Real LI

A Roslyn home that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places is now listed for $1.399 million. The 1875 Victorian went on the market in June 2008 for $1.695 million.

The three-story home overlooks Roslyn Harbor, and retains many original architectural elements such as doors, hardware and decorative moldings. There are 6 fireplaces, and a renovated kitchen that includes a Thermador gas oven and a Sub-Zero refrigerator.

The 1-acre property originally belonged to local attorney George Washington Denton. The interior was designed to imitate an Italian villa. Later, in the 1930’s and 1940’s, the home was used by the Girls Service League of America.

The home is listed with Jack Rossinsky of Shawn Elliott Luxury Homes and Estates.

The seller of a $13.9 million Nissequogue estate wants to sweeten the deal: The buyer will receive a $130,000 Maserati Quattroporte, compliments of the seller.

Annual property taxes are about $61,000.

The 14.5-acre gated estate overlooks the Long Island Sound. “It has 2,000 feet of beachfront,” says seller Yucel Edebali, a real estate developer and the president of Crest Contracting Inc. in Jericho.

The 8,500-square-foot home includes two home theaters, a gourmet kitchen, six bedrooms and six and a half bathrooms. There are indoor and outdoor pools and a Har-Tru tennis court.

Barbara Tomko of Shawn Elliott Luxury Homes & Estates, who is co-listing the property with Sharyn Hyman, says, “It’s for someone who wants a retreat, away from any hustle and bustle … It is set away from everything, with a lot of acreage around it.”

This is the second Shawn Elliott deal this year involving cars: The buyer of a Kings Point home on the market for $9.995 million will receive a Ferrari 430 Spider and a Maserati Grand Turismo.

- KRISTIN TAVEIRA

Buy one Kings Point home and get two luxury cars.

That’s the deal being offered to the buyer of an 8,000-square-foot Colonial on the Long Island Sound.

The property is listed for $9.995 million with Dalia Mairzadeh of the Roslyn office of Shawn Elliott Luxury Homes and Estates.

The 10-room spread features a double-story foyer with marble floors, a library with a Mahogany floor, cherry wood bookcases and a gas fireplace (one of four), and a kitchen with marble countertops and a subway tile backsplash.

The house has six bedrooms, including a master suite and a walk-in closet that can accommodate 500 pairs of shoes. There are six bathrooms, as well as two half baths.

A spiral staircase leads to a third-floor sitting area and observation deck. “It’s all about the views, and the sunsets over the New York City skyline are simply breathtaking,” says Shawn Elliott.

As for the cars: The buyer will get a Ferrari 430 Spider and a Maserati Grand Turismo, courtesy of Ferrari Maserati of Long Island in Plainview, which the seller owns. “They are his and hers exotics,” says Elliott, adding that the cars are worth about $500,000 combined.

- LISA DOLL BRUNO

Model Carol Alt told an Ottawa newspaper recently that longtime boyfriend and former New York Islander Alexei Yashin supported her decision to pose nude for the cover of December's Playboy Magazine. "He wanted me to do it eight years ago," the 48-year old said. "He had no problems with it." Alt, who grew up in East Williston, credits her raw food diet with keeping her in top shape.

Meanwhile, Yashin's neighbors in Old Westbury shouldn't expect to see the pair around town now that the hockey player's mansion has been listed with Shawn Elliott Luxury Homes & Estates.

The six-bedroom, 9,200-square-foot home sits on 3.26 acres, and is listed for $11 million. Public records show that Yashin purchased the property for $3.877 million in 2002. The home has an elevator, newly built home theater, billiards room, pool and tennis courts. Yashin played with the Islanders from 2001 to 2007.

ESPN analyst and former New York Jet wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson apparently has the decorator’s touch. The 36-year-old is set to star in a 10-episode A&E series, “Keyshawn Johnson: Tackling Design,” due out next year.

In the meantime, a luxury townhome once owned by Johnson just went on the market in Woodbury, listed with Judy Fruitbine of Shawn Elliott Luxury Homes and Estates. The three-bedroom, 3-1/2-bath unit is listed for $1.199 million.

The home is situated in the 99-unit Eagle Chase development and has views of the pond from every room. “As soon as you walk into the door, you see the pond with its circulating water,” says Fruitbine, “There are walls of glass. There’s an elegant feel throughout.” Amenities include housekeeper’s quarters, a finished basement, bar and entertainment area, gas fireplace, wood floors and tumbled marble baths.

Quarterback Chad Pennington, who was cut from the New York Jets earlier this month to make room for Brett Favre, has gone into contract on his Muttontown home.

Pennington first put the six-bedroom, 7½-bath, brick center-hall Colonial mansion on the market in July for $4.095 million, later lowering it to $3.995 million. The 2-plus acre estate went into contract "within 30 days and for close to the asking price," says Shawn Elliott of Shawn Elliott Luxury Homes & Estates, whose company both listed the property and brought the buyers. The listing agents are Barbara Tomko and Sharon Hyman.

Elliott says that the closing is expected by early October, and that the new owners are a Manhattan couple in the financial industry.

Pennington’s 7,000-square-foot home has a state-of-the-art fitness center, a billiards room, Gunite pool and a four-car garage. Records show the home was purchased in 2005 for $3.595 million.

Pennington, now a quarterback for the Miami Dolphins, "is one of the nicest clients I have ever met," Elliott says.

If you've got $12.9 million and are a big fan of television's "Gossip Girl", why not buy this 5-acre estate where two episodes of the show's upcoming season were filmed?

The Villa at Chestnut Hill, where scenes for a "white party" for the show take place, has just gone on the market with Shawn Elliott Luxury Homes & Estates. The gated five-bedroom mansion boasts nearly 15,000 square feet, a grand foyer with dual wraparound staircases, a 65-foot ballroom, a gym and a glass-enclosed salt water swimming pool. The third story cupola affords a 365-degree view of the manicured grounds and neighboring Planting Fields Arboretum.

The listing agents are Angela Rothenberg and Kim Greenberg. Greenberg owns the home with fiancee and real estate developer, Fred Rudd. The former owner was chop-shop king Michael Pescatore.

Greenberg and Rudd have made many improvements to the property since purchasing it from the government for $8.3 million in 2007, beating out dozens of bidders. "They went above and beyond in every detail," Elliott says. "They've taken it to a level far above the previous owner."

Elliott says that recently, a Kohl's commercial was filmed at the estate, and in June rapper Ludacris filmed an At&T commericial there as well.

Even some professional football players have had trouble finding affordable housing on Long Island.

So says Mike Francesa, co-host of WFAN’s Mike and the Mad Dog radio show, who spoke last week about members of the New York Jets, who for years have trained at Hofstra University in Hempstead. Starting next year, the team will train in Florham Park, N.J., which may be happy news to some players and coaches, who found housing prices here on the Island out of reach, and opted to travel hours to training camp rather than pay the hefty real estate prices in our area.

Despite it all, some members of the Jets did call Long Island home, and REAL LI has reported on current and former team members who are now selling or have recently sold homes here.

Former Jet Vinny Testaverde has relocated to Florida, and is selling his Oyster Bay Cove estate for $6.495 million. Retired Jet Curtis Martin took his Garden City penthouse off the market earlier this year, after having listed it for $3.099 million. Jet quarterback Chad Pennington recently listed his Muttontown mansion for $4.095 million, and cornerback Dave Barrett is selling his Melville townhome for $899,000. Linebacker Bryan Thomas, who owns a home on the North Shore, sold a property he owns in Long Beach earlier this year which he had listed for $680,000.

Former New York Islander Alexei Yashin has listed his Old Westbury mansion for sale for $11 million.

The Russian-born hockey center wore the Islander uniform from 2001 to 2007. He is the longtime companion of East Williston-born actress and author Carol Alt, who appeared last season on Donald Trump's "Celebrity Apprentice."

Yashin was bought out of his contract by the Islanders in 2007. Last month, Newsday reported that Yashin was in talks with the team over his possible return.

Public records show that Yashin purchased the six-bedroom, 9,200-square-foot mansion on 3.26 acres in 2002 for $3.877 million. The home has an elevator, newly built home theater, billiards room, pool and tennis courts.

Shawn Elliott of Shawn Elliott Luxury Homes & Estates would not comment on his listing.

Elliott also lists former New York Jet Vinny Testaverde’s home in Oyster Bay Cove, which recently had a price reduction from $6.995 million to $6.495 million.

A piece of Roslyn’s history has just hit the market for $1.695 million.

Jack Rossinsky of Shawn Elliott Luxury Homes and Estates is listing this circa 1875 Victorian overlooking Roslyn Harbor that is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

The three-story home was built on two wooded hilltop acres for local attorney George Washington Denton. The interior was designed to imitate an Italian villa. The Roslyn Landmark Society oversees permission on renovations and upgrades.

The home has gone through a series of owners yet retains all original architectural elements, including doors, hardware, decorative moldings and six fireplaces. In the 1930s and 1940s, it was used by the Girls Service League of America.

One area that’s been modernized is the kitchen, where there’s a Thermador gas oven, Sub-Zero refrigerator, dishwasher and upgraded cabinetry.

New York Jets cornerback David Barrett has put his Melville townhome on the market for $899,000. Barrett purchased the house in the Country Pointe community in 2004, when he joined the Gang Green. The four-bedroom, 3 ½-bath dwelling features a formal living room and family room with a fireplace, a master suite with a Jacuzzi tub and shower and a finished basement.

The Country Pointe complex offers a pool, tennis courts and clubhouse. Peter Kavanaugh of Shawn Elliott Luxury Homes & Estates has the listing.

Shawn Elliott represents the Oyster Bay Cove home of former Jet Vinny Testaverde, which, after a brief time off the market, was recently relisted at just under $7 million.

After a brief hiatus, Heisman winner Vinny Testaverde’s Oyster Bay Cove home is back on the market, listed with Shawn Elliott Luxury Homes and Estates.

The price remains $6.995 million for the 13,000 square-foot mansion on Talls Oaks Court. Testaverde and wife, Mitzi, orginally listed the home in October 2007, taking it off the market this January as they prepared to move to their new $4.5-million Tampa, Fla., mansion.

The six-bedroom, 7 ½-bath center-hall Colonial sits on four acres and is a sports-fan’s paradise with a fitness center, a sauna and steam room, a movie theater, a video game room, a billiards room, a full basketball court and a sports court. The home includes a cabana, a heated Gunite pool with a 20-foot waterfall, a kiddie pool and an eight-person Jacuzzi.

Money can’t buy all wishes and a broker teases:

An “under 40” Wall Street exec with millions has his eye on Billy Joel’s Centre Island estate, said broker Shawn Elliott.

The owner of Woodbury-based Shawn Elliott Luxury Homes and Estates has plans to show the client around Middlesea, reduced to $32.5 million since it went on the market $5 million higher in September 2006

But Elliott, such a teaser, won’t say who he’s bringing to the estate on confidentiality grounds. It’s just stuff like “definitely a well-known Wall Street person” from the broker.

“I won’t give you the name but if I did and you put in on Google, immediately you’d know who it is and a lot of people would know who it is,” he said. “They have a home in Florida and they have a home in Manhattan. They do not own a Hamptons house. So it’d be sort of like in exchange for having a Hamptons house, this would be closer to the city.”

Elliott said his first customer to Middlesea was a venture capitalist and boater who made an offer on the compound around November but was turned down.

That first client would have bought the 14-acre place if he could have his one big wish, the broker said.

“If I can land a helicopter here, we’ll make this happen,” Elliott recalled his client saying. “Nothing would make him happier than to be in Manhattan in 15 minutes.

“I checked it out. I called the town. No helicopter landing anywhere on Centre Island.”

It’s hard to find a Long Island home where the views can help de-stress high-powered big wigs in high-pressure businesses and where helicopter commuting is legal, so Elliott thinks his first client might be back once he weighs the options.

“When you get to this level, it’s not about the money necessarily,” the broker said. “You want what you want, and you’re willing to pay for it and you’re not willing to compromise.”

Vinny Testaverde has taken his $7 million mansion in Oyster Bay Cove off the market for good reason. The former New York Jets player is packing up.

After seven years living there, the comeback quarterback, 44, who last month announced he’s retiring from Carolina Panthers, and wife Mitzi are boxing up stuff for the March 1 move to his $4.5 million seven-bedroom, eight-car garage home on Keystone Lake in Tampa, Fla.

It was taken off the market just before the holidays and probably won’t be shown to prospective buyers until the end of March, said broker Shawn Elliott, who represents the property.

“They don’t want to be interrupted while they’re packing and everything else,” said the owner of Shawn Elliott Luxury Homes and Estates, based in Woodbury. “You want to see the house and appreciate it for what it is. You don’t want to see the boxes everywhere.

“They love the house so much. They really brought their kids up in that house and they’re really sad to see it go.”

But Mitze Testaverde, who used to be a Tampa Bay Buccaneers cheerleader, is returning to her roots, while her hubby, a New York native, will go back to the state where he won the Heisman Trophy in 1986 as University of Miami’s quarterback.

They’ll feel at home for another big reason.

Elliott said their Tampa home by coincidence is practically a duplicate in layout their Long Island home and the couple, who have three children, also wants to decorate their new digs in the same way they decked out their Nassau home.

“From the outside, the face is different," Elliott said. "But the interior is almost identical. They did that so all their furniture and stuff like that can fit right in.”

At The Pierre hotel in Manhattan last Wednesday, agents with Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate and their guests ate, drank and danced to a live band in the ornate ballroom, while banks of food, from sushi to chocolate maltballs, waited in side rooms with murals on walls.

“There’s a woman with two legs,” said a senior official from the real estate agency, and along came a woman dressed like an 18th century French aristocrat, standing inside the middle of a table, decorated like a puffed-out skirt. As she walked around, the table rolled with her, and celebrants picked h’ordeurves off the table top.

Despite a slowing market, some of Long Island’s biggest real estate companies showed they can really party.

How about dancing cages at the party thrown by Shawn Elliott Luxury Homes and Estates?

“I have agents in their 70s dancing in the cages,” said Elliott, founder of the Woodbury-based agency.

The cages weren’t hanging from ceilings but rested on platforms at the Pine Hollow Country Club in East Norwich, where Elliott usually has his monthly office meetings. Each year, the broker books the cages and finds that the agents he least expected to go wild – the mild-mannered types during the work day – are the ones who really groove behind bars.

This year, Elliott even booked a Rod Stewart look-alike to perform, complete with sunglasses.

Just before the holidays each year, Elliott has to ask himself a tough question – how can he top last year’s holiday party?

For Brown Harris Stevens, festivities took place under a recognized New York City landmark, Gustavino’s, an architecturally-striking catering space under the 59th Street Bridge in Manhattan.
A trio of brokers, all once professional singers, performed and company president Hall Willkie, according to one report, rarely left the dance floor.

Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty took over The Carltun at Eisenhower Park, where a 10-piece band and two bars – martini and raw - entertained close to 500 people. In the Palm Court, a guitar duo played for those who wanted to hear each other talk and be merry at the same time.

The backdrop to food were ice carvings, including one in the shape of the world’s largest animal. As one guest joked, “Everyone had a whale of a time.”

Woodbury-based broker Shawn Elliott has been getting several requests for his free “Slow. Children At Play” signs since Newsday's Nov. 6 story on his campaign and profile.

He got an e-mail Friday from Oceanside resident Carol Realson, who sees children playing and people walking their dogs while drivers use her West Waukena Avenue as a shortcut to the train station, treating it like a highway instead of a 30 mph zone.

She said six municipal “Children At Play” signs have been posted on the street, including one near the home of an autistic child, and residents are asking Hempstead town for solutions, including speed bumps or lowering the posted speed limit.

Once, Realson said, she and Sake, her one-and-half-year-old puggle, were taking a walk when a driver clipped a parked car and her side view mirror fell and ricocheted off the roadway.

“It was actually flying toward me and my dog,” Realson said. Someone called the police, Realson said, because the woman “thought kids threw something at her car.”

Another time, Sake ran past the yard gate and Realson dashed after him, raising her hand to stop drivers and worrying that she or her dog would be hit.

A director at a cosmetics company, Realson and husband, Dan, bought their home three years ago, never thinking West Waukena, once a one-way street, was a rush-hour shortcut.

Realson, who praised Elliott’s action to stop speeders in his own community, has gotten the broker’s OK to pick up 20 signs: “I think I’m going to take the first 20 and go door to door to say, ‘Would you like one?’ ”

Elliott said he’s got hundreds of signs and will part with as many as Realson and others want and considers all the attention to his safety campaign the "the nicest compliment I can ever get.”

Of course, his little signs have his little Shawn Elliott Luxury Homes and Estates logo too -- something the businessman pooh poohs as a minor fact.

“My name is so nowhere,” said Elliott, who has planned extravagant bashes to publicize a few of his listings. “You got to get up and put on reading glasses to see my name.”

Earlier this month, Real LI featured the Oyster Bay Cove home of former Jet Vinny Testaverde, which is on the market for just under $7 million, listed with Shawn Elliott of Shawn Elliott Luxury Homes & Estates.

This week, the Heisman Trophy winner's wife Mitzy joins Elliott for a tour of the mansion on NBC television's "Open House NYC". See more of Testaverde's home here.

Just like ex-husband Billy Joel, who wants to sell his Centre Island estate, supermodel Christie Brinkley might have a potential buyer for her Bridgehampton property. "There has been some activity," says Susan Breitenbach, senior vice president of the Corcoran Group, who is listing Tower Hill. Brinkley is asking $30 million. "We've had a couple of good showings," says Breitenbach. Earlier this week, as Real LI reported, broker Shawn Elliott said that his venture capitalist client wants to see Joel's house a second time. Joel is asking $32.5 million.

A venture capitalist wants a second viewing of a Billy Joel's Centre Island estate after seeing the posh compound on Saturday, said broker Shawn Elliott.

"The views were ridiculous," said the owner of Shawn Elliott Luxury Homes and Estates, based in Woodbury. "He couldn't believe the views."

The singer wants his Middlesea estate to bring in $32.5 million, down from $37.5 million when he first put it on the market in September 2006.

The 14 acres cover a guest house, a beach house and the big house -- and that's why the house hunter wants a second look, probably this month.

"It's a lot to take in in one visit," Elliott said.

The broker was mum on the guy's identity but said he brings foreign investors into deals in this country.

With housing prices going down and the dollar falling in value, Europeans with euros to spare have been searching for bargains here in the same way U.S. residents go to Mexico for inexpensive vacations and properties.

The foreign angle is being touted by Elliott as he tries to convince Billy Joel's people that he can represent Middlesea and find a buyer. Recently, he and Joel's representatives had a sitdown talk, now that the property is off the listings of Daniel Gale Sotheby's International Realty.

"I have a lot of European contacts with the way the euro is," the businessman said. "I'm playing that card. That's what I bring to the table."

Newsday photo / David L. Pokress

Billy Joel, inside a building at his Centre Island estate, with two model boats he owns

Billy Joel may not have to wait anymore. Shawn Elliott, president of Shawn Elliott Luxury Homes and Estates, says, "I have a customer for his house."

"He loves the water," says Elliot of his client, a businessman. "He's all about the water."

Joel has been trying to sell his Centre Island estate for more than a year. The 14-acre waterfront property went on the market for $37.5 million in September 2006. He bought the house for $22.5 million in 2002. Sources have told Newsday that his main reason for wanting to leave is frustration over not being able to build a dock for his three boats. Since putting the house on the market, he has purchased two homes in Sagaponack. He also has a house in Sag Harbor.

Last month, he let his listing with Daniel Gale Sotheby's International Realty for the 14,000-square-foot mansion expire. Bonnie Williamson, who has represented the property for Daniel Gale, declined to comment today. She told Newsday this month that although the home is not listed on the firm's Web site, it is still for sale and the price remains a reduced $32.5 million.

Elliott says it's in his client's ballpark. "There's not a lot of inventory in the $10-million-plus open-listing market," he says. His client is "looking to trade up," but doesn't want to wait a year for a new house to be built for him on the North Shore.

"He really wants to look at the house," Elliott says.

Newsday Photo / Ken Spencer

For a peek at former Jet Vinny Testaverde's 13,000 square foot Oyster Bay Cove mansion, check out this video advertisement on Newsday.com for the home, which is on the market for almost $7 million.

Testaverde, who now plays for the Carolina Panthers, put the property on the market last week with Shawn Elliott of Shawn Elliott Luxury Homes & Estates.

Fans of the Gang Green are sure to appreciate the color scheme in the billiards and media rooms: It's festooned in Jets green.

Take the tour here.

Newsday Photo / David L. Pokress

Bryan Thomas, linebacker for the New York Jets, is selling his Long Beach home. He went into contract this week. The asking price was $680,000.

The stucco Colonial, built in 2000, is in Long Beach's east end. The house includes a gas fireplace and a master suite with a Jacuzzi. Thomas and his wife, Danielle, lived in the house when Thomas joined the Jets. They have since relocated to Long Island's North Shore. (The Bryan Thomas Foundation contributes to some local causes.) The house has been rented out for the past three years.

The closing is scheduled for November. The listing agents are Barbara Tomko and Sharyn Hyman of Shawn Elliott Luxury Homes.

Heisman Trophy winner and former New York Jets quarterback Vinny Testaverde is putting his Oyster Bay Cove mansion on the market for $6.995 million.

The 13,000-square-foot brick center-hall Colonial sits on four-plus acres and has six bedrooms, seven full baths and two half-baths. The 1,000-square-foot master suite has a private balcony, sitting room and Jacuzzi.

Shawn Elliott of Shawn Elliott Luxury Homes & Estates, which is listing the property, says, “The details in this house are unprecedented. In my many years of selling, I have probably never seen anything with such attention to detail and so well maintained.”

It’s not surprising that Elmont native Testaverde, who stands 6 feet 5 inches tall, should live in a home with high ceilings. The entry foyer has a 19-foot ceiling, the lower level has 10-foot ceilings, and the first and second floors both have 9-foot ceilings.

The gated home has every amenity imaginable for the sports fan, including an 800-square-foot gym with sauna and steam room, a movie theater, a video game room, a billiards room, a full basketball court and a sports court. Outdoors, there’s also a cabana, a heated Gunite pool with a 20-foot waterfall, a kiddie pool and an eight-person Jacuzzi.

There’s even a trophy room, but don’t expect Testaverde to leave his Heisman behind. You’ll have to earn that yourself.