Sunday Real Estate Round-Up, 1/31/10

From the LA Times Hot Properties:
--The Bel-Air home of director and artist Stephen Verona is for sale $4.395 million. The red tile-roofed villa, shown above, includes gardens and a gazebo. The property website is here.
--Television writer Daniel Freudenberger has listed his historic Cheviot Hills home for $3.695 million. The listing is with Ben Lee Properties.
From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
--Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich has paid $19.5 million for a Tuscan-style home in the Hollywood Hills.
--George Stephanopoulos, co-host of ABC's "Good Morning America" show and a former adviser to President Bill Clinton, has bought a home in East Hampton, N.Y., for $3.5 million.
--Interior designer Cindy Rinfret, whose clients other local residents Tommy Hilfiger and television personality Regis Philbin, has put her Greenwich, Connecticut home on the market for $14.5 million.
From the NY Post:
--Katie Lee, the cookbook author and ex-wife of Billy Joel is said to be selling her 23 Perry Street that she and Joel once shared and that she bought from Joel for $3 million after their split last year. It is expected to be listed with Dolly Lenz for $12.9 million.
--Jeffrey Loria, the art-dealing owner of the Florida Marlins, has picked up part of the Howard Gittis' Southampton estate on Ox Pasture Lane. The estate was divided into three portions and sold for a combined $38.5 million to Loria and designer Tory Burch.
--Someone wants in at the Trump International Hotel and Tower. A Russian family walked away from a deal to buy an $18.5 million, 5,500-square-foot penthouse at the tower but it was auctioned off for more than $31 million. It is reportedly gutted and a renovation could cost $10 million.
--Julianne Moore was spotted checking out the Soho Mews development looking at two townhouse units priced around $5 million to $5.5 million. Her townhouse remains on the market for $11.995 million.
From the Real Estalker:
--Billionaire Jerry Perenchio has added to his huge Bel Air estate by picking up a $9.2 million property across the street from his home.
--The seven-bedroom home that Michael Jackson rented in las Vegas for around six months has sold for $3.1 million. The home in Las Vegas he was interested in buying remains on the market at $16.5 million.
From Zillow Blog:
--Sean Penn and Robin Wright have sold their Marin County home. The price was not revealed but the home was first listed their home for sale in August 2008 for $15 million.
From the Chicago Tribune's Elite Street:
--Charlotte Bobcats and former Chicago Bulls center Tyson Chandler has listed his six-bedroom mansion for $3.395 million. He bought the home for $4 million and in the past he tried to sell it for as much as $4.9 million. The listing is here.
--Former Chicago Bears quarterback Rex Grossman has sold his 36th-floor condominium in Chicago's Trump International Hotel & Tower for $2 million.
--Chicago sportscaster Steve Kashul has sold his three-bedroom, ranch-style house in Naperville, complete with a basement bowling alley, for $475,000.
From Cityfile's Buyers and Sellers:
-via Newsday, Kathleen Turner has dropped the price of her home in Amagansett by $1 million. The six-bedroom house is now listed for $4.95 million.
--via NY Post, as the Real Estalker originally reported CNN anchor Anderson Cooper is moving to a former firehouse in New York city. He bought the building in September for $4.3 million and is now renovating it.
--Investment banker Lewis van Amerongen has gone into contract to sell his five-story townhouse at 13 East 71st Street. It was listed most recently for $16.95 million.
--via Newsday, Cynthia Nixon and her fiancée, Christine Marinoni, have picked up a new weekend home, paying $1.7 million for a waterfront cottage in Montauk.
--CNN anchor and chief business correspondent Ali Velshi has picked up a new apartment on the Upper West Side. Velshi and his new wife, portfolio manager Lori Wachs, paid $1.85 million for an apartment at The Harrison.
--via the NY Observer, Luke and Julie Janklow have officially closed on the sale of their West Village townhouse. It sold to developer Ara Hovnanian and his wife Rachel for $15.35 million.
--Adriana Mnuchin, the wife of banker turned art connoisseur Bob Mnuchin, has sold a fifth-floor apartment at 956 Fifth Avenue for $7.5 million. Mnuchin and her husband paid $20 million for an apartment at 944 Fifth back in 2008.
--via NY Mag, the apartment that TV legend Dick Cavett occupied while his new apartment on Central Park West was undergoing renovations this summer is up for rent for $11,000 a month
--via Curbed, one of my favorite wacky townhouses in NYC (this one has an indoor basketball court and belongs t oCortney and Bob Novogratz) has had a price cut of more than $5 million. The home went on the market for $25 million but is now listed for $19.95 million.
--via Curbed, Walter Cronkite's former apartment at the UN Plaza has gone into contract just a month after it went on the market. It was been listed at $2.995 million.
--via NY Post, Fashion designer Tory Burch has closed on the deal to buy part of the late Howard Gittis' 14-acre estate on Ox Pasture Lane for $16 million. her former home on Meadow Lane is still on the market for $17.9 million.
--Hedge fund mogul Bill Ackman has closed on the sale of his three-bedroom co-op at the Majestic on Central Park West. The 3,000-square-foot apartment sold for $7.1 million to Douglas Libby and Marianne Johnson.
--via the NY Observer, Whoopi Goldberg has closed on the sale of her two-bedroom loft. It sold for $2.985 million to Ben Lerer and his wife Emily. Lerer is the founder of Thrillist.com and the son of Ken Lerer, the co-founder and chairman of the Huffington Post.
--via the NY Post, a hot real estate rumor has Alicia Keys and producer Swizz Beatz as the mystery buyers behind the purchase Lenny Kravitz's penthouse at 30 Crosby Street? Their reps say it's just a rumor.
--via Curbed, Todd Wagner, the co-founder of Broadcast.com has put his 76th-floor penthouse at the Time Warner Center on the market. The four-bedroom apartment which was once rented to Jay-Z for $40,000 a month, is now on the market for $38 million.
--Musician David Byrne has picked up a new condo in Chelsea, paying $3.875 million for a four-bedroom penthouse at 231 Tenth Avenue.