77 Reade Street could be called the Jekel and Hyde of Tribeca. One half of the new condo development is an 1852 cast-iron and brick loft building, of the vintage that have been converted into sprawling homes for decades now. The other side is all sleek limestone and hard edges, a nod to the past that is very much rooted in the present, the work of well-regarded New York firm BKSK.
The development came on the market last June, and its first unit has just closed, a combination of two penthouses for $6.54 million. The two duplex units, one of them a two-bedroom, the other a three, straddle both the original building and its centuries-younger sibling, giving this new home a split personality.
As with so many of these newfangled condos, there are quite a few penthouses, five in this case, A through E, in a range of sizes and configurations. All are either duplexes or triplexes. In the case of this combination, which was purchased anonymous, the 2,551-square-foot penthouse E, at the southwest corner in the old building, came along with the smaller and straighter 1,647-square-foot penthouse D. They cost $4.42 million and $2.805 million, respectively, meaning the five bedroom, four and two half baths home came at a 9 percent discount from the $7.225 million ask.
“PENTHOUSE D at 1600+ square feet and 290 square feet of PRIVATE TERRACE is the penthouse that can never be found as it has all the beauty and private terracing of its larger neighbors, at a surprisingly attractive price,” Corcoran’s Barrie Mandel wrote in his listing. It was a price so attractive, the buyer could not resist it along with its neighbor, which Ms. Mandel describes as “PENTHOUSE E (for excellent) is a BEAUTY.”
Both units feature terrace, which when combined will measure a full 705 square feet of private outdoor space overlooking one of the gorgeous stretch of Manhatta, Chambers Street. All the penthouses are configured with entertaining space upstairs and bedrooms below—penthouse D even features one of those adorable windowless rooms common to so many lofts and now sold as studies. Just don’t call it a nursery if the Department of Buildings comes knocking.
Perhaps the new owners will leave the units separate, and they can choose the one that fits their mood on the appropriate day.
Correction: An earlier version of this article misspelled Ms. Mandel’s surname as Barry. The Observer regrets the error.
