PROVIDENCE – A 45-acre estate newly listed for sale at 339 Ocean Ave. in Newport has an asking price of $45 million, the highest ever recorded in the State-Wide Multiple Listing Service for a Rhode Island residence.

If sold for anywhere near the asking price, a new record would be set in the state. The high mark now is $17.75 million, established in April for 16 Bluff Ave. in Watch Hill, which was purchased by singer Taylor Swift. That price beat the previous top residential sale of $17.15 million, reached in November 2006 for Miramar, a Newport mansion.

“Seaward,” owned by the Atlantic Properties Revocable Trust, was listed on Nov. 20 by Kate Greenman and Michelle Kirby of Gustave White Sotheby’s International Realty.

The property, formerly known as the Avalon estate, set a record when it was sold in 2004 for $10.3 million. For many years, Avalon was home to Candace and James Van Alen, the late Newport socialites and International Tennis Hall of Fame founders.

Avalon was nearly gutted in a December 1976 fire and the house was torn down by the current owner. “It was basically a land sale when it was sold the last time,” Greenman said. The property now includes two luxurious homes, a main house and a caretaker’s cottage, designed by Southport, Connecticut-based architect Mark Finlay and built by Kirby-Perkins Construction of Middletown.

Greenman said a waterfront estate of this size is a rarity in Newport, and is the main reason for the $45-million price tag. She said the only other estate of equal size in Newport is Hammersmith Farm, the childhood home of the late Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, site of her and John F. Kennedy’s 1953 wedding reception, and JFK’s summer White House compound from 1961 to 1963.

Also, “you’re just in the most unbelievable location,” Greenman said. The Seaward estate is near Brenton Point State Park and the Newport Country Club and is surrounded by hills and woods that once served as the Van Alens’ private game preserve.
The main stone residence features 24-foot ceilings and a two-story fireplace. The property also has an infinity-edge pool and a mooring.

The City of Newport’s tax records show a total assessed value of $11,640,200 for the three parcels that are part of the 339 Ocean Ave estate.

Newport Tax Assessor John Hocking said he was surprised by the size of the asking price. “They could be shooting for the moon,” he said. “What they’re asking, they don’t always get.” But if the property does fetch a record-setting price, he said, “we’ll have to take another look at it.”