Billy Joel listing Centre Island estate for $49 million, agent says

Iconic singer-songwriter Billy Joel on Saturday listed his 26-acre Centre Island waterfront estate for $49 million, his real estate agent said. 

The Piano Man had purchased the estate in the Town of Oyster Bay for $22.5 million in 2002, said the agent, Bonnie Williamson of Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty.

The estate is located in a secluded peninsula, not far from his boyhood home of Hicksville.

Joel’s Centre Island home was broken into in January 2020, police said, and the burglars damaged a dozen motorcycles and an office. Authorities said no property was reported stolen and no one was home at the time of the break-in.

Joel put the estate, called "Middlesea," on the market in 2008 for $32.5 million.

The current property listing said the estate looks out onto Oyster Bay Harbor. The 20,000-square-foot main house, which is undergoing renovation, has five bedrooms and eight bathrooms. The interior features cathedral ceilings, six fireplaces and an eat-in kitchen, exercise room, formal dining room, home office, marble countertops and central air conditioning. Joel had covered up the indoor pool to make the space a music room, Williamson said.

The property also has a three-bedroom beach house, inground pool, helicopter pad, floating dock and boat ramp on the harbor. 

There is also a three-bedroom guest apartment in the house, along with a bowling alley and indoor pool. 

A spokesperson for Joel said they had no comment about the sale.

Joel has sold more than 150 million records and had 33 Top 40 hits and 23 Grammy nominations since signing his first solo recording contract in 1972, and he is particularly beloved on Long Island. In 1990, he was presented with a Grammy Legend Award, according to the biography on his website, and his residency at Madison Square Garden is closing in on 100 shows.

By Craig Schneider

craig.schneider@newsday.comScraigo

Craig Schneider is a Long Island native and Stony Brook University alumnus. He joined Newsday as a general assignment reporter in January 2018 after 20 years at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.