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The New York Times

Spruced-Up Manhattan Townhouses Sell for Big Discounts

By: Vivian Marino
Published: 4/5/2019Source: The New York Times

Featuring Deborah Grubman, Laurence Carty and Markus Buchmeier's sale at 23 Cornelia Street, Greenwich Village

 

An Upper East Side mansion that was home to the Broadway producers Howard and Janet Kagan for the last decade finally sold after more than a year on the market and a hefty price reduction.

The elegant limestone structure, at 11 East 82nd Street, was acquired by an anonymous buyer for $30.1 million, making it New York City’s most expensive closing in March. The Kagans, whose productions include “Tuck Everlasting” and the revival of “Pippin,” bought the late-1890s house in 2009 for $24.5 million, then undertook a top-to-bottom renovation. When they put the 22-room home back on the market in 2017, they initially sought $44 million.

This wasn’t the only spruced-up townhouse to sell at a big discount last month. In Greenwich Village, a carriage house at 23 Cornelia Street, where the pop star Taylor Swift once lived, closed at $11.5 million, less than half its original $24.5 million price from two years ago.

A few blocks away, at the Greenwich Lane complex, a new townhouse fared better, selling for almost $22 million, nearer to its $25 million price tag.

Among the other notable March closings were four apartments at 220 Central Park South, each for more than $20 million, including two three-bedroom units, on the 40th and 41st floors, which sold for around $23.4 million apiece. The luxury high-rise set the national record for the highest price paid for a single residence — $240 million for a four-level unit — in February.

Elsewhere on the Upper East Side, Lawrence Herbert, the creator of the Pantone Color Matching System, sold his full-floor co-op at 778 Park Avenue, and at neighboring 740 Park, a longtime resident sold his duplex. Also, two apartments at the Plaza Residences at 1 Central Park South closed.

Downtown, the Oscar-winning filmmaker Paul Haggis found a buyer for his SoHo loft, and Ron and Michelle Saltz, owners of a large flower farm in Connecticut, bought the remaining penthouse at 443 Greenwich Street in TriBeCa.

The neo-Classical mansion sold by the Kagans is six stories high and 25 feet wide. It stands alongside other structures of similar size and grandeur between Fifth and Madison Avenues, a quick stroll from Central Park and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The building has 12,729 square feet inside, along with ample outdoor space that includes a gated front garden, a spacious rear garden, and a terrace on the parlor level and fourth and sixth floors. There is also a basement with a large wine cellar and storage rooms.

The townhouse contains nine bedrooms, seven full and two half baths, two eat-in kitchens, and a large recreation room and den. The master suite encompasses the third floor and features a separate library, plus two baths and an oversize dressing room.

Although the house was completely redone, with renovations led by the architect Stephen Wang, many original details from the turn of the last century remain. Among them: six marble fireplaces, inlaid wood flooring, intricate moldings, wrought iron and brass balustrade, and tall ionic columns that frame the drawing room.

Monthly taxes on the property are $15,910; Louise C. Beit of Sotheby’s International Realty was the listing broker.

The Greenwich Village carriage house where Ms. Swift lived is between Bleecker and West Fourth Streets. The seller, David Aldea, who runs a strategic technology consultancy, bought it for $5.3 million in 2005, then spent the next five years on extensive renovations that cost another $5 million.

Working with the architect Galia Solomonoff, Mr. Aldea transformed the 21-foot-wide brick structure, built in the early 1900s, into a modern home, with a private garage, an expansive rooftop terrace and, on the basement level, an indoor spa with a sauna, gym and saltwater pool.

The three-level house has about 5,500 square feet of interior space, including four bedrooms and five and a half baths, according to the listing with the Corcoran Group.

Ms. Swift had rented the place for $40,000 a month while she awaited the completion of renovations at her TriBeCa townhouse in 2016.

Back on the Upper East Side, Mr. Herbert, the founder of Pantone, and Michelle Herbert sold an 11th-floor residence at 778 Park at 73rd Street, an exclusive apartment house designed by Rosario Candela in the early 1930s.

The sale price was $27 million, according to property records, which was below the most recent list price of $32 million. The buyer was Kimberly R. Kravis, a philanthropist and daughter of Henry R. Kravis, the billionaire founder of the private-equity firm KKR & Company.

The fully renovated unit has six bedrooms and five and a half baths, along with three fireplaces and striking cityscape and Central Park views from its 39 oversize windows.

About a block away, at 740 Park Avenue and 71st Street, another Candela-designed co-op, a duplex, closed at $20.5 million. It was sold by investment banker Peter Huang, who reportedly bought the apartment in the mid-1970s for $145,000. The purchase was made through a trust.

The 7,500-square-foot unit is on the fourth and fifth floors, with five bedrooms and five and a half baths, as well as 41 windows, 21 closets and three wood-burning fireplaces.

And at the Plaza Residences, a revamped penthouse duplex with about 4,000 square feet of interior space and a nearly 500-square-foot terrace became the second most expensive sale in March when it sold for $29 million. A four-bedroom, four-and-a-half-bath apartment on the sixth floor sold for $19.6 million. Both transactions were done through limited liability companies.

In SoHo, Mr. Haggis received $5.5 million for his full-floor loft on the third level of 388 West Broadway, between Broome and Spring Streets.

The apartment is nearly 3,000 square feet, with two bedrooms and two and a half baths. An open living and dining area features a wood-burning fireplace, original wood beams, cast-iron columns and oak floors. A storage unit was included in the sale.

The Saltzes, who own the 200-acre Anderson Acres Farm in Kent, Conn., paid $15 million for a loft-like penthouse at 443 Greenwich, the development where the actors Meg Ryan and Jake Gyllenhaal also have homes.

Their new penthouse has around 3,500 square feet of interior space, with three bedrooms and three and a half baths. There is also a rooftop terrace of nearly 1,100 square feet — enough room for the couple to plant a few more blooms.

 

Copyright © 2018 The New York Times Company. Reprinted with Permission. 

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