Hudson Reporter, 23-Nov-14
By Carlo Davis
Historic mansion was most expensive sale in county history
At the turn of the nineteenth century, Weehawken’s wooded bluffs were home (8 Hamilton Avenue) to a secluded ledge accessible only via the Hudson River, where gentlemanly duels continued long after they had become illegal. In 1804, Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton engaged in a famed conflict there that resulted in Hamilton’s untimely death.
Now, the quiet residential neighborhood of Weehawken known as King’s Bluff boasts exclusivity of a different kind. The houses on Hamilton Avenue, King Avenue, and Kingswood Road offer nonpareil views of the New York City skyline and prices to match.
Last month, a 7,200-plus-square-foot house in King’s Bluff sold for $6.2 million, netting the record for the most expensive single-family residence sale ever in Hudson County, according to data from the Hudson County Multiple Listing Service.
A New York Post article suggested that an “unnamed top fashion family” had purchased the property.
According to Francesco Mazzaferro, the Hoboken-based Coldwell Banker real estate broker who represented the buyer in the deal, a combination of commanding views and ultra-luxury accommodations made the property at 8 Hamilton Ave. exceptional.
Above the rest
The large white house at the bend in Hamilton Avenue was built custom to the specifications of its original owners in 1950. The structure spans two plots of land, 6 and 10 Hamilton Ave., and takes ample advantage of the extra space. “It was not an investment to them,” said Mazzaferro.
According to state property tax records, the house was recently sold by the trust of John D. and Bella Ross to Hudson Mgmt Group LLC. Mazzaferro refused to comment on the identity of the buyer.
The original owner’s unique specifications called for four bedrooms, three of them master suites with ensuite bathrooms and large walk-in closets. The residence also boasts an elevator, library, kitchen, dining room, media room, double garage, and a living room with 22-foot high ceilings.
Still, the main attraction of the property is unquestionably the view. 8 Hamilton Ave. protrudes out farther than any of its neighboring structures to sit directly on the edge of the King’s Bluff cliff, allowing a clear, unencumbered panorama from the George Washington Bridge to the Verrazano Narrows Bridge.
“That’s the beauty of the home,” said Mazzaferro, “because it’s private, it’s at the end of the street, and it’s stunning.”
Hamilton-Burr
For a house with such intrinsic aesthetic value, the strange historical asterisk that is the Burr-Hamilton duel is just the icing on the cake. Still, Mazzaferro said the seller of the house told him and his clients explicitly that 8 Hamilton Ave. lay on the site of Weehawken’s former dueling grounds.
As with so many other facts about that fateful July morning in 1804, the exact location of the duel may never be known definitively.
Historian Charles Whitfield described the site in 1874 as a natural ledge six feet wide and 11 paces long, hidden among cedar trees at the base of the bluffs some twenty feet above the water. By the time Whitfield’s book was published, the exact location of the ledge had already been obliterated to make way for the New York and Fort Lee railroad. The Hudson-Bergen Light Rail follows the same alignment cut by those tracks in 1870.
A monument in honor of the duel now stands on the Hamilton Avenue terrace just a handful of houses north of 8 Hamilton Ave., but even it states that the actual dueling pitch lays somewhere below the site.
“I don’t know if it was a marketing skill,” said Mazzaferro’s of the seller’s certitude about the site. “I don’t think so, but it has to be somewhere around that property.”
Gold Coast real estate
Proud though he is of the record sale of 8 Hamilton Ave., Mazzaferro suspects that it won’t hold the top spot for long. The Gold Coast residential market has seen steady growth since 2009, he said, and “all the signs are there” for that growth to continue.
If recent history is any indication, the next record for a single-family home sale in Hudson County will likely come from another property in King’s Bluff. The record that 8 Hamilton Ave. broke this year was set by a house just blocks away at 83 Kingswood Road, which sold for $5 million in 2012.
Sotheby’s International Realty associate Donna Reid, who closed the deal on 83 Kingswood Road, said, “When you’re standing on top [of King’s Bluff], you feel like you’re on top of the world.”
According to projections by the Liberty Board of Realtors, the average residential deed amount in Hudson County has increased almost $38,000 in just the last year.
For Mazzaferro, the culprit is a perfect combination of low inventory and growing demand. Among prospective home-buyers, Mazzaferro sees a roughly equal mix of New York City expats and New Jersey suburban pioneers.
For those leaving Brooklyn and Manhattan, said Mazzaferro, the prospect is “more square footage for equal or lower price,” not to mention the income tax savings some New Yorkers can accrue by moving to New Jersey.
Even the most luxurious properties in Hudson County are deals compared to the deep end of the pool in Manhattan. For example, Forbes reported that single-floor “simplexes” in 520 Park Ave., one of the new luxury skyscrapers being built around Central Park, will start at $16.2 million (the asking price for the three-floor penthouse apartment is $130 million).
But just as many of Mazzaferro’s clients are suburban dwellers seeking the quick New York commute offered by Hudson County’s PATH train, busses, and ferries. “When you start having kids,” he said, “even though it’s nice to live in suburbia, you realize that your commuting time is so long that you spend less time with your family.”
Another key factor is interest rates, which have been kept artificially low by the Federal Reserve since the recession hit in 2008. Reid said as long as the rates stay low, encouraging buyers to sign mortgages, prices will continue to rise.
At home in Hoboken
Mazzaferro cited Hoboken as a perfect microcosm of the Hudson County high demand real estate market. Though waterfront properties like Maxwell Place and the Hudson Tea are currently the hottest properties on the market, prices are rising around the city as development expands into the Western Edge and North End and buyers seek out Hoboken’s combination of quaintness and urbanity.
“I lived with a view for maybe 10 years,” said Mazzaferro, “and you become numb after a while.”
Though Mazzaferro currently lives in West New York, he was introduced to Hudson County through Hoboken, where he was an owner of La Scala Restaurant for 13 years before jumping into real estate.
“People like the quaintness, the brownstones, sitting on your doorstep, knowing all your neighbors,” he said. “I grew up in a small little town [in Calabria, Italy] where everybody knew each other, so I appreciate that.”
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