Phish Frontman Trey Anastasio Loses Big on Sale of Celeb-Pedigreed Cottage
By Mark David
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – It took more than three years at steadily declining asking prices that started at $2.995 million and, in the end, a punishing hit to his pocketbook, but Phish front man Trey Anastasio at long last sold a secluded, celeb-pedigreed cottage cleaved to a steep, wooded cliff above the Hudson River in New York State’s sleepy and quietly swank Snedens Landing enclave, about an hour’s drive due north of Midtown Manhattan, for $1.83 million. Not counting carrying costs, improvement expenses and real estate fees, Anastasio took a bank account brutalizing $870,000 loss on the property he bought almost a decade ago, in September 2009, for $2.7 million from Oscar, Emmy and Golden Globe nominated “Sopranos” star Loraine Bracco who’d purchased the two-acre river-side spread in 1989 with her then husband Harvey Keitel from 1975 Oscar winner Ellen Burstyn.
Built in 1960 and entirely invisible down a long private drive at the tail end of a scenically sylvan and decidedly upscale cul-de-sac where, as was noted in the New York Post , it butts up against a 2,500-acre river-side park, the updated three-bedroom and 2.5-bathroom residence measures in at a cozy 2,120-square-feet over two floors.
An unassuming, stone-paved porch partly sheltered by a vine-laden pergola leads a picayune entrance hall that steps down to an also pint-sized stair gallery where a wooden staircase makes a tight curl down to the primary living and entertaining spaces on the lower level. A spacious but hardly humongous combination living and dining room features a vintage brick fireplace, deep brown hardwood floors, and a great expanses of windows and glass doors that open the room to a wrap-around deck with undeniably spectacular views that sweep up, down and clear across the Hudson River. The compact, efficiently arranged kitchen retains a utilitarian, 1930’s-inspired style with simple, snow-white shaker style cabinetry, jet black granite counter tops, a porcelain apron sink and high-quality up-to-date appliances. A glass door conveniently opens to a flat side yard with a bluestone paved dining terrace positioned to take maximum advantage of a tree-framed cross-river view.
Two of the upstairs bedrooms have direct access through a wall of windows to a shared, river-side balcony and a sky light topped den/family room features a stone-faced minimalist fireplace and a built-in desk space concealed behind a louvered door. French doors open the comfortably snug room to a small terrace hemmed in by a curved, stacked stone wall. One of the more picturesquely charming as well as glute-firming features of the property is a stairway that winds down the densely treed hillside to a small deck sublimely perched in the leafy treetops just above the water’s edge.
Since 2006, when it was acquired for $2.4 million, Anastasio has additionally owned an approximately 2,100-square-foot co-operative apartment on a lower floor of a prestigious, Emory Roth-designed apartment house along New York City’s Central Park West as well as a secluded spread the forested mountains north of Burlington, Vt., where he maintains “The Barn,” a professional rehearsal and recording facility where Phish and Anastasio, who’s released 11 solo albums and received a 2013 Tony nomination for composing the score of the Broadway musical “Hands on a Hardbody,” have rehearsed and recorded since the late 1990s.
listing photos: Ellis Sotheby’s International
