Billy Joel's Centre Island estate on market for nearly $50 million
Billy Joel, seen in 2023, has listed his Centre Island estate for sale for nearly $50 million. Credit: Newsday/Steve Pfost
Hicksville-raised Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Billy Joel has put his Centre Island estate back on the market nearly a year after it was last listed.
The 26-acre waterfront property is for sale for roughly the same price as previously listed — $49.9 million — and listed by the Laffey International Realty arm of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices. This follows what the firm described as a "five-year, multimillion-dollar" refurbishing.
Dubbed MiddleSea — wordplay based on the first note most piano students learn, middle C — the 1994 estate includes a main house, three additional houses and several adjoining parcels. The 20,000-square-foot main residence has five bedrooms, eight baths and three half-baths. Elevator-equipped, it features 30-foot cathedral ceilings and includes a spa, ballroom, wine cellar, bowling alley and six fireplaces.
MiddeSea, seen in 2005, has a 20,000-square-foot main house. Credit: Newsday Staff Photographer/David L. Pokress
The kitchen, adjoining a breakfast room, features two Calacatta Caldia-brand marble center islands, Waterstone faucets, an Officine Gullo Firenze oven, dual Thermador dishwashers and a Sub-Zero refrigerator.
In addition to two swimming pools, the outdoor amenities include a gazebo, a covered outdoor dining area, boat ramp and floating dock, helipad and more than 2,000 feet of private beach. The property includes a three-bedroom guesthouse, five-bedroom gate house and three-bedroom beach house.
Joel, 75, purchased the estate, then only 14 acres, in 2002 for $22.5 million, according to property records. He first listed it for sale in 2008 for $32.5 million. It was listed again for $49 million in May 2023, but was taken off the market in November as renovations continued, said its agent at the time.
Joel’s representative did not respond to a Newsday request for comment.
Joel additionally has a home in Sag Harbor.
The artist has an estate in Florida anchored by a 13,350-square-foot modern Mediterranean mansion in the town of Manalapan’s portion of Hypoluxo Island. On the market with an asking price of $49.9 million in April, it no longer is listed by the agent of record, Christian Angle Real Estate. Multiple listings services note a sale is "pending."
