May 4th 2015
Gotham
Jessica Chastain and Kathryn Bigelow scoop up Manhattan homes, while fashion stars Tamara Mellon and Delphine Krakoff sell their haute abodes.
The dining room in Tamara Mellon’s duplex penthouse at 3 East 95th Street.
Today’s power women are doing more than carving out territory for themselves across the cultural and financial landscapes of the city. They are also, literally, buying a piece of it.
Gorgeous and talented actress Jessica Chastain recently bought a $5.1 million apartment at the iconic, landmarked Osborne on West 57th Street, across from Carnegie Hall. Of course, this being a Hollywood star, the apartment she chose comes with a showbiz pedigree: It was formerly the home of legendary composer/conductor Leonard Bernstein (and supposedly where he cowrote the songs for West Side Story). Chastain bought the unit with her Italian boyfriend, Gian Luca Passi de Preposulo, a fashion executive with Moncler. The 3,000-square-foot, four-bedroom apartment has dramatic 14-foot ceilings, five fireplaces, and an original Lalique glass pane on the library door. The listing broker, Richard Orenstein of Halstead, declined to comment.
Another female trendsetter, Kathryn Bigelow—the first woman to win an Oscar for best director, for The Hurt Locker—has also decided to buy a New York City residence, in a charming building that formerly served as a production studio. The spacious $3 million loft in Tribeca at 449 Washington Street is a full-floor dwelling with two bedrooms and two bathrooms. There are three exposures, an open chef’s kitchen, an ethanol fireplace, and (we hear) lots of space to carve out a screening room. Measuring 1,665 square feet, the apartment has a clean, modern look, with elegant blasts of white Carrara marble and white oak floors. The listing broker, Monica Novo of the Corcoran Group, declined to comment.
Fashion powerhouse Tamara Mellon has put her Carnegie Hill duplex penthouse in the regal Carhart Mansion on the market. The asking price is $29.5 million, down from $34 million. The sprawling 7,140-squarefoot unit at 3 East 95th Street, which she bought for $21 million in 2008, comes with 5,290 square feet of terraces. The five-bedroom home also has four wood-burning fireplaces, a solarium, and a giant closet/dressing room with custom shoe racks for those obsessive enough to color-code their wardrobe and footwear.
Jeff and Lisa Blaus’ apartment for sale at 1040 Fifth Avenue.
Interior designer Delphine Krakoff and her designer husband, Reed Krakoff, have just sold their $51 million townhouse. The buyer is Jeff Blau, the CEO of the Related Companies, and his wife, Lisa. The 30-foot-wide townhouse, at 113-115 East 70th Street, measures a whopping 18,000 square feet. Delphine spent millions on the interior design, we hear, sparing no expense on 18th-century European floorboards, French mantels, and hand-plastered walls. Other details include a dramatic curved staircase.
The Blaus’ former residence, a three-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bath unit at 1040 Fifth Avenue, is currently on the market for $34.5 million, which could be considered a bargain, seeing how its original price was $43 million. The apartment, in a Rosario Candela building where Jacqueline Onassis once lived, offers views from Fifth Avenue to the Midtown skyline. It comes with a private elevator landing, a library/media room, a formal dining room, and a planting terrace. There’s also a chef’s kitchen, “staff quarters,” and a mud room, according to the listing.
And while New York and the country are still mourning the loss of the great comedic talent Joan Rivers at 81, we hear that her stunning, Versailles-like penthouse triplex is close to finding a buyer. The immaculate space, at 1 East 62nd Street, is on the market for $28 million. The home’s stunning features include two lavish terraces, five fireplaces, and a grand room with a 23-foot-high, sky-blue ceiling painted with clouds and doves.
Movie buffs will also be interested to hear that the late Lauren Bacall’s apartment at the famed Dakota, on the Upper West Side, where Yoko Ono still lives, is also on the market. The three-bedroom, three-and-a-half bath beauty, with Central Park views, is listed for $26 million. (Bacall bought it for less than $50,000 in 1961.) Just imagine if those walls could talk. The listing broker is Rebecca Edwardson of Warburg Realty (212-300-1826).
