brooke astor

We've been watching this once since 2008 but could Brooke Astor's New York City co-op at 778 Park Avenue finally have a buyer? Mrs. Astor, who died at the age of 105 in 2007 was one of the grand dames of New York society. Her home at 778 Park Avenue is considered to be an exceedingly prime New York co-op and it first hit the market for the wallet-busting price of $46 million but the NY Post's Jennifer Gould Keil reports that it could be selling for a price that is "in the high teens" less than half of the original list price.

The five-bedroom apartment has high ceilings, six terraces and five wood-burning fireplaces. A reception gallery with a wet bar, leads to a living room with a wood-burning fireplace and views up and down Park Avenue. According to the Post, the Upper East Side building's co-op board hasn't accepted the bid yet and so the duplex on the 15th and 16th floors of the classic 1931 Rosario Candela building is still being shown in hopes of boosting the price over the $20 million mark.

From Cityfile's Buyers and Sellers:
--Arlene Farkas, the ex-wife of real estate/retail heir Bruce Farkas, has cut the price of her 14-room duplex at the River House, shown above. The five-bedroom apartment was first listed for $15 million in 2008 but is now listed for $11 million.
--Judith Sheindlin, better known as "Judge Judy," has paid $6.75 million for a two-bedroom co-op at the Sherry Netherland on Fifth Avenue. The apartment had been listed for $7.999 million.
--via NY Daily News, Brooke Astor's Westchester estate, Holly Hill, first went on the market for $12.9 million but the property, which has now been emptied of Astor's furniture is listed at $10.5 million.

--via Curbed, architect Frank Gehry's former duplex at 55 Crosby Street has hit the market for $5.8 million. The listing is here.
--Jason Rabin, the apparel mogul who sold his company less than two months ago for $401 million, has now unloaded his duplex at 850 Park Avenue. Ten months after listing the five-bedroom apartment for $9.9 million, Rabin and his wife Nicole have sold it to Martha Stewart Weddings editorial director Darcy Nussbaum and her husband, attorney Andrew Nussbaum for $6.225 million.
--via Curbed, John McColgan and Moya Doherty, the husband-and-wife team behind "Riverdance," have sold their duplex penthouse at 1080 Madison Avenue. It was first for $10.5 million in July 2008 but sold for $5.85 million.
--via the NY Post, Jay McInerney has paid $1.4 million for a two-bedroom Sag Harbor cottage, which he plans to use as a writing space and children's playhouse.
--Michael Kasbar, the Miami, Florida-based chief executive of World Fuel Services, and his wife Mary, have paid $4.275 million for a two-bedroom apartment at 15 Madison Square North.
--via Curbed, a three-bedroom apartment at 15 Union Square West has sold for $7.128 million.
--Susan Berresford, the president of the $11 billion Ford Foundation up until 2008 and one of the nation's foremost experts on philanthropy, has paid $1.855 million for a two-bedroom co-op at 530 East 86th Street. The apartment first went on the market in August 2008 for $2.325 million.
--Nicolas Sayegh, a co-founder of International Delights, a company that supplies baked goods to New York hotels and gourmet stores, has paid $3.65 million for a 26th-floor apartment at the Miraval Living building at 515 East 72nd Street.
--Steven Lax, an executive vice president at the real estate financing firm Duscany Financial Group, has paid $5.25 million for a three-bedroom condo at the Heritage at Trump Place on the Upper West Side.
--The former Dakota residence of the late model/actress Ruth Ford is now on the market for $7.5 million. The listing is here.
--via Curbed, an unidentified couple has reportedly gone into contract to buy two duplex penthouses at 166 Perry Street. The apartments had been listed together for a combined $24 million.
--via New York Daily News, Brooklyn borough president Marty Markowitz and his wife, Jamie, have paid $1.45 million for a two-story home in Windsor Terrace.
--via the Real Deal, Billy Macklowe, the president of Macklowe Properties (and son of Harry), has sold a home he owned in Long Island's Northwest Harbor for $1.95 million. He bought the place for $1.89 million in 2002.

From the Real Estalker:
--Conservative commentator Glenn Beck has listed a six-bedroom home in New Canaan, Connecticut for $3.99 million, lower than the price he paid for it. The listing is here.
--via Curbed LA, the estate of Julius Shulman has listed his home on Woodrow Wilson Drive in Los Angeles for $2.495 million.


From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
--Art consultant Allan Schwartzman has closed on the purchase of a 12th-floor apartment at the Jean Nouvel-designed 100 11th Avenue. He paid $3.78 million for the three-bedroom spread.
--Former Vassar College president Frances Daly Fergusson has sold her two-bedroom apartment at 61 Jane Street for $1.6 million.
--Broadway producer Hal Prince and his wife, Judy, have paid $12.5 million for a seven-story townhouse at 48 East 74th Street.

From ShelterPop:
Tiger Woods's Real Estate Portfolio: What's Up for Grabs in a Divorce
Best and Worst Celebrity Real Estate Deals 2009

From the NY Post:
--Madonna is buying Kelly Klein's horse farm in the Hamptons along with an adjacent horse farm but she is also looking at a nearby house which on the market for $4.4 million. The listing is here.
--Natalie Portman wanted to rent a unit at The River Lofts, a two-building condo conversion at 416 Washington St. and 92 Laight St., but the owner of the 1,103-square-foot unit is only interested in selling.
--One of the highest-priced duplexes in architect Jean Nouvel's 23-story building at 100 11th Ave. went into contract and closed on the same day for $22 million.
--Michael Hirtenstein is renting his his 25 Bond St. bachelor pad for $50,000 a month.

From Newsday's Real LI:
--Documentary filmmaker Rory Kennedy has sold her Shelter Island home for $2.967 million.
--Former Mets infielder Edgardo Alfonzo has closed on the sale of his house in Little Neck, NY. The home, which had been one-and-off the market for three years, sold for $3.65 million.

Gallery: Edgardo Alfonzo in Little Neck, New York

From the Chicago Tribune's Elite Street:
--Former Blackhawks goalie Nikolai Khabibulin has rented out his three-bedroom condo in River North for $5,150 per month.
--The faux church Lake Bluff which we profiled when it was priced at $12.5 million has had a price cut down to $10.9 million.

Gallery: This Is Not A Church

From the LA Times Hot Properties:
Dancing With The Stars host Samantha Harris has sold her Westwood home for $1.64 million It was listed at $1.595 million when we checked it out as an estate of the day.

Gallery: Samantha Harris In Westwood

--Celebrity stylist Andrea Lieberman has sold her home in the Hollywood Hills for $1,800,625.
--Salsa singer-actor-politician Rubén Blades has sold his home in the Windsor Square neighborhood of Los Angeles for $2.415 million.

From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
--Cher is auctioning off a property she never used at the Four Seasons' Hualalai resort in Hawaii. Concerige Auctions which is running the January 18 sale anticipates bids between $8 million and $12 million. Cher bought the 0.76-acre property in December 2004 for $2.9 million and began building the house last year.
--Also at the Hualalai resort, Kenneth Griffin, a major figure in the hedge-fund world, has paid $11.38 million for two adjacent lots overlooking the ocean.
--Palazzo Tornabuoni, a 15th-century palazzo in Florence that was home to a pope and other members of the Medici family has been converted into 38 apartments now offered for sale. Prices range from €1.06 million ($1.53 million) for a 530-square-foot one-bedroom to €5.1 million for a 1,987-square-foot two-bedroom apartment with a large terrace.

From Berg Properties Big Time Listings:
--Nicolas Cage has sold a 3,480-square-foot house in Los Angeles' Hollywood Hills for $1,375,000.


--Once listed at $12.9 million, the Llenroc estate in Rexford, New York recently sold for $1.87 million.

Gallery: Llenroc Estate

Today's estate is one of the prettiest I've seen in a while. Astor Courts in Rhinebeck, New York, was designed by architect Stanford White for John Jacob Astor IV. The beautiful Beaux-Arts mansion was completed in 1904 and is on 50 acres. The expansive main living area has five bedrooms and spans over 15,000 square feet. The truly stunning details include the indoor clay tennis court topped with a glass ceiling and framed by Gothic arches and a white marble pool surrounded by arches and graced with a pale sky-blue ceiling.

In 1964 Brooke Astor gave the home to the Catholic Church. The Wall Street Journal's Private Properties reports that the current owners, real-estate developer Arthur Seelbinder and his wife, Kathleen Hammer, a former producer for Oxygen Media, bought the home in 2005 for $3.2 million and spent a fortune restoring it. Stanford White's great-grandson, Sam White led the restoration. Clearly he did a fine job, it's a stunner (even if some of the decor seems a little too Crate and Barrel prefab for a home of this pedigree). The home is listed at $12 million.

Experience more lush living in luxury homes and mansions or see the stars living large with celebrity homes galleries at AOL Real Estate.

When the listing for Brooke Astor's famed New York co-op at 778 Park Avenue hit the market last year it seemed like it would be easily snapped up. After all, the five-bedrom home was considered to be an exceedingly prime New York co-op. But in between expectation and reality yawned an economic crisis that has made even the most choice pricey real estate linger on the market. This apartment hit the market at $46 million in May 2008 and as Max Abelson of the New York Observer reported this week, has now hit a new low, bumping along at $24.9 million, a price cut of $21.1 million.

The home, like Astor herself is a beauty from another era. The co-op's high ceilings, six terraces and five wood-burning fireplaces all invite envy. The home's corner library with gleaming red lacquer walls, a wood-burning fireplace and French doors opening onto two terraces seems redolent of intellect and intrigue. The apartment occupies the 16th and part of the 15th floors of the building which was designed in 1931 by Rosario Candela. A 30-foot gallery has 18th century oak floors and leads to the formal entertaining rooms which include the formal dining room with fireplace. The private quarters include two master bedrooms, one on the 15th floor and one on the 16th floor. The home still retains the service area which consists of a large servants' hall, kitchen and pantry with three maids' rooms and bath. The listing says that this space could be turned into a family room, kitchen, laundry and staff area. With the deep price cut that seems a bit more feasible although the monthly maintenance has increased over the past year. Last year it was at $17,251 and this year it is at $18,458. It's not easy to follow in Mrs. Astor's footsteps.

If you like Brooke Astor's New York City apartment, be prepared to swoon over Holly Hill. The property in Briarcliff Manor, New York is everything you'd expect of Mrs. Astor's country abode. Max Abelson of the New York Observer's Manhattan Transfers recently took the tour with real estate broker David Turner.

The home is on 64.6 acres that include a four-bedroom gardener's cottage, a chauffeur's apartment atop a five-bay carriage house, an ancient pump house, barn with a three-car garage, a small museum, greenhouse, root cellar, pet cemetery, cutting gardens and something called the Love Temple. The land can be subdivided and developed.

The main house is a 1927 stone manor designed by architect William Delano. It has six marble fireplaces and 13 bedrooms, including staff quarters. The home has an elegant marble foyer, 42-foot-long parquet-floored drawing room, a sun room, an indoor pool and a beautiful library. Other rooms include the photograph-covered Memory Room; the Cardinal's Room with telegrams from the Vatican on the wall and of course a huge master suite. This home is listed at $12.9 million.
Experience more lush living in luxury homes and mansions or see the stars living large with celebrity homes galleries at AOL Real Estate.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
--Angela Bassett and Courtney Vance sold their Hancock Park home for $3.8 million to George and Laura Carroll, neighbors who bought the home with the intention of moving George's parents up from San Diego to live in it. The Carrolls' house backs up to this property and they plan to install a gate so no one needs to walk around the block. Laura's mom and dad, Joe and Alice Petrucci already live next door.
--Boris Nizon, president and founder of Fame Pictures, a Santa Monica-based photo agency has put his home on Doheny Drive in Beverly Hills home on the market for $3.495 million. The listing is here.
--A home above the Sunset Strip where both Judy Garland and Sammy Davis Jr. once lived is on the market for $4.995 million. The property website is here.


From Berg Properties Big Time Listings:
--Smashing Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin has sold ahome in Murrieta, Calif. for $420,000.
--Author and comedian Amy Sedaris has paid $1.3 million for a one-bedroom co-op unit in Manhattan's West Village. The listing is here.
--Actor Chris O'Donnell has sold his Colonial-style house in Pacific Palisades which had been on the market for $5.395 million.
--Fashion stylist Rachel Zoe has sold her two-bedroom house in the Hollywood Hills for an undisclosed price after it had been on the market for $2.595 million.
--Tom Arnold has sold his Tarzana home for an undisclosed price after it had been for sale for $2.275 million.
----Kiefer Sutherland has put his loft/music studio building, shown above, in Echo Park on the market. The space is a converted ironworks warehouse that he bought in 2002 for $700,000. Sutherland turned the downstairs into a recording studio and lived upstairs in a three-bedroom space. Now it is listed at $4.895 million. The listing is here and the listing agent is his ex-wife, Kelly Sutherland.

From the Real Estalker:
----Backstreet Boy Nick Carter has put a home in Parkland, Florida on the market for $1.5 million. The listing completely with rather questionable decor, is here.
--Elle Mcpherson has put her home in Ladbroke Gardens, London, UK on the market for £9,500,000.
--Donald Trump's Palm Beach flip went for $95 million rather than the previously reported $100 million.
--Professional house flipper and reality TV star Jeff Lewis and his partner Ryan Brown may have finally sold the house on Valley Oak Drive that is featured on the current season of Bravo's Flipping Out.
--The Jonas Brothers have picked up a large six-bedroom house in Westlake, Texas which was on the market for $.2.895 million.
--Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt were photographed checking out a $12 million house in Malibu.
--Cary Grant's daughter, actress Jennifer Grant has put her beautiful beach home in Santa Monica on the market for $2.195 million. It's relatively small but it is blocks from the beach and she has turned a rather traditional cottage into a home with lofts, high ceilings and modern interior design. Check out the magic at the property website.


From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
--The late Brooke Astor's $46 million duplex at 778 Park Avenue has been taken off the market for the summer for some minor renovations. The listing will return after Labor Day. It was our estate of the day back in May.
--A year ago, nonprofit adoption agency Spence-Chapin sold its headquarters at 4-8 East 94th Street to Richard Mack, a managing partner of his father's multibillion real estate investment group, Apollo Real Estate Advisors for $23 million. Now it's back on the market for $59 million, a full $36 million more than he paid for it. He has gutted the home but not renovated. The listing is here.
--Eugene McQuade, the president and chief operating officer of Freddie Mac paid $3.175 million for a 1,917-square-foot apartment in the Museum Tower on West 53rd Street. There are no mortgage filings along with the deed.
--Last April, venture capitalist Fred Wilson and his wife, Joanne, sold a double-wide West 10th Street townhouse for $33,148,800, the biggest single residential deal ever in downtown. Now they're building a Hudson River wonderland. They spent $16 million on the massive site at 397 West 12th Street last April. The new building will have 10 stories of Roman bricks and oversized steel windows, and only five raw-space apartments. About half of the construction has yet to be completed, but the $5.5 million, 3,613-square-foot second-floor loft, and two 6,166-square-foot duplexes priced at $11.5 and $14 million, went on the market this week with Sotheby's. The 2nd/3rd/4th Floor loft combination of 9,779+/-sq. ft is listed at $17 million. The Wilsons get the four-floor penthouse-6,409 square feet, plus 2,932 of outdoor space-for themselves.
----The biggest NYC real estate story of the summer has been potential $100 million sales at 15 Central Park West, where buyers who closed on their new condos just this year are putting the places back on the market at massive markups but will any of these sales come to pass? It seems unlikely.
--A new listing has opened up at the prized 740 Park co-op. The $38 million listing is for a 16-room, five-bedroom, seven-and-a-half-bathroom duplex. The listing is here.

The listing for the much-talked-about Brooke Astor apartment has hit the market. Mrs. Astor, who died at the age of 105 last year was one of the grand dames of New York society. Her home at 778 Park Avenue is considered to be an exceedingly prime New York co-op. The five-bedroom apartment has high ceilings, six terraces and five wood-burning fireplaces. A reception gallery with a wet bar, leads to a living room with a wood-burning fireplace and views up and down Park Avenue. The famed corner library has gleaming red laquer walls (the Real Estalker Mama chillingly described them as looking as if they are "dripping the blood of the under-privileged"), a wood-burning fireplace and French doors opening onto two terraces. The formal dining room also has a wood-burning fireplace and French doors leading out to a terrace. The kitchen includes a pantry, service hall, and three maid's rooms, a set-up which worked well in Mrs. Astor's days but might now be reconfigured into a large eat-in kitchen and family room for today's owner. There is an additional bedroom that can be used as a maid's room or reconfigured to be a second bedroom with ensuite bath. The private quarters include a sitting room with terrace, a separate powder room, and guest bedroom. At the end of the hall is in a corner room with a lovely wood-burning fireplace, terrace, and views toward Central Park. There are 20 closets. This co-op is listed at $46 million.

Only the very, very wealthy can apply to get into the Rosario-Candela-designed 778 Park Avenue co-op. As Max Abelson of the NY Observer pointed out, any potential owner will have to put 100% down and show more than enough cash to pay the steep monthly maintenance of $17,251.