
Stunning Brooklyn mansion lists for $12.49M after a renovation
A 22-room classical mansion in Prospect Park South is on sale for $12.49 million, making it the most expensive listing in the bucolic Brooklyn neighborhood — one that seems a world apart from the city.
The unusual and wonderful Brooklyn residence that Brownstoner once dubbed a 'Colonial Revival on steroids' returned to the market on Monday with a major facelift, according to StreetEasy. The 11,000-plus-square-foot mansion listed for $12.49 million — a nearly $10 million jump from its last sale price.
The landmarked home's listing representative, Mike Lubin of Brown Harris Stevens, told The Post that its current owner of eight years, an architect, restored the home to its former pre-war splendor.
Advertisement
'This is considered kind of the Grand Dame of the neighborhood,' Lubin said. 'It was built with a lot of architectural detail, and the scale is very, very dramatic.'
12 The exterior of the home is unmistakable, with dramatically large eaves, unique windows and soaring Ionic columns.
Brown Harris Stevens
12 The large front porch.
Brown Harris Stevens
Advertisement
12 The entryway features a coffered ceiling, the grand staircase and one of several fireplaces in the home.
Brown Harris Stevens
12 The current owner restored the home's unique windows as well as its millwork.
Brown Harris Stevens
12 The chef's kitchen includes its own fireplace, as well as a 10-foot island and a marble farm sink.
Brown Harris Stevens
12 The dining room is lined with rich mahogany.
Brown Harris Stevens
Advertisement
12 A cozy library on the first floor.
Brown Harris Stevens
The home possesses the scale of a county manor, with stately two-story Ionic columns and an expansive porch. The interior spans 11,450 square feet, including nine bedrooms and 7.5 bathrooms.
When the mansion was last snapped up for $2.75 million in 2017, it was in a state of disrepair with peeling paint and rotting wood marring the once-grand facade. You wouldn't know it looking at the home today, however. The once 'creepy' home now boasts some of the most impressive curb appeal in the neighborhood, thanks to the extensive renovations.
These changes, according to Lubin, included bathroom, kitchen, roof, plumbing and central air upgrades — as well as restoring the pocket doors, fireplace mantels and 66 wood-framed windows.
Advertisement
'It was like a puzzle that had to be taken apart and put back together,' Lubin said.
The front double doors lead to a coffered hall connected to a front parlor, a reception parlor, a mahogany-clad dining room and a library with bay window. The impressive chef's kitchen has a 10-foot island, a marble farm sink and its own fireplace — one of many fireplaces throughout the home.
The third floor — a former ballroom with 16-foot ceilings — has been converted into an entertainment room featuring a decadent bar and a spiral staircase up to a reading nook.
12 The primary suite.
Brown Harris Stevens
12 The ensuite bathroom features a freestanding tub.
Brown Harris Stevens
12 An additional bedroom.
Brown Harris Stevens
12 The furnished basement.
Brown Harris Stevens
12 The backyard.
Brown Harris Stevens
Advertisement
The private backyard, with its large stone patio and green lawn, is one of highlights of the home for Lubin.
'You feel like you're in Connecticut or Long Island,' Lubin said. 'It doesn't feel like an urban garden. It's incredibly peaceful.'
Attempts by a previous agent to sell the home for a higher $12.95 million between 2022 and 2023 were unsuccessful, but Lubin said this is partly to blame of the strangeness of the post-pandemic market.
'There were offers, but none that they wanted to accept,' he said.
Advertisement
Prospect Park South was largely built by developer Dean Alvord at the turn of the 20th century. Alvord had with a vision of suburbia in the middle of Brooklyn. This residence, at 1305 Albemarle Road, however, was built by the little-known architect Henry B. Moore in 1905.
The home was notably featured in the Oscar-winning film 'Reversal of Fortune,' and scenes from 'Law and Order: Special Victims Unit' were filmed on the first floor.
The next owner of this opulent home will be in good company — the famed actress Michelle Williams bought her own 18-room mansion just down the block in 2016.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


New York Post
8 hours ago
- New York Post
Long Island boaters now use AI to catch fish, see through 'pea soup' fog
Capt. Eric Collins recently boated through '9/10 treacherous fog' off the inlet by Jones Beach to the point he couldn't lay eyes on half a dozen vessels coming toward his Southport 33FE. 'The weather was horrific as far as fog goes,' Collins, a marina owner and fisherman from Massapequa, told The Post. 'We refer to it in the marine world as pea-soup fog, where you could barely see, maybe 50 to 60 feet in front of your boat.' However, Collins has a difference on board that makes miserable pea-soup days much more manageable and safer — cutting-edge AI by New York City-based tech startup Viam, which enables his instruments to communicate with one another in a highly sophisticated way. 7 Eric Collins, a fisherman and marina owner in Massapequa, on his boat in Freeport on May 16, 2025. Dennis A. Clark 'At no point was today something that I would consider an easy, navigable day,' he said. 'This makes it a better experience for everybody on the water.' These advanced safety features, responsible for spotting where the six boats came from, are just one of Viam's new offshore advances. The AI firm is also utilizing machine learning to make it exponentially easier to spot and catch fish, serving as an industry game-changer. 'What's out there now on boats is just a picture with a bunch of green blobs on it,' Viam CEO Eliot Horowitz told The Post. 'Ours is, 'hey, there's a 75% chance it's a fish 300 feet to the right.' Horowitz, who grew up catching striped bass on the Long Island Sound, has seen firsthand that high-tech hardware, such as HD radar, sonar, and GPS, typically isn't worth its price tag. 7 Collins uses AI technology from New York City-based tech startup Viam to help his boat navigate through 'pea soup' fogs. Dennis A. Clark 7 Collins recently used the AI to sail through a fog off Jones Beach where he could hardly see any other vessels coming his way. Dennis A. Clark He said it's because their software interfaces are often anything but user-friendly, to the point that mariners want to smash their radios like Capt. Quint from 'Jaws.' 'If you ask most boaters, they don't really know how to use them very well. They're hard to manage,' Horowitz said. Now, the emerging AI from Viam creates easy-to-read data from instrumentation. 7 Collins' boat seen in Freeport with a 'Powered by Viam' sign on the side. Dennis A. Clark A quick glance at a boat's console shows the predicted location of fish with a clear readout, utilizing metrics such as changes in water temperature, sonar and other real-time probability statistics. 'There's no scientific GPS that's going to say 'go here and you're guaranteed to catch fish,' but it's definitely something that's taking a lot of the guessing out of it,' said Collins, who is hooked on the tech. 'I think that in the boating world, there's not anything touching near the significance of this,' Collins said. The system can even predict when boat parts may need repair or replacement, modifying things to 'a 20-minute fix instead of a two-week fix,' according to Horowitz. 7 The AI also helps Collins spot and catch fish. Dennis A. Clark 7 Collins said the AI helps take some of the guessing out of fishing. Dennis A. Clark 'A ChatGPT for boating' Viam's breakthroughs are still in shallow water as opposed to the potential they could bring in the coming years, according to Collins. 'I see this becoming a ChatGPT for boating that can start networking vessels together,' he said, adding that it will likely appeal to the Coast Guard and the operators of the Staten Island Ferry. The captain's prediction is close to what Horowitz has in the works — something he described as 'a Waze for boaters.' 7 Collins holding a 130 pound bigeye tuna he caught on his boat. Courtesy of Captain Eric Collins Viam is looking to link boats to the same system to provide real-time safety updates on the water in the same way Waze notes traffic and road hazards/ Horowitz said the Jones inlet, where Collins recently fought through the intense fog, is a perfect example. 'Like many inlets in Long Island, it can get dangerous at times because after every storm, the sand gets pushed around.' 'One of the things we're working on with a different customer is actually getting users real-time maps of the ocean floor,' he said, adding that sharper technology to fish in foggy conditions is in the works as well. The long-term goal for Viam, which also operates outside the aquatic space, is to be able to identify different marine life in the water, from sharks to fish and whales. 'We think we can get there, which would be cool,' said Horowitz. 'One of my huge things that I care about is getting more people to enjoy the water.'


New York Post
8 hours ago
- New York Post
UnitedHealth investors approve new CEO's $60M pay package despite turmoil following top executive's assassination
UnitedHealth investors on Monday approved a pay package that includes $60 million in stock to its new CEO – even as the company is plagued by financial losses, reported criminal fraud accusations and the shocking murder of a top executive. Stephen Hemsley, who previously served as UnitedHealth's chief executive for about a decade until 2017, returned to the top job last month after the healthcare giant reported its first earnings miss since 2008. Along with the $60 million award, which vests in three years, Hemsley will earn a $1 million annual salary. 5 Stephen Hemsley, who previously served as UnitedHealth's chief executive for about a decade, returned to the top job last month. AP 'Steve Hemsley's compensation is positioned at the median for CEOs of comparable companies and is substantially aligned with the interests of all company shareholders,' a UnitedHealth spokesperson told The Post in a statement. Helmsley's expected windfall comes after Andrew Witty stepped down last month following four years at the helm. The company's market capitalization has more than halved since its November peak, losing over $250 billion. 'We will take actions necessary to deliver the performance we are capable of while providing exceptional services and outcomes for customers, consumers, and care providers,' the healthcare giant said in a statement. In December, the company was rocked in December by the execution-style killing in midtown Manhattan of Brian Thompson, who led its insurance branch. Accused killer Luigi Mangione has pleaded not guilty. His trial is set to begin in 2026. 5 Former UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Witty testifies at a Senate Finance Committee hearing in May 2024. AP Shareholders sued UnitedHealth last month for allegedly concealing how backlash from the killing was damaging its business. In a proposed class action filed last month in Manhattan federal court, shareholders said the insurer defrauded them after Thompson's assassination by shifting away from strategies that led to higher-than-average claims denials, without revealing the impact on profitability. UnitedHealth is also facing investigations from the Department of Justice for possible criminal Medicare fraud, according to The Wall Street Journal. 5 In December, the company was rocked in December by the execution-style killing in midtown Manhattan of Brian Thompson, who led its insurance branch. AP 'We have not been notified by the Department of Justice of the supposed criminal investigation reported, without official attribution, in the Wall Street Journal on May 14th,' a UnitedHealth spokesperson told The Post, calling the Journal's reporting 'deeply irresponsible.' Shares were little changed on Monday after falling about 40% this year. The stock plunged 22% on April 17, wiping out about $119 billion of market value, after the insurer cut its 2025 forecast for adjusted profit per share to between $26 and $26.50 from between $29.50 and $30. 5 UnitedHealth slashed its forecast in April and later suspended it altogether. via REUTERS At Monday's annual shareholder meeting, Hemsley apologized for the company's performance and told investors that management is determined to 'earn back your trust and your confidence.' The company will conduct a review of its policies and practices related to risk assessment, managed care and pharmacy services, which will be looked over by independent experts, Hemsley said. Investors were left stunned by UnitedHealth's dismal earnings and forecast, especially after former CEO Andrew Witty had given such an upbeat outlook just a few months earlier. 5 Luigi Mangione, accused of fatally shooting Brian Thompson, in Manhattan state court in February. AP But Witty – a British executive without a background in the US insurance industry – took an optimistic tone with shareholders even as problems stacked up behind the scenes, employees told the Journal. He was more removed than previous chief executives, running the Minnesota-based company while living in Buckinghamshire, outside London, and flying back and forth to Washington and Minnesota via jet, according to property records and UnitedHealth's proxy documents. He never moved into the special CEO office at UnitedHealth's Minnesota headquarters, where Hemsley had once worked from, according to the Journal. Witty also shifted monthly executive meetings – which had been in-person under Hemsley and so intense they were called 'colonoscopies' – online, former executives told the Journal. He was more casual in the office, wearing tracksuit-style tops and bright colorful sneakers instead of a suit and tie, according to the report. Some of his top hires were former colleagues from GSK, the London-based pharmaceutical company, and lacked experience in the US insurance industry, the Journal said. UnitedHealth profits soared under Witty for a time, but his changes also left UnitedHealth more prone to risks, which backfired when Medicare payment rules changed. The government pays Medicare insurers more for sicker patients with certain diagnoses, and UnitedHealth was recording those lucrative illnesses at high rates, according to a Journal investigation. In 2023, however, the government limited or ended lucrative payments on many diagnoses. The new rules took effect the following year.


Chicago Tribune
9 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago sells Kenwood mansion to University of Chicago surgeon for $1.1M
A nine-bedroom vintage Renaissance Revival-style mansion in the South Side Kenwood neighborhood was sold in late March for $1.15 million by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago to a University of Chicago surgeon. Built in 1905 and designed by noted Chicago architect Jarvis Hunt, the mansion was built for Homer A. Stillwell, the general manager of the Butler Bros. catalog firm, at a cost of $35,000, according to a Tribune article from Feb. 26, 1905. The house broadly would be characterized as Renaissance Revival-style, but it employs a variety of other architectural styles, including a Colonial Revival-style front door, Italianate-style quoins, and even a Gothic Revival-style oriel window. Stillwell sold the mansion in 1914, and for close to 60 years, from 1966 until 2025, the home was owned by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, which used it as a residence for members of its Focolare movement. It's located across the street from former President Barack Obama's longtime home. The 12-room mansion largely has its original layout, along with 3-1/2 bathrooms, a primary bedroom suite with a library, original plaster, original millwork, original doors and a porte-cochere. The home sits on a 0.73-acre lot. The archdiocese first listed the mansion in October for $1.4 million and never budged on its asking price. It struck a deal with the buyer in February. Catherine Rosenberg of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices represented the buyer. She declined to comment on the transaction. Listing agent Pasquale Recchia also declined to comment, referring queries to the archdiocese.