A Building lobby back in business; Plus! A home here "for serious investors only" and the penthouse keeps getting lower

And I really don't see much difference, though, of course, I've never actually been inside.

Meanwhile, as an FYI, there's a two-bedroom, two-bathroom (plus home office!) still available for $1.5 million. According to the listing:

**FOR SERIOUS INVESTORS ONLY**TENANT IS IN PLACE UNTIL AUGUST 2010 at $6,400.00 per month with a 1 year lease renewal option.

StreetEasy notes this unit was marked down $45,000 last week.

Also, there was an open house yesterday for the $2.1 million penthouse. This unit was reduced by $250,000 (11 percent) on Jan. 14. As Curbed reported, this apartment was bought for $2.05 million in 2008. The price was $2.35 million this past fall. No word on whether the PH will come furnished with that zebra-skin ensemble below...


[Photo via Curbed]

Previously on EV Grieve:
A Building residents forced to use the service entrance (Dec. 7)

Live on St. Mark's Place for only $17,000 per month!

Hey, don't guffaw — you're getting a bargain. This unit was once $25,000!

Anyway, we're at 19 St. Mark's Place between Second Avenue and Third Avenue. The luxury rentals above the mall that includes Red Mango and Chipotle. Yeah, this one.



Have you ever noticed how nice the joint is up high?



That's where this apartment awaits your rent check. And, according to StreetEasy, this apartment first went on the market in October 2008 for $25,000.



Here's the listing:

This unique luxurious 2 br with office or 3 br penthouse is on a private floor (key lock elevator) in a prime East Village location. Spectacular city views grace every room from oversized windows. The living room with a WBFPL and the dining room have glass doors onto their respective large terraces. The windowed kitchen has a breakfast bar and top of the line appliances. The master bedroom has a large spa bath ensuite with a soaking tub and a separate shower and there are two additional bathrooms. This loft like home is brand new with highend finishes and a rare feeling of space, light and privacy. A gourmet market, major transportation and convenient shopping are steps away. Furnished only, flex lease term, pets on a case by case basis.

Of course, this is how it looked a few years back, before it was suburbanized in 2003....(Via Flaming Pablum)



You probably already know the history of this address...well, quickly via New York Songlines:

These buildings built in 1833 became a German musical club, later known as Arlington Hall. The hall was famous for a shootout in 1914 between Dopey Benny Fein's gang and Jack Sirocco's mob; Fein's managing to kill only one elderly bystander spelled the end of the Jewish mob's reign in the neighborhood.

The site became the Polish National Home, known as The Dom, which turned into a popular bar. Later the psychedelic Electric Circus, featuring Andy Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable with the Velvet Underground, Jimi Hendrix, the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Blue Oyster Cult etc.

Here's a shot of Edie Sedgwick and Ray Wisniewski at the Dom from 1966 (Photo by Fred W. McDarrah/Getty Images).



And the exterior from 1966...

A Building lobby renovation update: One month anniversary!

This is how it looked on Dec. 14:



And this is how it looked this past weekend...



Hey, I know that it takes time to renovate a new lobby.

Previously on EV Grieve:
A Building residents forced to use the service entrance (Dec. 7)

$6.95 million gets you a Renwick Triangle Classic (with gold Bisazza mosaic tiles!) on East 10th Street

This six-story beauty at 114 E. 10th St. is now on the market for $6.95 million...(in what some real-estate types like to call "Central Village")...




And here's what you get, per the Sotheby's site...

Having undergone an extensive gut renovation, this home is laid out on 6 floors plus dry basement. Double exposures to the north and south provide an abundance of natural light and delightful views of trees and townhouses. Original features dating back to its 1861 design have been retained and merged with a thoughtful modernization.

The landmarked facade features a brownstone base and exposed brick upper levels. The renovation included major structural work, re-glazing of fireplace flue (3 fireplaces throughout can easily be re-opened), mechanicals, electrical and plumbing systems. The house is equipped with recessed lighting, sound system, central heating/air-conditioning, and video-intercom/security alarm systems. Whether custom oak closets, built-in shelves, gold Bisazza mosaic tiles or polished Calacatta marble, only the finest materials were used for the masterful design of this 6 bedrooms, 4.5 bath classic.

Let's go on inside!



Look on the wall back there on the right, it's Grace Jones...




Will those NYU kids be able to see you sunbathe in the nude and do yoga? (Get your oranges ready...)



Hey, a zebra-skin rug...does this place come furnished?



Related on EV Grieve, sort of:
Your chance to buy two historic townhouses on East 10th Street -- or create Central Village's first single-family mansion!

The East Village expands westward to try to rent this $25,000-a-month mansion

While browing through apartment-for-rent listings for the East Village...this headline popped up:

“SINGLE FAMILY MANSION * BEST LOFT in TOWN * NEW RENOVATION”

And only $25,000 per month! And where is this in the East Village....?




Oh, just over on LaGuardia Place. According to the listing:

Located on the cross roads of SoHo and The Village, just steps from Washington SQ Park and evryhtign [sic] that DOWNTOWN NYC has to offer.

In any event, here's more on the space:

"THE BEST SINGLE FAMILY MANSION is BACK on THE MARKET. This Triplex LOFT has just undergone a meticulous GUT RENOVATION and is ready to go."

"There are currently FOUR bedrooms, a MASSIVE 200 sft LIVING ROOM with ceilings that hit the 30 foot mark, beautifully restored red brick walls, a chef's eat in kitchen that can easily accommodate a table for 6 and so much more. There is a proper dining room, 3 beautifully renovated baths, private laundry and 4 Exposures."

Curious if this is simply a mistake...or, perhaps, someone thinks the East Village may be an easier sell...

Speaking of rooftops: 'Own a piece of history in this boutique condo Penthouse of the historic Kiehl's Building'

I've always been intrigued by the cabin-looking home atop the Kiehls's building on 13th Street and Third Avenue. Here are two photos from a post that Scouting NY did on the house earlier this year...I read somehwere that one of the Coen Brothers used to live here...




Anyway, I came across a listing for 203 E. 13th St. #PH4B. Apparently this one has been on the market for some time. This PH doesn't include the cabin, though you at least have use of part of that rooftoop space...

According to that listing:

Own a very unique penthouse apartment in the Historical Kiehl's Building built in 1851. This astonishing loft like large one bedroom is in pristine condition with soaring 11 ft ceilings and is flooded with sun. This stunning apartment has original exposed brick & enormous brick arched windows all facing south. It comes equipped with a washer/dryer, built in security system and a beautifully renovated kitchen and bath. The spiral staircase leads to your own very private roof garden oasis of over 400 sq ft! Pets are welcome. Come and see for yourself. Own a piece of history in this boutique condo Penthouse of the historic Kiehl's Building now called Pear Tree Place named after the pear tree that once grew just beyond the front door.

This space can be yours for $1.265 million (715 square feet). But that price doesn't include the hellacious views that you'll have of the mystery lot next door!

A Building residents forced to use the service entrance

The lobby of the infamous A Building on 13th Street between Avenue A and First Avenue is finally getting that much needed makeover...



Oh, wait, the building with the rooftop pool and cabanas and hard-partying flip-cup crowd is less than two years old. Hmm. Maybe those Pietra Bedonia stone walls in the lobby needed some buffing?




Oh, and the $2.3 million penthouse is still on the market...there was an open house yesterday on the unit being being flipped for some $300,000 over the original value...

The only free-standing single-family mansion in Manhattan can be yours (for $30 million)

Seems reasonable to me! Considering what you get at 351 Riverside Drive at the northeast corner of 107th Street, the home known as the Schinasi Mansion. According to New York Architecture, the Schinasi mansion was built in 1909 for Morris Schinasi, an immigrant from Turkey who made his fortune introducing Turkish tobacco to the United States. There's plenty of fascinating history about this space.

This is info on the place from Brown Harris Stevens, who featured the pad in their spring-summer 2009 "Important Residential Properties" catalog:

This magnificent mansion, built in 1909 by William Tuthill, the architect who designed Carnegie Hall, is presently the only free-standing single-family mansion in Manhattan. It is an exquisite French Renaissance jewel box executed in pristine white marble, boasting deep green roof tiles and bronze grills on the balconies and at the main entrance. The building is 41' wide and 73' deep, surrounded by private grounds, and located on a corner lot overlooking the Hudson River. The Interior is approximately 12,000 square feet, comprised of four stories plus an English basement. An extraordinary amount of unique original detail has been retained and the mansion has superb views, with luminescent sunlight glass windows. Exterior space is approximately 3,400 square feet. There are numerous fireplaces, a library, and other grand public rooms. Truly a European palazzo.

Among other features (like FIVE kitchens!), the mansion had a tunnel down to the Hudson River for bringing in tobacco. Unfortunately, this has been sealed up. (Or so they claim!)

According to a May 1997 article in the Times:

In 1979, Hans Smit, a law professor at Columbia University, bought the building, and has been working on the restoration for almost two decades. In an interview last month, he said he was now "just a couple of inside doors" short of a complete interior restoration. The new exterior iron doors are among the final touches on the exterior restoration. The outside is presentable, but not pristine. "If I really fix up the outside, the undesirable elements will pay attention" Smit says. "When I bought it, most people said, 'You're a raving maniac.'

But it's the best investment I ever made."

I'll say! After Morris Schinasi died in 1930, the place became a finishing school for girls. According to an April 2007 article in the Times: "By the 1960s, the mansion had been bought by Columbia University as part of a larger land purchase. At different times, its tenants were an Episcopal private school, a publication called the Digest of Soviet Press and a day care center.

"Then in 1979, Dr. Smit noticed the house while biking and bought it from Columbia for $325,000. He has been working on its restoration for nearly three decades."

Also, as the article points out, Smit "has never lived in the house but rents it out for movie shoots, including the Woody Allen film 'Bullets Over Broadway,' and holds pizza parties for his students there. His son, Robert, also a lawyer, has lived in the home since the early 1980s after he graduated from college, sharing it with his two daughters in a much more relaxed style than the original owner."

The New York Sun reported in September 2006 that Smit lived in the house when he wasn't at "his home in upstate New York, or his Chateau in Burgundy, France." By the way, his son is Robert Smit, a partner at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.

Anyway, as far as I can tell, the house, er, mansion, was put on the market for $31 million in 2006. The price was lowered to $20 million. Now, it's back up to $30 million. In 2007, there was reportedly interest in the property by a foundation seeking a headquarters and a British men’s club.

Oh, and there's a video tour here. As your hostess, Felise Gross of Brown Harris Stevens, says in the video, it will be another 100 years before another property like this hits the market. So hurry!

For further reading:
Morris Schinasi and the Manisa Children's Hospital (Turk of America)

People who viewed 351 Riverside Drive also viewed...former William Randolph Hearst mansion in Beverly Hills for $165 million (Yahoo!)

Goldfish in the Flowerbox

The Times has a Home & Garden feature on a young family's home in the Flowerbox building on East Seventh Street between Avenue C and Avenue D.

The feature is titled "A modernist temple."

The photo below includes the caption: "The couple were drawn to the condo's indoor-outdoor feel. A wall of ivy was planted along the interior balcony that overlooks the living area. Directly below the garden is a shallow, 12-foot-long reflecting pool, where goldfish dart just below the surface."



Speaking of this building...in 2007, the triplex penthouse apartment here at 259 E. Seventh St. sold for about $10 million — a neighborhood record.

As the New York Sun reported at the time:

The luxury building, around the corner from Avenue D, is attracting big dollars to a street that most New Yorkers a decade ago would not have considered even for a stroll.

"This is Perry Street, this is 77th Street between Amsterdam and Columbus," the lead broker for Flowerbox, Larry Carty of Warburg Marketing, said. Eight loft units in his building, which started at $1.495 million, sold out in three months. The gigantic Lillian Wald and Jacob Riis housing projects down the block are hardly a liability, according to the broker. "So what? You pay 800 bucks a night at the Maritime Hotel, and you're looking out your window at projects," he said.

"Buyers weren't worried about Avenue D," Mr. Carty said. "If anything, they were saying, ‘Where exactly is that?'"

[Photo: Elizabeth Felicella for The New York Times]

A look at East Village real estate

From this week's real-estate section in the Post:

EAST VILLAGE $430,000

311 E. Third St.

Prewar one-bedroom, one-bath co-op, 500 square feet, with dining room, windowed chef's kitchen with stainless-steel appliances and butcher block, French doors, exposed brick, high ceilings and N/S exposures. Maintenance $284, 12 percent tax-deductible. Asking price $425,000, on market one day. Broker: Anthony Cangemi, Citi Habitats

Sounds nice...on market for one day?

Noted

Since last Thursday, there have been 200 price cuts on properties listed at less than $10 million on Manhattan's Upper East Side or Upper West Side -- a 17% jump from the week before. Deanna Kory, a broker with New York-based Corcoran Group who's handling nearly two-dozen properties priced between $2 million and $10 million, says her showings are down by about 40% in the last two weeks compared to the same time last year. A slew of new buildings set to open in the next year will only increase supply. (Wall Street Journal)