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December 28, 2022

Orland lakefront estate sells for $8.25M, a 2022 record

house with lights on Courtesy / Legacy Properties Sotheby’s International Realty A 483-acre residential complex on Craig Pond in Orland sold for $8.25 million, a record lakefront sale in Maine for 2022.
By Laurie Schreiber
The 483-acre property known as the “Floating Boulder" listed for $7.9 million, the second-highest lakefront sale in Maine history. The highest was the $8.5 million sale of a 10,000-square-foot house on Sebago Lake at 64 Sunset Chimneys Road in Raymond.
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A 483-acre estate on Craig Pond in Orland sold for $8.25 million, making it the highest lakefront sale in Maine this year and the largest residential deal that Portland-based Legacy Properties Sotheby’s International Realty has had in its 17-year history.

The list price was $7.9 million for the property known as the “Floating Boulder" at 135 Hartview Circle on 483 acres.

Elizabeth Banwell represented the sellers and Anne Bosworth and Andrea Pellechia represented the buyers.

It was the eighth-highest residential sale in Maine’s history, according to the firm. The highest was the 14.5-acre estate of David and Peggy Rockefeller in the village of Seal Harbor on Mount Desert Island, which sold in 2018 for $19 million.

The recent deal was the second-highest lakefront sale in the state’s history. The $8.5 million sale of a 10,000-square-foot house built in 2009, on Sebago Lake at 64 Sunset Chimneys Road in Raymond was the highest.

Banwell told Mainebiz the listing was on the market for 155 days and drew considerable attention, with over 700,000 viewings on YouTube and hundreds of inquiries. In the end, there were 24 serious offers.

“It captured the imaginations of so many people because it symbolizes the epitome of the idyllic Maine summer lakefront retreat,” Banwell said.

The seller commissioned construction of the house, which was built in 2007. 

Chris Lynch, the brokerage firm’s president and founder, said its access to global advertising venues through its affiliation with Sotheby's International Realty was valuable in creating awareness of the real estate.

In addition to a 6,500-square-foot main house, there is a 422-square-foot “rustic” shorefront cabin along with a platform tent and a storage building. The property includes 1.5 miles of frontage along Craig Pond, one of Maine’s clearest and deepest lakes, according to a news release. 

house and tub with lights on
Courtesy / Legacy Properties Sotheby’s International Realty
Amenities include custom-built natural stone features for an outdoor hot tub.

The holdings include grounds designed and built by Nate Holyoke Builders in Holden, Winkelman Architecture in Portland and Saco landscape architecture firm Richardson & Associates. The landscape is defined by geologic formations that include cliffs and a mature forest. 

Amenities include an outdoor shower built into a cliff, a hammock grotto, a suspension footbridge leading to a swimming rock at the shoreline, and custom-built natural stone features, including fireplaces and an outdoor hot tub and grill area. 

The property has been profiled in the Wall Street Journal and Maine Home + Design.

“It’s a phenomenal piece of land, like a miniature national park,” said landscape architect Todd Richardson.

Banwell, who represented the sellers, said the property is off the beaten path.

water and boulder
Courtesy / Legacy Properties Sotheby’s International Realty
A suspension footbridge leads to a swimming rock at the shoreline.

“Some luxury buyers are looking for traditional summer colonies like Kennebunkport, Northeast Harbor, Cape Elizabeth, for example,” she said. “Floating Boulder is different, although also in easy distance to midcoast destinations like Blue Hill, Mount Desert Island, Belfast and Camden.”
Banwell said the scale of the acreage makes it unique for a residential sale.

“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,” she said. 

stone fireplace and table and chair
Courtesy / Legacy Properties Sotheby’s International Realty
An outdoor kitchen was among the features that attracted the attention of the Wall Street Journal.

For example, Banwell said, the high quality, cold and deep water from Craig Pond feeds neighboring Craig Brook National Fish Hatchery, a federal facility that functions as a nursery for the last remaining natural populations of Atlantic salmon in the U.S. for seven river-specific brood stocks. 

“The seller even inventoried all the trees on the property and managed and protected the forest canopy,” she said. 

Using bioacoustic monitors, Banwell said, the seller monitored the health of the forest by tracking songbirds, bats and frogs. When a stand of beech trees died, he replaced them with 4 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,” she added. “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, she said, sealed the deal for the sellers. 

“It was like the best kind of love at first sight,” she said.

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