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Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous

By Kim Velsey 11/26/12 1:19pm

Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous

The billionaire's building.

Money and Manipulation: Documentary Takes On the Super-rich Residents of 740 Park

The opening shots of Park Avenue: Money, Power and The American Dream show the famed avenue in all its moneyed glory: idling Mercedes, impeccably coiffed society women and stern limestone facades with white-gloved doormen stationed outside like sentries. It is a vision so lofty that it is almost otherworldly—can the vast majority of Americans even conjure this up as the apex of the American dream, let alone attain it?

It’s a question that director Alex Gibney revisits repeatedly in his documentary about the growing gulf between the rich and poor and how that gulf has been widened by the political manipulations of the country’s wealthiest citizens. Read More

By Kim Velsey 11/19/12 1:30pm

Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous

The distinction between home and professional kitchen is vanishing.

Massive Home Kitchens Increasingly Popular, Just Not For Cooking

Now that foodie culture and the attendant obsession with culinary arcana has become as central to the haute-bourgeois life as private school and master bedroom suites, the kitchen is taking over the house, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Where once there were serviceable stoves and ho-hum microwaves, wine bottle racks and a few good countertops, these days wealthy homeowners are demanding restaurant-quality entertaining spaces with refrigeration rooms, wet bars, islands that double as dinner party seating for 10, fireplaces, flat-screen TVs and multiple seating areas with plush and, one hopes, stain proof furniture. Read More

By Kim Velsey 10/12/12 1:11pm

Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous

The Park Avenue in the South Bronx.

The Two Park Avenues: Promotion of Documentary About Income Inequality Perpetuates Inequality

We received a press release yesterday heralding the release of a new film. It read: “740 Park, the bestseller by Michael Gross, becomes Park Avenue: Money, Power and the American Dream.”

This struck us as odd because we had, in fact, heard about this documentary before, but described in a very different way: the famed building would be used as a foil for Park Avenue in the South Bronx, as a means of discussing income inequality in America. This had seemed to us like a very good idea. Not that we wouldn’t also like to see Michael Gross’s engaging social history become a movie (or an inspired-by Dallas-style TV show that would blow 666 Park and its many real estate inaccuracies out of the water), but that would be a very different movie indeed.

This was, of course, the same movie we had heard about, a movie that is described more accurately and evenhandedly, we discovered through some extensive googling, on the Independent Television Service website. But back to that first release and how its spin got under our skin. Read More

By Kim Velsey 10/01/12 2:00pm

Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous

It's stunning, of course, but is it stunning enough?

Will One57′s Billionaires Butt Heads Over Renovations To Their Brand New Penthouses?

You might think that life would be impossibly pleasant for the set wealthy enough to buy magisterial spreads on the top fifteen floors of One57. But The New York Times reports that a potential storm is brewing on the building’s uppermost floors. Extell is deeply concerned that members of the “billionaire’s club”  will clash with each other as they undertake massive renovations to the yet-to-be finished spaces. Read More

By Kim Velsey 9/04/12 8:00am

Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous

Oaktree Capital's Howard Marks bought his Ritz Carlton pad for $18.8 million in 2007. Now he's asking $50 million. The excuse? A stunning renovation.

Pursuing Perfection, One Massive Renovation At A Time

The paint had scarcely dried at 15 Central Park West before the building’s first residents set to knocking down the walls and stripping out the ultra-luxury condo’s ultra-luxurious finishes. Not that the finishes were lacking—like the layouts, they were widely considered to be exquisite—a stunning marriage of old-fashioned grandeur and modern sensibilities. In fact, ex-Citigroup CEO Sandy Weill thought that architect Robert A.M. Stern had done such a fine job designing the building that he hired him to do a massive renovation on his brand new, $43.7 million penthouse.

In the upper echelons of Manhattan real estate, the pursuit of perfection is as common as Sub-Zero refrigerators and private elevator landings. Haunted by dreams of what could be, owners are forever tearing magnificent properties apart in the hopes of transforming them into even more magnificent properties.

Such dreams often pay off handsomely. To wit, Mr. Weill’s freshly-renovated penthouse was so striking that it fetched $88 million shortly after completion. But of course, it would surprise no one, particularly not Nicholas S.G. Stern, son of A.M. and the owner of boutique construction concern Stern Projects LLC., if the Russian tycoon who bought the celebrated spread started his own renovation any day now. Read More

By Kim Velsey 8/24/12 1:14pm

Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous

The Carlyle: where the costs of the high life are particularly high.

Room Service and Housekeeping Are Awesome, But Are They $455,352 A Year Awesome?

For a lot of people, $455,352 is the kind of money that buys a nice house in the suburbs or a one-bedroom apartment in New York. But for some, it’s just the cost of annual maintenance fees on an apartment at one of the city’s hotel co-ops.

Paramount Pictures chairman Brad Grey drops a half-a-million dollars a year for the maintenance fees on his 3,000-square foot apartment at the Carlyle, The New York Times reports, which charges the city’s highest monthly maintenance fees of $10.23 per square foot. And he had to shell out $15 million to buy the apartment in the first place. Read More

By Kim Velsey 8/10/12 7:47pm

Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous

The view... of the real estate.

Buy a Montauk Airport For Less Than a Hamptons Mansion, Hang Out With Celebrities (Sort Of)

Looking for something on Long Island to spend money on? How about an airport for $18 million? Of course you could buy a mansion with that much money, or a private beach, or a mansion with a private beach and a helipad. But who else has an airport?

The Montauk airport, located on 37 acres on the eastern end of Long Island, is for sale, Crain’s reports. With one small hangar and an office, it’s as quaintly austere as the town it’s located in. This is not the flashy Hamptons airport, after all. Read More

By Kim Velsey 8/07/12 11:27am

Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous

WSJ: You should totally buy the yacht. (RobW_, flickr)

Deep Questions: Should Rich People Buy Yachts?

Of all the worries and existential dilemmas that keep America’s rich and powerful up at night, tossing in their Frette sheets, few are quite so urgent as the decision to buy a yacht.

Indeed, the wealthy elite of the world have grappled with the question of yacht ownership for as long as humans have sailed the seas. There are endless things to consider: Will my young wife like it? Will it help me get a young wife? Is it a bad investment or a good one? Does it matter? Read More

By Kim Velsey 8/03/12 1:45pm

Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous

One Hyde Park: tax bills will be higher.

London Hikes Taxes On Pricey Real Estate Purchases, Panic Ensues (But New York Licks Its Chops)

Besides polo, Ferraris and fine dining, the wealthy elite of the world now have another common cause uniting them—London is slapping a higher stamp duty on properties valued over £2 million (it’s going from 5 to 7 percent). Worse yet, those who use offshore corporations to buy must pay a 15 percent tax bill, reports The New York Times. Read More

By Kim Velsey 6/13/12 3:22pm

Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous

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Did Steve Wynn Buy His $70 M. Ritz-Carlton Duplex for a Hometown Advantage in Casino Competition?

It appears that casino kingpin Steve Wynn did indeed buy   Christopher Jeffries’ dazzling duplex at 50 Central Park South with more in mind than great closet space and Central Park Views.

It looks like he may be angling for a little resident respect when he vies for one of the state’s new casino licenses. And we thought he was still smarting over the loss of his old place at the Plaza! Read More