Billy Joel is 'movin' out'

Thursday, September 28, 2006 12:17 PM

Billy Joel is 'movin' out'

Newsday - Long Island,NY,USA

Long Island's arguably most famous resident, musician Billy Joel, may be moving out, having listed his primary residence -- his huge Centre Island estate where ...

 Billy Joel may be movin' out.

 

He's put his primary residence -- the 14-acre Centre Island estate where he's lived for four years -- up for sale for $37.5 million.

Joel, who paid $22.5 million for the property, declined to comment, but spokeswoman Claire Mercuri insisted he is not abandoning his native island. "Billy is a Long Islander and still maintains a property in Sag Harbor," she said.

 

Besides the harborfront house in Sag Harbor, Joel also owns a townhouse in Greenwich Village and a house in Miami. Sources said Joel has been looking for a new primary residence beyond Long Island.

 

His main reason for wanting to leave Centre Island, the sources said, is his frustration over not being able to build a dock for his three boats. No new piers have been approved in decades because local officials arranged with the feds for the harbor to become a national wildlife refuge in the early 1970s to stop a proposed bridge from Bayville to Rye. As a result, Joel has kept his $2.5-million commuter yacht Vendetta, fishing boat Alexa and a pontoon landing craft across the harbor in Oyster Bay. Joel has complained about the restriction.

 

The listing by Daniel Gale / Sotheby's International Realty notes that the Piano Man's spread includes a 14,000-square-foot brick, gabled house with 1,550 feet of frontage on Oyster Bay Harbor. Among the amenities is a domed-roof indoor pool room where Joel had the pool filled in to create the perfect acoustical home for a grand piano. Also on the grounds are a guest cottage and a pool house.

 

In addition to the purchase price, whoever takes over the digs will have to fork out about $250,000 in taxes.

 

The estate is across Cold Spring Harbor from a house previously owned by Joel just north of the causeway leading to Lloyd Neck. A lack of screening on the water side made the property too visible after Joel married Christie Brinkley, so the couple moved to Amagansett. After their divorce, Joel bought the Centre Island estate. In 2004, Joel married Kate Lee there.