$20 M. Brooklyn Townhouse In Backslide

Wed, 08 Feb 2006 08:43:30 -0400

When a Brooklyn Heights townhouse first entered the market last April at $20 million, high-end brokers took notice. Sure, the sale of a $20 million townhouse might take place on Manhattan’s Gold Coast, but not in the outer boroughs.
Now, that same 25-foot mansion, which was later reduced to $16 million, is on the market again. This time, however, there are two new brokers and a more competitive price: $14.5 million.

“When it first came on, because the owners had spent a fortune on the renovation, they came up with $20 million,” said broker Deanna Kory, who is listing the property with her colleague Karen Kelley, both of the Corcoran Group. But now, Ms. Kory believes, the “pristine, extraordinarily redesigned home” is priced to sell in today’s luxury market.
The 8,000-square-foot mansion includes an eat-in kitchen, a living room with floor-to-ceiling windows, a media room with a skylight, and a wrought-iron terrace. The property also features an English garden.
Owned by Peter A. Murin and Robin Jaffe Murin, the five-story townhouse is located at 140 Columbia Heights, not far from the address of Brooklyn’s current record-breaking townhouse sale, 212 Columbia Heights. (That residence sold for $8.5 million in late 2004.)
And if they get their asking price, the sellers will turn a nice profit. In 1999, they purchased the grand home for just $2 million from Brooklyn’s Polytechnic University.
After buying the home, they traveled to Europe with an architect to complete a massive renovation. Now, the townhouse features imported marble mantels, plaster moldings, and custom woodwork and flooring.
“It’s quite an extraordinary house,” said Ms. Kory, who plans to start showing it very soon. “They wanted someone who had the ability to draw Manhattan brokers out.”
Hopefully, the reduced asking price will draw some brokers--accompanied by deep-pocketed buyers--across the East River.

- Michael Calderone

Observer » $20 M. Brooklyn Townhouse In Backslide

$20 M. Brooklyn Townhouse In Backslide