It’s hard to say when things started to change here, but it may have started with your arrival. Yolanda Hadid In 2017
Ms. Hadid, who at one time was a regular on “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” is based in New Hope, Pa. bought a farm just outside of New York to be closer to his daughters, models Gigi and Bella Hadid, who were then living in New York City. .
gave 32 acre propertyIts stone farmhouse, with its horse barn and formal garden, became a family retreat, and the Hadids’ social media feed filled with photos of the pasture: Gigi in a two-piece bathing suit, Posing with a bowl of freshly picked vegetables with a sprig of basil; Yolanda in black boots, blue jeans and a puffer vest. Showing a stack of freshly cut lavender.
“We ride horses, we have a vegetable garden,” Yolanda told The Toronto Star in 2018, describing her life in the countryside with her famous daughters, who between them have 140 million followers on Instagram. .
The Hadid’s presence drew other famous people to Bucks County, a wooded area known for its rolling hills and 12 covered bridges. In 2018, British pop singer Zayn Malik, who was in a relationship with Gigi, bought a farm there. “It’s quiet,” he said in an interview with British Vogue. “There are no humans.” People magazine shared the news that Gigi gave birth 2020 to the couple’s daughter at home in Bucks County.
Tinquil Bucks County was again in the media spotlight the following year, when TMZ and Billboard reported on an altercation between Mr. Milk, Gigi and Yolanda that occurred at one of their country homes. Facing four counts of harassment, Mr. Malik Pleaded no contest. And he was sentenced to 360 days of probation. He and Gigi broke up after the incident.
In 2023, actor-writer-director Bradley Cooper, widely reported to have replaced Mr. Malik as Gigi’s love interest, paid $6.5 million for the 33 acres. A gentleman’s form Near Yolanda’s property. This was followed by local sightings of Leonardo DiCaprio and Justin and Hailey Bieber. Just across the Delaware River from New Hope, in Lambertville, NJ, Julianne Moore and Sidney Sweeney were making a movie.
Suddenly, New Hope and its quaint neighborhood were becoming a celebrity enclave. Although the census may show fewer celebrities per acre than the Hamptons, Malibu, or Aspen, the area’s share of glamor was growing.
Located between Philadelphia and Manhattan, New Hope has long been a haven for wealthy part-time residents. The surrounding countryside has been compared to England’s Cotswolds, and the artists and craftsmen who live in the area add a touch of bohemian charm to the rustic. But in previous decades it was Philadelphia’s lawyers and executives on weekends, not supermodels, Hollywood actors and pop stars.
Michael ArinellaA composer and founder of the annual Jazz Age Lawn Party On Governors Island, bought a weekend house in Bucks County in 2014, while living in Brooklyn. He began living there full-time two years later, convinced that he had chosen a place off the cool map.
“The Beacon is like Brooklyn 2.0,” said Mr. Arinella, 46, referring to the Hudson Valley city that has been nicknamed. “no brother” Abbreviation for Brooklyn North, because many former Brooklynites live there. “I wanted to get away from the New Yorkers. Bucks County is not that pretentious.
Lately, though, Mr. Arinella has been seeing plenty of New York license plates in and around New Hope. Besides seeing Gigi Hadid or Jakob Dylan, another famous transplant, there are other signs of change in the area.
Humble inns have been renovated to attract new customers, and several luxury hotels have opened, including The River House in OdettesWhere the average nightly rate for a Saturday in November was $560 and the private rooftop club charges $1,250 a year to members.
Philadelphia Magazine cited the hotel and its in-house restaurant as the most obvious example of this.New new hopeOpened in 2020 by a group of investors including DuPont Executive Chairman Ed Breen, it was built on the former site. of Chez Odettea restaurant and cabaret presided over by Odette Myrtle, an eccentric French actress and poet.
as well as Bucks County Playhousewhich opened in 1939 and attracted stars such as Grace Kelly and Robert Redford. It closed in 2007, after three consecutive floods hit the city, and the stone building that housed it was painstakingly relocated, where it now stands.
Above Delaware, Stockton, NJ, population 494, recently historic Stockton Inn Reopened after two years of renovations. Its owners hired a James Beard Award winner to manage the property and its two restaurants. They also opened. Stockton MarketA great cafe that sells Frankies 457 olive oil and matcha tea on site. Nearby, another upscale dining establishment Northridge Restaurantopened last month after a three-year conversion of a seasonal barn on the Woolverton Inn property.
Real estate values in the area have increased as the low-ceilinged 19th-century mansions are extremely opulent. “The old Bucks County farmhouse is now being torn down and spread over real estate,” said Michael J. Strickland, a real estate agent with Curfes Sotheby’s International Realty, who moved to Bucks County from Manhattan in 2000. Had moved full time.
Part of the appeal, he added, is that “property values are still more accessible here than in the Hamptons.”
‘Everybody’s From Brooklyn’
Mira Nakashima has seen the changes up close. She moved to New Hope in 1943 as a child. his father, George Nakashimawas a woodworker and designer whose sculptural tables and chairs were displayed at the Museum of Modern Art and fetch thousands of dollars at auction today.
I took care of it. George Nakashima Woodworkers After his death in 1990, he still runs the complex of workshops he built on the tree-lined property above town. Sitting at the walnut table her father built, Mira, 82, recalls the old New Hope in a low-key, artsy way.
“Many landscape painters came because the landscape was so beautiful,” he said. “There was fishing on the river. And streams flowed on both sides of the river. And it was quiet and peaceful.”
For years, Nakashima Woodworkers held an open house on Saturdays. Lately, Meera said, the grounds are so crowded that they now offer guided tours by appointment only.
“Everybody’s from Brooklyn. I can smell Brooklyn from them when they get here,” added Sumi Han Amagasu, Mira’s daughter-in-law and studio sales manager. “There’s a lot of young people coming here.” ‘
However, they would not find Williamsburg on the Delaware. New Hope’s commercial drag still has a hippie vibe that contrasts with the increasingly sophisticated retail environment. That Brooklyn neighborhoodWith its Hermès and Chanel stores.
Mainstays include Dine Shop Gypsy Haven, Maggi Kawa Tea House and Love saves the day.a vintage bric-a-brac emporium formerly located in New York’s East Village. Another store sells tie-dye rock t-shirts. Those places, along with homey bars and reasonably priced restaurants, bring in suburban teenagers, twentysomethings and other day trippers who stop off the streets on weekends.
Larry Keller, mayor of New Hope for the past 27 years and an antiques dealer in town, said the type of luxury stores you can find in East Hampton is by design. The town isn’t so hot on national chains, either: After Starbucks and Dunkin’ moved in, the council revised zoning laws to favor local businesses.
“You don’t have the square footage,” Mr. Keller said, referring to the smaller storefronts. “Where is Ralph Lauren going to have a store and sell enough gear to make sense? These are boutiques.”
One of New Hope’s stores rated Gigi Hadid this way: Ditto vintageon Brick Street. Last winter Ms. Hadid stopped by and bought a Nahui Ollin handbag, a leather jacket and a necklace.
Some upscale shops in nearby Lambertville include: Al Bakr Gallery Sells an assortment of contemporary art and found objects. Ten churches offers vintage clothing; And RAGO ARTS AND AUCTION CENTRE Sells works by Nakashima and other design goods. And Milford, NJ, is on the foodie map: Canal House Stationwhich serves American fare in a converted 1870s train station, has earned a Michelin star.
On the Pennsylvania side of the Iron Bridge, there are signs that New Hope is in the early stages of change. A building that houses houses. Farley’s Bookshopwhich opened in 1967, was recently renovated into a bright, modern space. A few doors down, a shabby indoor mini-mall had been converted into one. Ferry Marketa food hall. A high-end eyewear store, Cutto Optical, has opened on the same block.
“Restaurants that serve French fries are truffle fries now,” joked Katsutoshi Amagasu, 21, a Nakashima family member who grew up in New Hope.
Some of the town’s structures date back to the colonial period, such as the circa-1727 Log in. But at the residential north end, beyond the protected historic district, a Victorian house overlooking the river was bulldozed and replaced by a modernist compound fit for Bel Air. On an adjacent vacant lot, a builder promises four. Luxury condominiumseach with a terrace, elevator and private dock. gave A unit costs $3.5 million..
Lorraine Eastman, a real estate agent with Berkshire Hathaway, said the riverfront has been built up to the point that parts of the Delaware are invisible to passersby. Miss Eastman lived in New Hope in the 80s, before moving to Los Angeles and finally returning seven years ago.
“I bartended with Big Sue, who was 6-foot-1, wore size 13 motorcycle boots and smoked cigars and sang jazz,” he said, working at John & Peter’s, a bar and rock club on South Main Street. Missed your time to do it. Still in business. “I used to live in a loft on Ferry Street, which is now Nurture Spa. New Hope was very artsy, edgy, very bohemian. It still has a little bit of all those qualities, but it’s changing.
Eat, pray, spend
Like many charming small towns, New Hope seems to have been discovered during the pandemic by urbanites who collected properties and drove up property prices.
“People are always looking for a place to go that’s a hidden storybook town,” said Ms. Eastman, who recently A renovated 1769 farmhouse 37 acres with a pool and “party” barn for $4.5 million.
Celebrity residences aren’t exactly new, either: Paul Simon had a weekend house in Bucks County in the early ’70s. Most recently, the “Eat, Pray, Love” author Elizabeth Gilbert lived in Frenchtown, NJ.., 16 miles north.
But the presence of the Hadids and Mr. Cooper, who grew up in suburban Philadelphia, has revitalized the area and whetted the appetite for developers and entrepreneurs.
A few miles from Yolanda Hadid’s estate, Carversville, Pa. In the village of K, another hospitality project is almost complete.
Milan Lint and her husband, Mitch Berlin, who each had a finance career in New York, are renovating the Carversville Inn, a circa-1813 stone building the couple bought in 2020.
Standing amid construction one morning last month, Mr. Lunt, who has owned a weekend home with Mr. Berlin in Bucks County for 20 years, explained plans for the place, which is set to open soon.
gave New Carversville Inn Mr. Lunt said there would be a European-style boutique hotel with six rooms priced at about $500 a night. His 65-seat restaurant will have “a French brasserie menu, pastis or Balthazar style,” Mr. Lint added, name-checking a couple of Manhattan stalwarts.
Asked why he and Mr. Berlin chose Bucks County rather than the Hudson Valley as the location for their project, Mr. Lunt shared memories of a boring, rainy summer spent in the area.
“The Hudson Valley is very pocketable, and depends on the weather,” he said. “Here, the cities are visible up and down the river. You can spend four seasons a year on an entire weekend.”