Luxury Real Estate

By: Juliet Chung of the Wall Street Journal

Courtesy of: Heritage House Sotheby's International Realty

Max Weinberg and his wife, Rebecca, are asking $6.5 million for a seven-bedroom, Colonial-style home in Middletown, N.J.

The 8,900-square-foot house, above, is the first home that the prolific real-estate flippers, who also have a Los Angeles home on the market, built from the ground up. The home has a soundproof music room, a movie theater with a lobby and concession area and a pool. There's also a guest house, a 3,200-square-foot barn and a three-acre skating pond that has bleachers and stadium lighting. "This house was great; it should serve another family," says Mr. Weinberg, 59, saying he's downsizing now that his children are grown. The couple is building a smaller home nearby.

The house sits on almost 17 of 40 forested acres that Mr. Weinberg bought in 1997 for less than $1 million. He's keeping the remaining 23 acres. Since the end of "The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien" Mr. Weinberg has continued to play with Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band and his own band. Mary Burke of Heritage House Sotheby's International Realty has the listing.

Courtesy of Mark Lippolt of Hammond Residential Real Estate

BOSTON, MA (March 9, 2010) As part of its on-going Hammond Performing Arts Series, Hammond Residential Real Estate is sponsoring a free concert featuring the Alianza String Quartet on Sunday afternoon, March 28 at 3:00 p.m. at the Sanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts in Boston’s South End. Works by Mozart, Beethoven, and Wolf will be performed.

Sarita Kwok (violin), Lauren Basney (violin), Stephanie Fong (viola), and Alexandre Lecarme (cello) comprise the award-winning Alianza String Quartet. The Alianza String Quartet was officially formed in 2004 at Yale University’s School of Music. From 2006 to 2008 they were in residence as postgraduate associates of the Yale School of Music and were closely mentored by the Tokyo String Quartet.

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n addition to their appearances in Japan and throughout Europe, the quartet have performed throughout the east coast and Midwest at venues such as Carnegie Hall’s Weill and Zankel recital halls, Merkin Concert Hall and Juilliard’s Paul Recital Hall in New York City, Yale University’s Sprague Memorial Hall and British Art Center, University of Notre Dame’s DeBartolo Performing Arts Center, and the Missouri Theatre Center for the Arts in Columbia

Of their 2007 Carnegie Hall debut, The New York Times’ Bernard Holland said: “The matching of talent makes or breaks a new string quartet, and the young Alianza players seem on an equal level. They have evidently worked scrupulously on blending and balance, and as befits their time of life, they boil over with an edge-of-the-seat eagerness …”

The Hammond Performing Arts Series, sponsored by Hammond Residential Real Estate, was started in 1994 to provide performance opportunities for deserving, talented music artists in the early stages of their careers. David Stenberg, manager of Hammond Residential’s Boston offices said: “The series is based on Hammond’s belief that we should enrich the cultural life of the communities in which we do business.”

Admission is free, but a reservation is required. Please call 617-587-4622 to reserve a seat.

To learn more, please visit www.hammondre.com.

By Jim Johnson

From his blog: Move to Bend Oregon for the Music

One of the reasons people are buying homes in Bend, Oregon is the music. The Les Schwab Amphitheater is where a lot of that music happens. It is a beautiful outdoor riverfront amphitheater built in the historic Old Mill District in 2001. The amphitheater was named in honor of a remarkable Central Oregonian, Les Schwab.

The amphitheater canaccommodate approximately 8,000 patrons for concerts and other events in a casual outdoor setting. All summer long it will host some of the biggest names in entertainment plus free concerts by local and national performers every Sunday.

BB King just finished a concert here. Brooks and Dunn will perform on Wednesday, August 6th. Cheryl Crow will be here on Thursday, August 28th. There are many other great artists who will be performing through August. Music is one of the many reasons people live in Bend. You can see the schedule of performers here.


Editor’s Note:
Jim Johnson is the Principal Broker of Century 21 Gold Country Realty. He has lived in Bend, Oregon since 1981 and is familiar with its finest properties. In case you’re familiar with the Western United States and you’re curious, yes the Les Schwab mentioned in the first paragraph is that Les Schwab. We welcome wonderful blog entries like this in the LuxuryRealEstate.com Blog. Share the positive points of your communities so potential buyers can see different sides of cities they might miss otherwise.