STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — After nearly a year on the market, the listing for a once-notorious mansion and local landmark in Todt Hill was pulled without a sale.
And the reason that the home located at 177 Benedict Rd. didn’t sell isn’t because of the price tag of $18 million, according to a recent report from the New York Post.
The reason that the home — which features a 13-car showroom, indoor and outdoor Olympic-sized pools, and a custom pergola adorned with Italian fountains — didn’t sell is because of upkeep costs, the Post reports.
An elaborate entryway is decorated in Italian marble.
All the marble, accents, and finishes that makes the mansion eye-catching also make it expensive to renovate, according to the news outlet.
Tom Le, a real estate agent who recently sold nearby Tod Hill home for $8.5 million, told the Post that the personalized features of these mansions restricts the amount of buyers who might be interested.
In addition, high-end features — like all the marble in the home — make any attempt to renovate or refresh a costly affair, Le told the Post.
The neo-classical mansion is filled with lavish custom interior designs.(Courtesy Staten Island Multiple
Once home to Paul Castellano, a boss of the Gambino Crime family, the Todt Hill residence features eight bedrooms, 17 bathrooms, plus a custom pergola adorned with Italian fountains.
The neo-classical mansion spans an impressive 33,000 square feet across four levels, and the main house offers a commercial-grade designer kitchen, along with a vast balcony that seamlessly connects the indoors to the outdoors.
The property features both indoor and outdoor Olympic size pools. (Courtesy Staten Island Multiple
According to public record, the address has had a total of three owners and has been vastly renovated since Castellano had it built in 1980. But the property’s reputation as a “mob house” has persisted.
According to Zillow, the home has been in flux over the last year.
After being listed for sale in October 2023, the property website notes a pending sale dated June 14, 2024.
A month later, the home was up for sale again before the listing was removed in late September 2024. The house was then up for sale again in October 2024.
Castellano’s house, which last sold in August of 2000 for $3.1 million, has been listed on some websites as a NYC “place of interest.”
The mansion also featured on the HGTV show “Zillow Gone Wild.”
The Benedict Road address got its 15 minutes on July 25, in an episode titled “Where the Trolls Live.” The show is now streaming on HBO Max and Discovery+.
Castellano’s former house, which encompasses some 33,000 square feet of living space and is spread across 2.3 acres of land, last sold in August 2000 for $3.1 million.
Gambino family godfather Paul Castellano, center, and aide de camp Tommy Bilott, left are shown outside court in 1985, two months before they were killed in a gangland rubout. (Advance/SILive.com | Steve Zaffarano)Steve Zaffarano/Staten Island Advance
Referred to as “Big Paul,” Castellano presided over the Gambino crime family, considered to be NYC’s largest and most powerful forces in organized crime, during the 1970s and ‘80s.
He met a messy end at the hands of a four-man hit crew working for John Gotti on Dec. 16, 1985. The crew waited outside Sparks Steak House, wearing Black Russian fur hats and pale trench coats, and when Castellano got out of his car on his way to dinner, they riddled him with bullets.
At the time of his death, the Advance/SILive.com referenced his reputation as a “conservative, low-key businessman and mediator of mob disputes”– a personality trait that may have led to his untimely death.
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