Avid yachtsman Peter de Savary arrived in Newport in 1980 for the AmericaÂ’s Cup, and the British entrepreneur has been smitten ever since. Over the years, de Savary has owned a handful of homes in the swanky resort city. He also developed Carnegie Abbey Golf Club and Sporting Estate in Portsmouth. Now, de Savary is back in town with two new properties.
Last November, De Savary bought Vanderbilt Hall, marketing the property as a mansion-hotel/club in the heart of Historic Hill. It offers 33 suites, a full-service spa, indoor and outdoor pools, a rooftop terrace, MontyÂ’s Bar and Dining Room (named for de SavaryÂ’s Chihuahua), a 60-foot yacht, and de SavaryÂ’s own collection of American Illustration Art.
Then, de Savary, whose other projects have included Skibo, Glenborrodale, and Bovey castles in the U.K., Port Louis Marina and Mount Cinnamon in Grenada, The Abaco Club in the Bahamas, and Cherokee Plantation in South Carolina, acquired a 50 percent managing interest in Vanderbilt Residences at Brown & Howard Wharf, with 16 luxury condos starting at $2.75 million. The 3,000-square-foot residences were introduced to the market in June, offering a 24-hour concierge, a waterfront café, and access to the exclusive Vanderbilt Club. The members club will launch this year, providing reciprocal benefits with other such clubs worldwide.
Of his return to Newport, de Savary says he’s “attracted to a place that does not have a provincial or parochial market, and Newport is a very attractive, agreeable cosmopolitan place.” Then there’s the buzz about reigning America’s Cup champ/software billionaire Larry Ellison bringing his BMW Oracle Racing team to Newport for the 2013 challenge, yielding “a very timely moment for people to invest [or vacation] in Newport,” de Savary says. “It’s a fantastic place and it seems to have stood the test of time. Newport, it seems to me, keeps getting slightly better.” For more information, contact Stacie Mills at Vanderbilt International Properties, Ltd. (401) 619-3333; vanderbiltresidences.com. —Scott Kauffman