A former nunnery in the Hamptons is about to hit the market at a heavenly price.
Sources say the owners of Villa Maria, a 15-acre estate in Water Mill, will ask “in excess of $100 million” for the Mecox Bay-fronting spread.
Included in the property, also known to locals as the Siena Spirituality Center, is a 21,000-square-foot Beaux Arts mansion with 12 bedrooms, 13 bathrooms, a ballroom, an institutional kitchen, three guest cottages and 1,200 feet of shoreline.
Because of skyrocketing operating costs, the Sisters of the Order of St. Dominic put the house on the market in March 2004 with a minimum asking price of $25 million.
Vincent Camuto, the co-founder of the Nine West shoe empire, and his wife, Louise, bought the property in the summer of 2005 for $35 million.
The Camutos already own one of Southampton’s great estates and were looking to return the late 19th-century mansion and its outbuildings to their former glory. (The property was previously owned by actress Irene Coleman, who sold it to the sisters in 1921.)
“He knows that he wants to restore it, but beyond that, he’s just not sure what they’re going to do with it,” Camuto’s lawyer Jeffrey Locker, told The Post at the time. “He just likes to be involved in the restoration process of projects like this.”
We’re told that Corcoran Group broker Peter Huffine has been slated for the listing, but several of our inquiries were not answered.
Idol chatter
Taylor Hicks has a suite setup in a celebrity-loving condominium building. The American Idol winner, now a Broadway star, is the latest boldface name to take a pied-Ã -terre in the Atelier building – just a short sashay to the Brooks Atkinson Theatre where he co-stars in “Grease.”
The Post has previously reported that Lindsay Lohan and Nick Lachey (and we suppose Vanessa Minnillo) have been provided with free apartments at the amenity-laden West 42nd Street complex. We’re hearing Hicks doesn’t have a similar pay-us-later deal, and his lease is up on September 15 (he leaves “Grease” on September 7).
“He’s currently purchasing pieces and working with designers to make his apartment his own comfortable place,” says a source. Our Micki Siegel will have an exclusive look inside Hicks’ place later in the summer.
The 411 on 603
One of Park Avenue’s most curb-alicious townhomes is finally closer to being sold. The 25-room brick manse at 603 Park Ave., with a $35 million price tag, has just gone to contract to a (gasp!) American non-hedge-fund manager for around $32 million, sources say.
When we first wrote about the grandiose residence in 2000, the owner, developer Sherman Cohen, had just raised the price to $14 million from $12 million the year before.
Cohen bought the house in 1989 for $12.5 million (a record price for those days) but never moved in. He transferred the title in 1996 to his son, Charles Cohen, who’s been trying to sell it ever since. “It’s all show but no depth,” a broker once said. “The place looks grand, but it’s only 20 feet in width and has no outdoor area or any privacy.”
Serena Boardman and Leila Stone of Sotheby’s have the listing.