There's a local mansion for sale that was just put on the market.
Pictures: Ron Howard's Greenwich Estatehttp://www.courant.com/business/real-estate/hc-pictures-ron-howards-greenwich-estate-20140505,0,748209.photogalleryDirector Howard's Conyers Farm house on the markethttp://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Director-Howard-s-Conyers-Farm-house-on-the-market-5450123.php
Director Howard's Conyers Farm house on the marketMaggie Gordon
Published 12:44 am, Saturday, May 3, 2014
Greenwich resident and famed Hollywood director Ron Howard listed his Conyers Farm compound this week, asking $27.5 million for the chance to take his place in Greenwich's backcountry. The Howard family has called the 32-acre estate home for two decades.
"We moved 3,000 miles away from the hub of Los Angeles to raise our family here," Howard said in a statement Friday. "Whether we're watching films in our theater, walking the trails throughout our property, star gazing in our observatory, or just relaxing with friends and loved ones by the lake, Cheryl and I feel we've accomplished the goals we set when we began work on this place. Our children are grown, so it's time to move on, but the memories of this very special place will never leave us."
Greenwich Brokerage independent sales associate Lyn Stevens and her team were selected to co-market the Howard estate along with Tamar Lurie, a top-producing sales associate affiliated with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Connecticut and Westchester, N.Y.
The Howard family has spent limited time in Greenwich in recent years, coming for holidays and other special occasions, while living most of the time in California, Lurie said.
But Stevens said, "We don't know that Greenwich is losing the Howards.
"They have been very bold about saying that they love Greenwich and hope to have a presence here, so we hope they stay," Stevens said Friday. "But our focus right now is getting this house sold for them."
The Howards came to Greenwich in 1985, for the most part to raise their children outside of the show-business bubble. They raised three daughters and a son here, sending them to Greenwich Country Day School. In 1994, they built the 17,200-square-foot, shingle-style mansion on their backcountry property, which they cobbled together from three undeveloped parcels.
In Greenwich, show business "is not what people think about all the time," Ron Howard told Greenwich Time in 1986. "You don't go into a restaurant and overhear people talking about film deals or television game shows or things like that."
Shortly after the move, Howard described getting used to life outside of Hollywood.
"In a way, you know, it's kind of like we're visiting Disneyland or something right now," he told the newspaper. "It's such a change for us and we're excited about it."
Living here allowed Howard to remain connected to the entertainment industry, given the proximity to New York, while being present in the lives of his children. He also liked the town because people didn't make a big deal over him.
"People don't hound you in Greenwich," he told Greenwich Time in 1991. "Everybody there might be interested, but in Greenwich, they are pretty cool. They're sophisticated."
Unlike some notables who live here, but never emerge from behind stone walls, the Howards have been part of the community.
From time to time they could be seen eating anywhere from Gabriele's Italian Steak House on Church Street or the Ginger Man on Greenwich Avenue to Tomatillo Taco Joint on Railroad Avenue and the Fairways Restaurant at the Griff on King Street.
They spoke at public meetings against plans to install a cellular phone tower at Parkway School in 1990. When a "Go Greener Greenwich Student Environmental Video Contest" was announced in 2009, Ron Howard agreed to be a judge. He did the same for the Junior League of Greenwich's inaugural Greenwich Youth Film Festival three years later.
Nearly 25 years ago, when austerity measures threatened fire station closings, the Howards arranged for proceeds from the first Greenwich showings of his film "Backdraft" to go to the Greenwich Fire Department.
"When I saw that headline in Greenwich Time, I panicked -- just couldn't believe it," Cheryl Howard said during a news conference at the Central Fire Station in 1991. "We thought (the benefit) was the best way for us to show our appreciation to the firefighters."
Another time, Howard allowed a Cos Cob resident to arrange an advanced screening of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" to raise money for cancer research.
Stevens thinks it's likely the next owners will be similar.
"The buyer could be someone very much like the Howards -- someone with a higher profile who wants to enjoy some anonymity and privacy in that setting," she said.
The house, which technically sits in North Castle, N.Y., though all entrances are located in Greenwich, is tucked away beneath a canopy of trees.
"It's like a magical compound. You drive onto the property and you're greeted by two beautiful barns with paddocks, grazing sheep and miniature horses. It feels very much like a gentleman's farm," said Stevens, who added that the lake-side compound also includes a greenhouse, professional-grade observatory, formal and informal gardens and "everything you can imagine. It has a very serene and welcoming, inspiring feel to it. That's probably why they've been here for so long, because it's such a great environment to be creating in."
At $27.5 million, the estate is just one of three homes in town priced above $25 million currently. (The list includes Hollywood producer Bob Weinstein's waterfront home, listed at $32 million.) But while the price is at the top of the Greenwich market, Lurie said she and Stevens have already been hearing from other brokers, and they expect the house to make a big splash.
"I think the timing is great," Stevens said. "There's some real energy in the high end, and the $120 million sale last month (of Copper Beech Farm, the most expensive residential property sale on record in the U.S.) has given great confidence back to the high-end buyer that Greenwich is a great place for an investment."
