Welcome to Centre Island, an isolated community with no gas station, no grocery store and no post office. Realtors say the residents are moving to Florida, where they enjoy lower taxes.
According to Maxwell, most residents have since fled to Florida — and that includes Joel who purchased some three homes in Florida over the years.
All that exists are houses with scenic views of the Oyster Bay Harbor and Cold Spring Harbor, so thats why many fled to Florida.
And it’s intentionally kept that way. However, since the COVID-19 pandemic, Centre Island — which holds about 200 homes, according to Census data — has seen a massive selling spree.
According to the New York Post, Joel bought the 14-acre North Shore residence for $22.5 million in 2002. Since that time he has purchased another 12 acres worth of nearby parcels of land. Joel spent the past few years renovating the property to prepare it for sale, as he and his wife have been spending the majority of their time in Florida, as UCR reports.
In the village of Centre Island, roughly 40 miles east of Midtown Manhattan, Billy Joel’s 26-acre estate has hit the market for $49 million.
Sources tell The Post that Joel had been renovating the residence — on Long Island’s prime North Shore — for the last few years with the intention to sell.
The Piano Man purchased the spread in 2002 for $22.5 million, according to records.
The estate, which features a 20,000-square-foot five-bedroom, eight-bathroom main house offering 180 degrees of elevated water views, is being offered by Daniel Gale of Sotheby's International Realty. There's also an in-ground pool, a floating dock and boat ramp on 2,000 feet of waterfront on Oyster Bay Harbor, a beach house, a bowling alley, several guest homes and apartments, and a helicopter pad.
Joel uses the helicopter pad to travel back and forth from his record-breaking monthly Madison Square Garden residency concerts, allowing him to cut his travel time from two hours to 15 minutes.
The "Piano Man" singer is scheduled to play his 91st show at New York City's historic arena on June 2. He teamed up with Stevie Nicks in March for a co-headlining show at Sofi Stadium in Los Angeles, where they performed her hit "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" and his song "And So It Goes" together in addition to performing separate full-length solo sets.
