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Also this week, Ms. Gillibrand's staff said she will soon sign an agreement for an office in Hudson.
The Gillibrands bought their Mt. Merino home in July 2003 and vacated their apartment on Manhattan's Upper East Side to become full-time residents the following summer. Last summer Ms. Gillibrand's opponent, then-incumbent Congressman John Sweeney (R), raised the Gillibrands' residence as a campaign issue based on tax bills that appeared to indicate the couple still lived in New York City. The issued evaporated as it became clear the Gillibrands did live in Greenport.
The main house on Mt. Merino Road, a center-hall colonial, was built in 1933. An addition built several years before the Gillibrands moved in brings the total floor area to 3,500 square feet. There is a separate 3-room guesthouse.
While there is no frontage on the river, the house is built on a bluff and has a panoramic view of the Hudson River and the Catskills. A Hudson real estate broker said such "prime spots" are rare, even on Mt. Merino Road.
"The interesting thing about this one is when we look back at how much they bought it for," said the broker, who asked not to be identified. "People in Hudson remember when it was $345,000 10 or 12 years ago. I think [the Gillibrands] bought it for around a million."
The actual purchase price was $900,000, according to Jonathan Gillibrand, who said the asking price of $1,995,000 was set by the real estate broker handling the listing.
"It's never easy to juggle two careers and your children, and basically we want to make life a little easier," said Mr. Gillibrand. "Thank goodness for the large scale of Kirsten's family. We are going to have to rely on that traditional family model of everyone helping out."
But as the Gillibrands planned to move further north in the sprawling district she represents, Ms. Gillibrand is close to an agreement for space to serve as a district office in Hudson, according to Chief of Staff Jess Fassler.
Mr. Gillibrand said Hudson will be the office the congresswoman works out of when she's not in Washington. And consequently, he said, northern Columbia and Rensselaer Counties are the areas where the Gillibrands are most likely to look for a new home. Ease of getting to and from Albany Airport will also be a factor.
Meanwhile, they have rented what Mr. Gillibrand described as "a small, modern apartment" in Arlington, Va., a short subway ride from the Capitol, to use while Congress is in session.
When Mr. Sweeney alleged during the campaign that the Gillibrands used the Mt. Merino property only as a weekend home and that they still lived in Manhattan, the Gillibrands produced a letter from the rental agent for their former York Avenue apartment stating they had vacated the building in 2004. And Greenport Town Assessor Henry Greenhouse confirmed that the family had been full-time residents on Mt. Merino for at least two years. Ms. Gillibrand, a lawyer and former official with the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, grew up in the Albany area.
The 20th District, which includes all of Columbia County, stretches from central Dutchess County in the south up the Adirondacks. It also reaches west through Greene and most of Delaware counties.
To contact reporter Richard Roth, e-mail rroth@IndeNews.com.
