For Sale: Priciest Property in Wealthiest Zip Code

CNBC.com

The Stone Mansion in Alpine, NJ

The common wisdom is that the very rich are often immune from the ups and downs of the economy.

That premise is, naturally, debatable. But one very rich real estate tycoon is betting that there are enough of his ilk with cash on hand to buy his baronial estate in Alpine, N.J.

Richard Kurtz is selling is his mega-mansion and its luxurious extras—the priciest property in the nation’s wealthiest zip code.

That code, by the way, is 07620, a half-hour drive from Manhattan.

Kurtz, CEO of the real estate company Kamson Corporation, has priced his English-style manor estate, replete with carriage house, at a cool $68 million. (Check out our video tour of the mansion here.)

The property’s numerous other amenities: 19 bedrooms, 12 bathrooms, a basketball court, an 11-car garage, a main and a catering kitchen, a saline swimming pool, an aviary and a ballroom.

A single acre usually sells for $3 million in Alpine, said Kurtz. Since his estate has six acres, the land alone is worth $18 million.

Two years ago, Kurtz bought the estate, once owned by 18th-century industrialist Henry Clay Frick, for $57 million.

Kurtz may be right about the timing. The well-heeled are ponying up to look at the wooded estate on the edge of a private golf course.

They include investors from Russia and China, a Wall Street hedge fund manager and a certain very famous and very tall professional athlete who may or may not be moving to New York to play for a local team.

Could that basketball court be a major selling point?

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