Harper’s Bazaar’s Valerie Salembier Gets a Bargain at UN Plaza

Chloe Malle — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 17:16:08 -0400

As the magazine industry dies a very slow death, its leaders continue to buy up lovely little Manhattan homes. Condé Nast heir Samuel I. Newhouse IV just bought a $2.5 million Tribeca loft (with "a sensual zen-like" master bedroom), while Vice magazine co-founder Suroosh Alvi paid a tad less for an East Village place (with modern kitchen, backyard and in-floor heating).

And, according to a deed filed Monday, Harper's Bazaar publisher Valerie Salembier bought an apartment at 860 U.N. Plaza. She and her husband, Paul Block, the former president of Revlon, paid $2,550,000.

The couple got a bargain: The apartment was originally listed for $3.1 million, which fell to $2.9 million and then $2.7 million. According to a floor plan, their seven-room apartment has three bedrooms; a library and a living room overlooking the East River; a nice-sized maid's room next-door to the kitchen; and four bathrooms.

Ms. Salembier is not the first classy New Yorker to inhabit the co-op (which is officially called 860/870 U.N. Plaza). Past neighbors include Walter Cronkite, Robert F. Kennedy Sr., Kay Graham, and Truman Capote, who spent his In Cold Blood royalties on a 25th-floor, $62,000 apartment.

cmalle@observer.com, mabelson@observer.com

Observer » Harper’s Bazaar’s Valerie Salembier Gets a Bargain at UN Plaza

Harper’s Bazaar’s Valerie Salembier Gets a Bargain at UN Plaza