This 11,000-square-foot home, as shown in this listing photo, just sold for $8.5 million.
Photo: Corcoran
When Richard and Vania Cardinale bought a half-acre lot in Todt Hill for $1.7 million in 2017, it was just the beginning of a very expensive project. The couple, who own the Farm to Bagel chain on Staten Island, invested four years and a reported $6 million building an 11,000-square-foot home that would include a built-in tank filled with lionfish and a hair salon on the premises. It was money well spent, apparently: The property just sold for $8.5 million — a borough record. The sale, which was first reported last week by the New York Post, is slightly lower than the Cardinale family’s original ask of $8.95 million but still more than doubled the borough’s previous record of $4.6 million. (In August, the median sale price for Staten Island homes was $750,000, up 8.7 percent from last year.)
Per The Wall Street Journal, along with the hair salon, where a stylist would clean up Vania’s and her two daughters’ nails (and where the youngest daughter had her DJ equipment set up), the home also has an indoor-outdoor basketball court, a steam room, a sauna, and a gym. There is a children’s lounge with a pair of televisions, so the kids don’t have to choose between watching a movie and playing video games, but also an adult lounge, which has wine storage and a giant tank for Richard’s collection of fish. Outside is a landscaped pool area with a waterfall that flows into a koi pond. In the foyer hangs a custom handblown-glass chandelier that weighs 750 pounds and looks like an oddly somber string of balloons. Corcoran’s Tom Le, who repped the listing, told the Post that the home was “elegant but understated.” Uh-huh.
176 Benedict Road’s record may be short lived though: Across the street, at No. 177, sits the 33,000-square-foot mansion that once belonged to the Gambino crime family’s former boss Paul Castellano. That one is on the market right now for $18 million. And yes, it comes with a beauty salon, too.
As seen in this listing photo, this Staten Island home had many over-the-top fixtures, including a 750-pound custom handblown-glass chandelier that was flown in from England.
Photo: Corcoran
As seen in this listing photo, 176 Benedict Road took four years and $6 million to build out, on top of paying $1.7 million for the half-acre lot itself.
Photo: Corcoran