Could the sale of one single-family property boost the entire state’s housing market?
Maybe, if it goes for anywhere near the asking price of $59 million. The waterfront property, which features 20 rooms and 9 1/2 baths on a 70-acre parcel, was put up for sale Sunday. It is located at Nantucket’s Polpis Harbor, a particularly exclusive part of an island dotted with multimillion-dollar houses.
Unless the price ends up being dropped dramatically, it would be the biggest residential sale on Nantucket - and probably in all of Massachusetts - in recent memory, according to listing broker Gary Winn, a principal with Maury People Sotheby’s International Realty on the island. “It is definitely the nicest property I have ever seen for sale,’’ he said.
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The record sale price for a Nantucket home was nearly $28 million, set in 2010, according to Listing Information Network, a Boston-based company that tracks home prices on the island off Cape Cod.
The property belonged to Russell Dale Phelon, owner and president of R.E. Phelon Co., a South Carolina-based firm that manufactures ignition systems and engine electronics. Phelon died in March of brain cancer.
Phelon bought the estate in 1997 for $7.1 million and completely rebuilt the house, Winn said.
The compound includes the main residence as well as a two-bedroom guest cottage, an octagon-shaped studio, a boathouse, several fenced-in pastures, and a two-bedroom gatehouse at the entrance.
The new owner will have plenty of well-heeled neighbors. Nantucket has long been a refuge for the super wealthy, including Jack Welch, retired General Electric chief executive, and Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google Inc.
Jenifer B. McKim can be reached at jmckim@globe.com.