Martha’s Vineyard Times File Photo
The property for sale wraps around Homer’s Pond to the north and provides access to the Atlantic Ocean.
It is a record-breaking listing even by the high-priced standards of Martha’s Vineyard. Last week, a 266-acre south shore property in West Tisbury was listed with an asking price of $92 million, the highest price in Martha’s Vineyard real estate history.
The owner is Gerald DeBlois, a resident of West Tisbury most publicly associated with the Vineyard Youth Tennis Center, a facility he developed and funded to introduce young people to the sport.
The property borders Edgartown Road, and Homer’s Pond to the north and east, and ends on long stretches of South Beach. Kristina West, principal assessor of the West Tisbury Town Assessors’ Office, said that a majority of the land for sale was originally purchased in 1992 for about $6.25 million dollars under the Homer Watcha Trust. Seven of the nine properties in that trust are included in the online listing. The other two, along with four other pieces of property under Mr. DeBlois’s name, are not for sale, including his summer home.
Thomas Wallace of Edgartown, president of Wallace Co. Sotheby’s International Realty, is the listing agent of the property. Mr. Wallace described the property as “private and nothing short of charming,” in a telephone call Tuesday. He said there has been considerable interest.
“The property is remarkably untouched,” he said. “It is made up of woods and rolling hills and open areas. Most importantly, it incorporates all of the developable land around Big Homer’s Pond. Additionally, there are exclusive rights to two major sections of South Beach.”
Mr. Wallace added that the west side of the property abuts The Trustees of Reservations Long Point Wildlife Refuge, making the land even more secluded.
The 266 acres are divided between 125 acres of developable land and 141 acres under conservation restrictions. He said he is marketing the property having in mind “someone who loves nature, and of course privacy is a component.”
The online listing includes prices in euros (75,440,000) and pounds (58,880,000). Sotheby’s international program for global exposure is advertising the property to European and Asian buyers. Mr. Wallace said that within 48 hours of listing the property on the website, he has received a significant amount of inquiries.
Ms. West said that this is not the last large span of undeveloped property. Large amounts of vacant land still remain around Tisbury Great Pond and along the north shore of West Tisbury.
She also said that a listing of this magnitude would not necessarily increase surrounding property values. “It depends on what it sells for, compared to what it’s assessed at,” she said.
Ms. West said that the total assessment of the seven properties listed online is just under $42 million.
She said any change in surrounding property values in the area would depend on whether each of the listed properties is sold under individual deeds or the entirety is sold under a single deed. If each piece is not sold individually, she will have no way of knowing the comparative value of smaller parcels of land.
“This is an unusual case,” Ms. West sad. “If it all sold under one deed, I would only know the value of another property of this size. And there aren’t too many of those.”
The most recent highest priced residential sale was Blue Heron Farm in Chilmark, which was listed last fall at $23.7 million and sold for $21.9 million.
The DeBlois property has the potential to top the single largest Island sale: in 2006, the Harbor View Hotel and Kelley House sold for $45,100,000.