© 2017 North Jersey Media Group
August 20, 2015
Last updated: Friday, August 21, 2015, 10:19 AM

Alicia Keys, husband put Englewood home on market for $14.9 million

Singer Alicia Keys has listed her 32-room Englewood home and an adjacent property for $14.9 million.

Alicia Keys' stately Georgian colonial in Englewood is up for sale. Eddie Murphy formerly owned the estate.
Photo courtesy of Burgdorff ERA/Mary Lenk Division
Alicia Keys' stately Georgian colonial in Englewood is up for sale. Eddie Murphy formerly owned the estate.

She bought the house two years ago from Eddie Murphy for $10.4 million, and the neighboring property earlier this year, also from Murphy, for $1.7 million.

The listing agent, Dennis McCormack of Prominent Properties Sotheby’s International Realty in Alpine, said that Keys and her husband, Swizz Beatz, plan to build a larger home to house their extensive collection of contemporary art.

The listing includes the 25,000-square-foot brick house at 191 Brayton St. and an adjacent property, at 286 Johnson Ave., which a trustee for Keys bought this year for about $1.7 million. The two properties, on the affluent East Hill east of downtown Englewood, total 5.4 acres.

The house was built in 1980 and has eight bedrooms, 14 bathrooms, a bowling alley, indoor pool, movie theater, two elevators, five-car garage and a recording studio.

If you’re hoping to get a glimpse, good luck — the house is surrounded by a tall brick wall.

Keys and her husband gut-renovated the house at a cost of more than $2 million, adding an art gallery wing, according to McCormack.

“The house is gorgeous,” McCormack told The Record. “It’s a bargain.” The $14.9 million asking price, he said, just about covers the couple’s cost to buy the two properties and renovate the house.

The listing was posted on the New Jersey Multiple Listing Service this week. Property taxes on the two properties total $273,000 a year, according to public records.

Murphy paid $3.5 million for the property in 1985, according to tax records, and later expanded the house. He named the house “Bubble Hill” because “bubble” was slang for party. Over the years, its East Hill neighborhood has been home to musicians and other celebrities, including guitarist George Benson and singer Wilson Pickett.

Murphy first put the house on the market in 2004, asking $30 million. The price was cut a number of times as the housing market slumped. By 2010, the asking price was $12.75 million.

The house is not the most expensive listing in Englewood. A nearby Mediterranean-style estate called Gloria Crest, on North Woodland Street, is listed for $25 million — down from an asking price of $39 million when it was first listed in 2013.

So far this year, two homes have sold for more than $10 million in Bergen County, both in Alpine.

A 22-room brick manor at 44 Rio Vista Drive was sold for $13.9 million and a 21-room stone chateau at 5 Buckingham Drive was sold for $11 million. Last year, the highest-price sale in the county was for $7 million, also in Alpine, according to the New Jersey Multiple Listing Service.

Email: lynn@northjersey.com

 

Alicia Keys, husband put Englewood home on market for $14.9 million

Photo courtesy of Burgdorff ERA/Mary Lenk Division
Alicia Keys' stately Georgian colonial in Englewood is up for sale. Eddie Murphy formerly owned the estate.

Singer Alicia Keys has listed her 32-room Englewood home and an adjacent property for $14.9 million.

She bought the house two years ago from Eddie Murphy for $10.4 million, and the neighboring property earlier this year, also from Murphy, for $1.7 million.

The listing agent, Dennis McCormack of Prominent Properties Sotheby’s International Realty in Alpine, said that Keys and her husband, Swizz Beatz, plan to build a larger home to house their extensive collection of contemporary art.

The listing includes the 25,000-square-foot brick house at 191 Brayton St. and an adjacent property, at 286 Johnson Ave., which a trustee for Keys bought this year for about $1.7 million. The two properties, on the affluent East Hill east of downtown Englewood, total 5.4 acres.

The house was built in 1980 and has eight bedrooms, 14 bathrooms, a bowling alley, indoor pool, movie theater, two elevators, five-car garage and a recording studio.

If you’re hoping to get a glimpse, good luck — the house is surrounded by a tall brick wall.

Keys and her husband gut-renovated the house at a cost of more than $2 million, adding an art gallery wing, according to McCormack.

“The house is gorgeous,” McCormack told The Record. “It’s a bargain.” The $14.9 million asking price, he said, just about covers the couple’s cost to buy the two properties and renovate the house.

The listing was posted on the New Jersey Multiple Listing Service this week. Property taxes on the two properties total $273,000 a year, according to public records.

Murphy paid $3.5 million for the property in 1985, according to tax records, and later expanded the house. He named the house “Bubble Hill” because “bubble” was slang for party. Over the years, its East Hill neighborhood has been home to musicians and other celebrities, including guitarist George Benson and singer Wilson Pickett.

Murphy first put the house on the market in 2004, asking $30 million. The price was cut a number of times as the housing market slumped. By 2010, the asking price was $12.75 million.

The house is not the most expensive listing in Englewood. A nearby Mediterranean-style estate called Gloria Crest, on North Woodland Street, is listed for $25 million — down from an asking price of $39 million when it was first listed in 2013.

So far this year, two homes have sold for more than $10 million in Bergen County, both in Alpine.

A 22-room brick manor at 44 Rio Vista Drive was sold for $13.9 million and a 21-room stone chateau at 5 Buckingham Drive was sold for $11 million. Last year, the highest-price sale in the county was for $7 million, also in Alpine, according to the New Jersey Multiple Listing Service.

Email: lynn@northjersey.com

 

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