CORNWALL — After alternating on and off the market since 2014, tennis pro Ivan Lendl’s 445-acre estate in Cornwall and Goshen sold for $12 million Thursday, Jan. 25, to a group of Wyoming-based LLCs, setting a record for the highest residential sale to date in Litchfield County.
The deal shattered a previous record-high sale set in 2008 in Kent by half a million dollars.
The Lendl property, with its custom-built, four-level, 20-room Georgian Federal-style stone mansion, had been listed for the past two years with Elyse Harney Real Estate. At the time of the sale, the asking price was $14,995,000. Agents Elyse Harney Morris and Bill Melnick represented the seller.
Kiara Rusconi of William Raveis Real Estate in Glastonbury, who represented the purchaser in the transaction, said although her client requested anonymity, “What I can say is that it is evident that the property has been well loved by the Lendl family and its legacy will be preserved for years to come.”
Land records indicate that deeds to the property were purchased through six Limited Liability Companies (LLC) filed with the Wyoming Secretary of State on Jan. 18. They include: 400 Mile 1 LLC, 400 Mile 2 LLC, 400 Mile 3 LLC, 400 Mile 4 LLC, 400 Mile 5 LLC and 400 Mile Master LLC.
“I am still pinching myself,” said Morris, several days after the closing. “Very rarely do you find this much acreage in Litchfield County, although you could go over the border in New York and find it all day long. That’s what creates the privacy and the ability to say that you have that much acreage. That is a big deal.”
In addition to the land, at the heart of the estate looms an 18,000-square-foot, 10 bedroom, 12-bath, Georgian Federal-style Greek-sandstone mansion designed and custom-built in 1992 for Lendl and his wife, Samantha, by the American architect Allen Greenberg.
“The symmetry, the proportions, the elegance… and the views. It’s just the epitome of luxury living. This really is a once-in-a lifetime opportunity,” said Morris.
The imposing stone mansion, situated behind grand gates via a long, winding driveway, features a light-filled entryway with a 24-foot ceiling height and grand crystal chandelier. Throughout the four-story home’s first level, French doors lead to gardens and patios.
The wood-paneled library, spacious living room, formal dining room and family room all feature fireplaces and wide-plank oak floors. A trophy room/office and eat-in chef’s kitchen and butler’s kitchen are also located on the main level.
Upper levels feature a primary bedroom suite with two oversized walk-through closets, a sitting room and an oversized bathroom, accompanied by an office with a paladin window, a children’s library and three additional en suite bedrooms on the second floor; the third floor has five en suite bedrooms,
Additional amenities, fitting a professional athlete, include an indoor pool that adjoins two locker rooms, a sauna, a workout room and a full-sized gymnasium. The outdoor amenities include a heated gunite pool with cabana, pool house with a kitchenette and full bath, tennis court, sports court and a three-paddock barn with sand arena, six stalls, hayloft, tack and storage room.
Morris said the listing attracted a handful of offers in the past two years, “but with this one we found the right buyer who really appreciated the property itself and the vast privacy it affords.”
The estate, she said, encompasses 152 acres in Cornwall and 293 acres in Goshen.
Morris described the process between seller and buyer, and broker to broker, as seamless:
“I couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful transition from one owner to the next. The Lendls couldn’t have been more gracious, and the buyer’s agents were incredibly nice to work with.”
Rusconi, too, had nothing but praise for the process, the sellers and their agent: “It was such a pleasure working together on such a monumental transaction for Litchfield County and for Connecticut as a whole.”
Morris noted that for the Lendl family, leaving behind not only their beloved home but the communities where they have resided full-time since 1992 was “bittersweet.
They loved the Litchfield County communities where they were able to live, work play and enjoy. It is a normalcy that is hard to find if you’re in the spotlight.”
From 1980 to 1992, the Czech-American Lendl spent 270 weeks atop the mountain as the best player in the world during a championship-laden 13-year span, according to the International Tennis Hall of Fame (ITHF)
Lendl, 63, retired from professional tennis in 1994 and was inducted into the ITHF in 2001.
Morris, who is co-owner and broker of Elyse Harney Real Estate in Salisbury, noted that although “we’re super excited” to have brokered the largest sale in Litchfield County history, her family’s independently owned agency “remains committed to selling homes to the local community. Five hundred thousand to $2 million is really our bread and butter. I do not lose sight of that at all.”
Riley Klein contributed to this article.
Anne Day
The home’s grand staircase.
A blue SUV remains in a ditch after an early-morning crash along Segar Mountain Road in Kent May 27.
The driver was transported to Danbury Hospital with minor injuries, according to police.
The damage to a utility pole forced crews to shut down parts of the road and reduce traffic to a single lane throughout the day. First Selectman Eric Epstein announced that traffic would be impacted as utility companies make repairs. Motorists were advised to avoid the area until the work is complete.
As of 2 p.m., traffic at the scene was reduced to alternating single lane travel. Employees from Eversource Energy, Aquarion Water Company and the state Department of Transportation were at the site making repairs to the utility pole and wiring. They have yet to provide an estimate for when the repairs will finish.
The car was still in the ditch as of mid-afternoon, officials on the scene said.
In an email to Kent residents, which was sent at approximately 12:40 p.m., Epstein reported that a water line connected to one residence in the area was also damaged, but clarified that it was not the line supplying the town.
Repair crews respond to an early-morning crash along Segar Mountain Road in Kent that damaged a utility pole and water line. Ruth Epstein
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Filmmaker Yonah Sadeh on a shoot last year in New York City.
It is an exciting opportunity for Sadeh, who has built his own business, Sadeh Studios, by working with small area businesses and nonprofits, “helping to tell their stories through film,” he said.
Some of his projects have included projects for local affordable housing organizations and area nonprofits such as Berkshire Busk, Berkshares, Naturalis Healing, local after-school programs and the Falls Village Fire Department. Current projects are for Berkshire Mountain Bakery and a documentary about Great Barrington’s revitalization in the 1990s.
Sadeh discovered early in life that he wanted to make films and began to develop his process and distinct style.
“It started with puppet shows and musical performances, and then, when I was around 12, a family friend showed me how to use my family’s computer to record and edit short homemade videos using iMovie. From that point on, it was pretty much all movies. I would set up my mom’s computer on a stack of books and record with the webcam.”
An early influence was Wes Anderson’s “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” which, “inspired my Claymation videos when I was 10 and remains one of my favorite films.”
He said getting his first camera made a big difference in his filmmaking.
“I was no longer stuck filming wherever I could set up the laptop. I could move with the camera and be more intentional about how things looked.”
Finding some of the technical aspects challenging, he watched YouTube to learn.
“I would imagine these big scenes, like fight sequences with lighting and effects, and then have to figure out how to actually make them. That process pushed me to learn. I spent a lot of time watching people like Casey Neistat, Film Riot and Corridor Digital, and just trying things out.”
Knowing the path he wanted to take, he pursued his high school education at Bard College at Simon’s Rock in Great Barrington, MA. The school has since relocated to Barrytown, New York.
“Simon’s Rock was not a film school in a traditional sense, but it had incredible faculty that I was able to work with one-on-one throughout my years there,” he said. “It gave me the flexibility and time to make films both in and outside of class, and to start my production business while still in school.”
He was able to take college-level film courses while still in high school.
“It seemed like the perfect opportunity. I loved it so much that I stayed at Simon’s Rock after graduating from the academy for my bachelor’s degree.”
Filmmaker Yonah Sadeh at work. Lisa Volmer
After graduating, he focused full time on his freelance business.
“Most of my professional work is in documentary, where I am a one-man crew overseeing every aspect of the process, from meeting with clients to develop the idea to planning, filming and editing it all together. I love working in this way, with my hands in every part of the project.”
In addition to documentaries, he also works on narrative films.
“The script I am working on now is set over the summer solstice and follows two kids over a short but formative period of time. I feel like this idea of land and place, and the passing of time, is a pretty consistent theme in all of my work, both narrative and documentary.”
Narrative films involve working with a crew, and he said writing and directing have presented different challenges.
“By the time I get to production, I’ve usually been sitting with the story for a while and have a pretty clear picture of how I want each scene to feel. So a lot of directing is about communicating that vision to the actors and crew. It can definitely be stressful, especially with the pressure of being on set. But I’ve been lucky to work with people I really trust and enjoy collaborating with, which makes a big difference.”
The finished film, Sadeh said, “becomes something built by everyone involved.”
Eager to share his love of filmmaking, Sadeh recently took on the role of curator of the VideoWall at the Hunt Library in Falls Village.
“I would love the VideoWall to become a place that showcases the work of local filmmakers, and I hope that other creatives in the area will submit their work to be shown.”
Reflecting on his chosen path, Sadeh said, “I feel really excited and creatively fulfilled to be doing the work I love in the place I grew up.”
Learn more at sadehstudios.com
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