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UnCaged at Last! Gray Craig Estate Sold – Just In the Nic of Time!
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The Manor House at the Gray Craig estate, sold by Lila Delman
Real Estate for the film actor Nicolas Cage
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Coming on the market in one of the worst and most persistent downturns in national real estate values, the opulent, complete-with-helicopter-landing-pad, 27-acre Gray Craig estate in Middletown was sold by Lila Delman Real Estate for $6.2 million on..….April Fool's Day.
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Soaring spaces in the living room
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Melanie Delman, Leading Lady of Lila Delman, stated, “This is a significant sale in the context of the realities of today’s market. Rhode Island is positively impacted in that, as a previously somewhat undiscovered treasure, our high-end properties present as a significant value relative to other Northeast destinations.”
The sale will end some of Actor Nicolas Cage's tax and property worries. At last accounting, the actor, who occupied the home for less than one year, owed $122,000 in back property taxes to Middletown.
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Nicolas Cage
Supplied Actors Image
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The discretion with which the Lila Delman agency handled the showing and sale is emblematic of the care taken with its high net worth and celebrity clients: no names, no numbers, no private information. To find details of price and buyer, reporters on the sale had to go to public records. Of the 10 properties selling between $5 and $10.5 million in a record-breaking 2010, Lila Delman Real Estate was involved with 8. The sale of Gray Craig augurs well for 2011, according to Ms. Delman.
The movie star, currently working on the films Trespass, with Nicole Kidman, Ghost Rider, Spirit of Vengeance, and The Croods, with Ryan Reynolds and Emma Stone, listed the Gray Craig Manor House for sale in 2008, shortly after he began having personal financial problems. Land records show that Pamela and Andrew Constantine of Forestdale, Mass. have purchased the property, and plan to rent it out when not using it for "personal enjoyment". They stated for a release by the seller's Trust that they planned to continue to preserve the monumental manor.
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The magnificent curved staircase at Gray Craig
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Cage’s Hancock Park Real Estate Trust had listed the property for $7.75 million, a significant reduction, as the trust purchased the property for $15.7 million in July 2007.
The brick and stone mansion, built in 1924, offers sweeping views of Nelson Pond and the Atlantic Ocean. The listing described the home as including a “library with a soaring barrel-vaulted ceiling, a formal living room with sweeping water views, a spacious dining room, a vintage conservatory, a handsome billiard room, and a gourmet kitchen with stone fireplace, custom hickory ceilings and antique terra cotta floor tiles.”
As for Nicolas Cage, as he leaves the Newport area, each of his films now in production is reportedly bringing him a seven-figure salary