carey’s family topped the town sales record for the second time when the owner flipped it today for $12.4 million to a Swiss financier.
“I got a big smile on my face,” outgoing owner Chris Knight, a Queens-based real estate investor, said after the closing.
He set a local record early last year by paying $10 million for the 1892 Victorian mansion in disrepair and its 7.8 acres on the waterfront. Knight then quickly put it up on the market again for $33 million, a price that amazed locals but ultimately proved to be too high because Knight lowered it late last year to $22.4 million, after the subprime collapse shook an already-shaky real estate industry.
The Swiss businessman plans to use the house, known as Shorewood Manor, as his summer home and wants to restore the property to its former glory, according to his East Hampton-based attorney, Bill Fleming.
“We’re checking on its provenance,” Fleming said. “We have a historic consultant who’s going to research it.”