Keuka Lake Residents Buzz About A-Lister Interest
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People who live on and near Keuka Lake are buzzing about the possibility that an A-list celebrity may be interested in buying property on the Finger Lake.
“It’s a beautiful place,” Chad Robbins said of the $2.5 million lake home that neighbors and online tabloid reports say John Travolta and his wife Kelly Preston are interested in buying.
“They heard he was gonna buy it,” neighbor Dave Chapman said.
Robbins builds docks for R&R Docks on Keuka Lake. He said he built the one on the property there has been so much speculation about.
From the outside you can see boat docks, gardens and an outdoor bar. An online virtual tour shows the home’s cathedral ceilings, large open rooms and, of course, the view.
The Penn Yan airport is just a couple miles up the road from the lakefront property, and is one of the reasons neighbors and real estate brokers say the Travoltas would be attracted to the area.
"He’ll be able to fly his private jets in," Robbins said.
Some neighbors said they saw a plane fly in around the July 4th holiday that may have belonged to Travolta, but the airport manager said there is no evidence Travolta was there.
"Being where we’re located, in between Rochester, Syracuse, Elmira, Binghamton, we have a lot of people from those areas come and look at properties on the lake. Of course you have all the rumors of the big celebrities that come and look at the lake because it is private. It is a small area. There’s a lot of private nooks that you can actually hide-a-way in and enjoy yourself," Shawn Broome, a broker with Finger Lakes Realty said.
Broome is quoted in one online report. He said he has nothing to do with the Travoltas and has never shown the property.
"Believe me, if I had anything to do with John Travolta coming here I wouldn’t be talking to anybody," said Broome.
The lakefront home is a multiple listing so any licensed broker could show it. The listing broker who holds the keys, however, said he doesn't believe Travolta has been on the property.
Mark Malcolm II said, “Speculation about the property is unfounded at this point. The home is still available.”
Don Simmons of the Simmons-Rockwell car dealerships owns the home. He said he didn't want to comment on the story. When YNN asked if he could at least say if this was all rumor he said, "I can't even say that."
"It’s a small town so if you hear a rumor by the third person, it’s true," said Broome.
For now, it appears neighbors are simply basking in the celebrity an A-lister would bring to town.
“Figure I see the gate go across, I’ll know it’s true," Chapman said.