The celebrity couple built the house in 2007 and put it on the market a year ago for $27.5 million. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Fingelly.com photos
Phil Donahue and Marlo Thomas have sold their 7.56-acre Greens Farms estate overlooking Long Island Sound for $20 million, $7.5 million below their asking price, according to a filing recorded today in the Westport Town Clerk’s office. The sale was to a Beachside Avenue neighbor.
The celebrity couple—he is best known as a longtime TV talk show host, she for her “That Girl” TV series—bought the property at 120-122 Beachside Ave. in 1998. They put it on the market a year ago. (See WestportNow May 19, 2012)
The buyer was fellow Westporter Andrew Bentley who paid $20 million in November 2010 for three adjoining lots at 124, 126, and 128 Beachside Ave. (See WestportNow Nov. 1, 2010) Three years earlier, it had been listed for $37.5 million.
The sale came six weeks after radio host Don Imus and his wife, Deirdre, sold their 106 Beachside Ave. estate for $14.4 million, The four-acre property was listed in 2005 and 2009 for $30 million, in 2011 for $24.95 million, and the most recent price was set at $19.9 million. (See WestportNow April 12, 2013)
Donahue, 77, and Thomas, 75, built their 8,716- square foot cedar-shingled rambler in 2007. It has five bedrooms, four full and two half bathrooms and at least three fireplaces. An octagonal guest structure near the entry gates houses a fitness facility and there is a gazebo near the water’s edge, according to the listing.
There is a gated, 420-foot long driveway that leads to front and rear parking areas and a garage for four cars.
Other amenities cited in the listing include an elevator, security system, wet bar, multi-zoned heating and cooling systems, skylight(s), 9-plus-foot ceilings, office/computer room, partly finished full basement and second floor master suite with fireplace, hardwood floors, walk-in closet, whirlpool tub and vaulted ceiling.
The $20 million purchases by Bentley, son of Westport artist Nina Bentley and husband Richard, were only second in size to the $25 million sale in 2006 by Donahue and Thomas of their 17-room home with three parcels at 112, 114, and 116 Beachside Ave. (See WestportNow May 1, 2006)
The Town of Westport will gain $50,000 in conveyance taxes from the latest sale. The town this fiscal year has reaped $2.25 million in conveyance taxes, according to Town Clerk Patricia Strauss, surpassing the projected budget of $1.73 million.
