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“Floating Boulder” Lakefront Wilderness Estate Sells for Record-Breaking $8,250,000

We are proud to announce we closed on the highest sale in our 17-year history with our agents representing both the sellers and buyers. The one-of-a-kind lakefront estate on 483 acres in Orland, known as “Floating Boulder,” sold for $8,250,000 with agent Elizabeth Banwell representing the sellers and agents Anne Bosworth and Andrea Pellechia representing the buyers. The property is also the highest lakefront sale in Maine this year, and the eighth-highest residential sale and second-highest lakefront sale in state history.

“This is such a special property and so fitting that it sets a new record as the highest sale price in our company history,” says Chris Lynch, President and Founder of Legacy Properties Sotheby’s International Realty. “Our access to the many global advertising venues available to us through our affiliation with Sotheby’s International Realty were extremely valuable in creating awareness of this incredible real estate and lifestyle opportunity in Maine.”

The rare private wilderness retreat includes 1.5 miles of water frontage along Craig Pond, one of Maine’s clearest and deepest lakes. At the heart of the property is a 6,500-square-foot award-winning retreat, landscaped and built by Maine’s top talent, Nate Holyoke Builders, architect Will Winkelman, and Richardson & Associates Landscape Architects. Unique amenities include an outdoor shower built into a cliff, a hammock grotto, a suspension footbridge leading to the swimming rock at the shoreline, and custom-built natural stone features including fireplaces and the outdoor hot tub and grill area. The landscape is defined by stunning topography and dramatic geologic formations, including two mountains, spectacular cliffs, and a mature forest.

Editorial features included a profile in the Wall Street Journal and a cover story in the Maine Home + Design August issue, where the home was described as a “Woodland Wonder” in the stunning 12-page spread. “It’s a phenomenal piece of land, like a miniature national park,” said landscape architect Todd Richardson of the property.

“I love that such an unusual property that is off the beaten path received this worthy distinction as the highest sale in our company’s history,” says Elizabeth Banwell, the Legacy Properties Sotheby’s International Realty agent who represented the sellers of this extraordinary property. “Some luxury buyers are looking for traditional summer colonies like Kennebunkport, Northeast Harbor, Cape Elizabeth, for example. Floating Boulder is different, although also in easy distance to Mid Coast destinations like Blue Hill, Mount Desert Island, Belfast, and Camden. When you are there, you bring your family and friends and make your own fun.”

“The property as a whole is unique, and with that comes a big responsibility and commitment to 483 acres and the oversight of its land and water,” explains Banwell. “For instance, the water from Craig Pond is of such high quality, cold, and deep, that it is used to feed the neighboring Craig Brook National Fish Hatchery, a federal hatchery that functions as a conservation hatchery for the last remaining natural populations of Atlantic salmon in the US for seven river-specific brood stocks. The seller even inventoried all the trees on the property, and managed and protected the forest canopy. Using bioacoustic monitors, he monitored the health of the forest tracking songbirds, bats, and frogs. When a stand of beech trees died, he replaced them with four acres of American Chestnut trees. Floating Boulder also looks over at Great Pond Mountain Wildlands, the land trust that has conserved 4,500-plus acres of land. This property offers luxury in the form of the opportunity to enjoy and protect forest habitat and clean water. Ultimately, it took a buyer who ‘got the vision and spoke the same love language’ as the seller, and has dedicated himself to the conservation of the special landscape.”

“The buyer’s commitment to conservation, and the fact that he ‘got it’ immediately, was the currency that sealed the deal for my clients. It was like the best kind of love at first sight. All the pieces of the whole made absolute sense and there was no maybe, only a resounding yes.”

“It’s an honor to work at Legacy Properties Sotheby’s International Realty, and I am grateful for the quality of the people I work with and the support provided in so many facets, in Maine, nationally, and globally, to assist our clients,” adds Banwell.

“We are so pleased with the great result for both the buyer and seller in this record-breaker sale,” adds Chris Lynch. “We look forward to breaking more records in the future!”

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