The $25 million Hudson Valley home of Beverly Kerzner, daughter of South African casino and hotel tycoon Sol Kerzner, is on the market.
The grounds include a four-bedroom house, a five-bedroom cottage, four barns, horse paddocks, an outdoor riding area and a pool. Two of the barns date to the 1920s, and one was built even further back in the 18th century. Should the 130-acre estate have its asking price met, it would set a record for the most expensive sale in Columbia County, Byron Anderson, who represents the sale along with Compass (COMP) colleague Leonard Steinberg, told Observer.
When Kerzner purchased the residence in 2017, she first imagined turning one of its regal barns into a single-family home but ultimately built a new home on the spot where a cabin previously sat, she told Architectural Digest in 2022.
To accomplish the task, Kerzner acquired the services of AD-100 honored architect and designer Niels Schoenfelder, whom she had previously worked with on a home in India, where she lived prior to purchasing the Hudson Valley home. When they first met, the architect was 24 and had built a lauded hotel in Pondicherry, India, which caught Kerzner’s eye.
Over four years, they sketched a litany of designs, allowing the time “to know exactly what I wanted,” she told Architectural Digest.
Shoenfelder designed a new house inspired by the property’s barns, with double-height ceilings and details in dialogue with the estate’s legacy structures. Stone walls and accents call to the rocks along the river, a tub sits in a silo-like nook, and wood reclaimed from the cabin adorns the walls in the mudroom and powder room. Prior to the commencement of construction, as the designs were being fleshed out, Kerzner and her daughters lived in that cabin, according to the magazine.
What makes the estate “absolutely unique,” Anderson says, is its several thousand feet of riverfront inside the property, just a few hundred feet from the main house.
“A few of the big things [high-end buyers] are looking for are privacy, a lot of land, a lot of bedrooms to accommodate their family and guests, but also natural resources,” Anderson told Observer. There are several thousand feet of river frontage that is private, on the property. “You see it, you hear it from every room of the house. It’s part of the property and part of the experience.”
The home’s 7,500 square feet include a wine cellar, gym, steam room, and sauna in addition to the common space and bedrooms. The primary suite features a private roof deck, though it is far from the only outdoor space.
Another terrace opens to a covered seating area, a bar, and a built-in barbecue with heating systems both overhead and in the flooring—a useful detail in the snowy Hudson Valley.
In addition to the many buildings and scenic river views, Kerzner also installed an Airstream trailer, a pair of glamping campsites, and other outdoor lounging spaces throughout the property. Those include a fire-heated cedar hot tub looking over the waterfront, as well as riverfront decks. Another peaceful area has an herb and perennial garden, ensuring that in addition to bringing the outdoors inside, the home provides opportunities to enjoy its distinctive landscape.
