Amazing and amazingly dull, all at the same time.

Time Warner is not the only big fish cashing out on Columbus Circle. The Lincoln Square mega-development is also losing David Kwok Po Li, the CEO and chairman of Bank of East Asia and former Hong Kong politician, who has just sold his 72nd-floor condo. (Related honcho Kenneth Himmel also cleared out late last year.)

Nor is he the only one who stands to profit from the decision. While Time Warner is contemplating how much it could make by clearing out of its headquarters, a process that might well set off a bidding war, Mr. Li did very, very well, doubling his money in under a decade.

An $18.8 million view.

The Hong Kong honcho bought the 3,491-square-foot condo back in 2004 as Harbour-Land Enterprises Limited, paying $9.68 million. Now, he's sold the four-bedroom, 4.5-bath spread for an astounding $18.8 million, according to city records.

That Mr. Li agreed to buy the duplex (with an internal elevator, to journey between just two floors) in the days immediately following September 11, 2001, when living in twin towers was a palm-sweat inducing proposition, may have helped him lock in a good price. And he wasn't shy about trying to get a much, much better one when he sold. He listed the apartment in May for $20 million with Corcoran brokers Carrie Chiang and Janet Wong.

The mysterious buyer is AEH Jay Corp, care of a Rockefeller Plaza law firm. Whoever he, she or they are, AEH will enjoy "stunning Central Park views" from every room, according to the listing, and luxurious amenities as impeccable and inscrutable as a foreign banker.

Whoever AEH is, do stainless steel kitchen appliances made by Sub-Zero and Miele make their hearts leap as much as a shift in currency exchange rates? Or are these features simply the basic accoutrements of the cash-coddled life for a Time Warner Center-buying corporation? A life where one does not have to so much as share a master bathroom with his or her partner (the suite has two).

When it comes right down to it, why share the suite, or even the apartment at all? We predict that the next trend in luxury real estate will be his and her apartments.

Perhaps one of her smelly brood is finally leaving the hutch. The name on the deed is a trust in Ms. Iovine's name, suggesting it might be for one of her four grown children. The high-floor, three-bedroom place in Sutton Place, not far from some Murray Hill mayhem, does seem well-suited for a young trust-funder. The sellers are Time Inc. in-house counsel Nicholas Jollymore and pyschiatrist Marylene Cloitre.

The Berkeley and Cambridge grad (neither of which, we quibble, technically qualified her for that Ivy League cover) clearly has some real estate savvy. The place was originally listed by Douglas Elliman broker Karen Connolly for $2.2 million, but she got it for a mere $1.725 million. 

According to her vitals from the September '79 issue, Iovine hates being asked what her sign is and once dreamed of taking over Playboy Enterprise. Still, she seems to have done pretty well for herself.

--John Waller III, founder of the eponymous and ubiquitious boutique investment bank, has sold his $6.9 million co-op at tony 66 East 79th Street. The four-bedroom pre-war place with a 28-foot living room is actually modest by the standards of the building, where a place two floors up just sold for $20 million. The buyers are Russell and Julia Shepard.

--A former Goldman Sachs partner has bought a $8 million spot at 15 West 63rd Street. The three-bedroom features African mahogany, according to the Corcoran listing with Carrie Chiang and Janet Wang. David Mastrocola has bought the place from Yu Chun Yeung-Ho and Stephen Takip Yeung.

--Guggenheim partners Juan Ball and Pablo Stalman have sold their $3.9 million spread at 111 East 56th Street. The unit was unlisted, and has gone to Forsitia LLC.

--Morgan Stanley VP Tie Wei and Sloane Kettering phyisician Jingbo Zhang have bought a $2.64 million place at the Azure, at 333 East 91st Street. The place doesn't appear to have been listed and the seller is an LLC.

lkusisto@observer.com

What I miss much more are the real estate brokers themselves, especially the few at the top. They were eloquent, acrobatic, cruel, connected, imaginative, well bred and ill-mannered, sometimes all in the same afternoon.

There were all kinds. Kirk Henckels was a good-natured equestrian who always wore a bow tie. Carrie Chiang was a competitive ballroom dancer. John Burger liked talking on the phone about the subtleties of Park Avenue co-op design, even if he was poolside in the Hamptons.

Dolly Lenz was the genius power broker who explained over lunch at the Four Seasons that she doesn’t have tirades; she just cuts people out of her life. After I wrote a story that described how the recession had made her into a mere mortal, she stopped talking to me.

A. Laurance Kaiser IV, whose father died after leaving his Park Avenue club and stepping into a pothole, sold a single duplex at 834 Fifth Avenue four times—first for $225,000; then to John DeLorean; then to Reginald Lewis, the first African-American allowed into a so-called Good Building; then to Carl Icahn’s old chief investor, who paid $33,444,500.

“They lie, the brokers—they lie to brokers, they lie to clients. There’s lying. Lying,” Linda Stein, probably the first New York celebrity real estate agent, told me in the spring of 2007. “There is no high except the money, which is extremely taxable.” She was found murdered by her assistant that October.

And Edward Lee Cave was the pristinely genteel agent whose eponymous brokerage was taken over last year by Brown Harris Stevens. “When I first started, all the doormen had white gloves,” he sighed then. “And they don’t anymore. It’s called change.”

The penthouse at 610 Park Avenue, a deluxe white-glove condo converted by Donald Trump, is a duplex gem hovering in the Upper East Side sky. The five-bedroom apartment, which features "one of the most beautiful private terraces in New York City," is currently listed as a $75,000-per-month rental through Corcoran's Carrie Chiang and Janet Wang. However, according to two sources who have seen the price tag, one of whom is familiar with the building as well, the penthouse is also quietly asking $34.8 million.

There was a time in Manhattan ultra-luxury where that was veritable chump change. As The Observer's Max Abelson noted last year, by late 2008, there were at least 10 properties listed for at least $45 million each (though by June 2009, half were off the market without a sale, and only one had sold). Still, this $34 million quiet listing for the 610 Park penthouse makes it one of 2010's most expensive asking prices and as formidable a barometer as any as to where the ultra-luxury market could go.

Plus, for the 16-story building, it's a bit of a coup. "It is the first time the penthouse apartment has been on the market since Trump's conversion," one of the sources said.

And quite a conversion it was. Mr. Trump bought the 450-room Mayfair Hotel for $15 million in 1998, two recessions ago. He then enlisted his Sancho Panza, dogged architect Costas Kondylis, to design the renovation. "It was a famous hotel with European people who didn't like new things, but it needed to be upgraded," the lovely Mr. Kondylis told The Observer on Tuesday. "We were looking to renovate it as a five- or six-star hotel but the renovation cost prohibited it, so we made it condominiums instead."

The Corcoran listing for the penthouse promises "7,700 square feet of gracious living and entertaining spaces and 1,500 square feet of enchanting roof terrace." Not to mention the walk-in butler's pantry and glorious solarium-just add the ballroom and Colonel Mustard and you could play Clue!

If you dared. "The entrance used to be at 65th Street, but it was more prestigious to have a Park Avenue address so they moved the entrance around to the other side of the building," Mr. Kondylis said. "We also worked with the Landmarks Commission to put windows in on the south-facing wall" adding a lot of light to the condominiums.

With full-city views from north, south and west exposures, a wood-burning fireplace, marble floors and Daniel Boulud's eponymous restaurant on the ground floor, it's easy to see this offering as its listing does: a "once in a lifetime opportunity." Though the broker behind it, Ms. Chiang, hung up on The Observer on Tuesday.

cmalle@observer.com

The mansion’s broker, both sources said, is Corcoran’s Carrie Chiang. “I don’t know. I don’t know anything about it. I don’t know anything about it,” she said. “I don’t know anything about it, O.K.?” She wouldn’t confirm or deny the $37 million asking price, which, even if it was met in full, would mean a $5.5 million loss. “Whatever you want,” said Ms. Chiang, one of the top-grossing real estate agents in the country. “I don’t know anything about it. I don’t know anything about it. I don’t know anything about it. O.K.? Bye.” She hung up.

Until last summer, the house belonged to the estate of renowned art dealer Daniel Wildenstein. For years, he shared it with his two sons and their families, including daughter-in-law Jocelyn Wildenstein, the Cubism-faced socialite. (She once found a 19-year-old there with her toweled husband, who reacted by pulling out a pistol.)

The townhouse hadn’t been on the market when it sold last year, which made the sale a big surprise. As The Observer reported then, the $42.5 million deed was signed by Tricia Novak Canzeri, whose late husband, Joseph Canzeri, had been Ronald Reagan’s and Nelson Rockefeller’s advance man.

Her address was listed on the deed as care of Christopher Ely, Brooke Astor’s butler. The tied-up Astor family was almost certainly not involved with the deal, but it wasn’t clear if Ms. Novak Canzeri, who, according to court records, has worked for clients like Saudi princes, was representing someone. The house could simply be hers: Her 1984 honeymoon, after all, reportedly included Athens, Cairo, Israel, Turkey, Switzerland, Amsterdam, Frankfort, Delhi, Kashmir, Nepal, Bombay, Bangkok, Taipei, Hawaii and Los Angeles. And according to a 2,626-word Washington Post profile of her Georgetown house, she yearned for “the bright lights and action of Manhattan.”

Just after last summer’s sale, brokers said that $42.5 million was a relative bargain, at least compared to the $50 million that oil magnate Len Blavatnik had paid for the house’s next-door neighbor. But the deal turned out to be one of the last before the economic collapse, and the New York City mansion market, like everything else, has suffered.

The Harkness Mansion, the most expensive townhouse ever sold in New York, reportedly became quietly available earlier this year for $49.95 million, $3.05 million less than it had cost. Somehow, losing money on big-ticket real estate has become ordinary.

“This,” the boutique broker Barbara Fox said this summer, “is real life now.”

mabelson@observer.com

Another former Bear Stearns executive won't be as lucky.

According to a Corcoran listing, Jeff Urwin, who had been co-head of investment banking at Bear Stearns (and a member of the firm's management committee), has cut the price of his townhouse from $32,750,000 to $26 million. The 21-foot-wide mansion, that listing says, has a 35-foot-long music room; a garden and two terraces; "indulgent" and "top-of-the-line" kitchen appliances; a master bedroom suite "with his-and-her baths and dressing areas" (with custom cabinetry); and a basement that's "a haven for exercise and relaxation."

Nevertheless, the listing has apparently had a bumpy ride. According to StreetEasy, it was listed in mid-February, taken off the market that month, put back on in March, taken off again in May, but re-listed that same month.

Mr. Urwin, who was hired by JPMorgan after Bear's fall (and given the title Head of Investment Banking Coverage in the Americas), did not return a message left at his office. Last week, a source from his new firm complained on the blog Dealbreaker about "all of these bullshit systems and internal bureaucracy" Mr. Urwin has set up there.

Other Bear veterans are having real estate troubles, too. Mark Goldstein, a leveraged finance banker who became the co-head of Bear's European investment banking in 2007, is still asking $12 million for his 1000 Park Avenue sprawl, even though it's been on the market since the autumn. Earlier this year, Bear Stearns' ex-COO Alvin Einbender, who bestowed the nickname Ace on his old college roommate Alan Greenberg, cut his $30 million, barrel-vaulted, four-bedroom, 6,600-square-foot apartment in the Police Building to $26 million. "Just, you know," he said then, "you live in a world that’s not static. And you re-evaluate your position, frequently, as I always have."

mabelson@observer.com

That's the story with New York's most outstandingly lush real estate. Of the 10 properties that were asking over $45 million late last year, half are off the market without a sale, and only one has sold. But that listing, a Time Warner Center penthouse where the master bedroom suite has an office, his-and-her dressing rooms, his-and-her bathrooms, and a gym, sold for $37.5 million. Its original tag was $65 million.

And only two of the 10, the Mark's $60 million penthouse and the art collector Aby Rosen's $75 million mansion at 22 East 71st Street, haven't had price cuts. They're both suspended in their own worlds of tremendous splendor: "If it sells this year, it will sell this year; if not, it will sell next year," Mr. Rosen has said.

The Sloane Mansion on East 68th Street, which had been the most expensive townhouse on the market until Mr. Rosen's townhouse came along, was pulled from the market last week. Listing broker Paula Del Nunzio, whose tag came down from $64 million to $54 million, said the house's owners wanted to consider their options. At least one brokerage database showed Tuesday that mega-agent Dolly Lenz had apparently gotten the listing (at the same price), but a spokesperson for the house's owners said there is no current exclusive. Ms. Lenz didn't return messages.

But it would be odd if the townhouse's $54 million tag didn't come down. In January, the tag for the 14-room penthouse at 1020 Fifth Avenue was lowered from $46.5 million to $39 million, even though it had come on the market two years ago for $50 million. The same month, broker Carrie Chiang cut the price of art dealer Guy Wildenstein¹s multi-unit sprawl at the Plaza from $46.5 million to $42.4 million.

Those units are now only available separately. "How many people are buying 8,000-square-foot apartments, all cash, and are willing to undertake the work?" Loy Carlos, an associate of Ms. Chiang's, explained this week. A small unit is in contract to sell for somewhere between $4.4 million and $4.9 million, he said, which would be hundreds of thousands of dollars less than it cost. And Mr. Wildenstein's biggest unit, formerly the Plaza's Frank Lloyd Wright Suite, is asking over $3.5 million less than the $21,533,297 he paid for it.

But at least it¹s still on the market. Last year, Ms. Chiang listed the real estate heir Richard Mack's 24,463-square-foot mansion at 4-8 East 94th Street for $59 million, which came down to $42 million in March. Records show that the house was taken off the market in June, though Mr. Carlos said Monday it would only be temporary.

That house¹s original asking price was modest compared to the $90 million (or $15,332 per square foot) that a biomedical venture capitalist was asking last year for the 15 Central Park West duplex that he had bought for only $30 million. In April, The Observer reported that the apartment had been rented out for $75,000 per month, which means it would take 100 years for the owner to get the price he once wanted.

That condo was an unofficial listing, like the philanthropist Courtney Sale Ross' duplex at 740 Park Avenue, a sprawl built from a 14-room and an 18-room apartment. Edward Lee Cave, the monogram-shirted broker who had let it be known last year that the co-op was quietly asking at least $60 million, said Monday that it isn't being shown. "I must tell you, I have not had someone for it," Mr. Cave explained. "There hasn't been any activity over the last few months."

mabelson@observer.com

It's hard out there for luxury watch moguls with luxury Park Avenue townhouses. Benny Shabtai, the Raymond Weil executive, first put his 13-room townhouse at 870 Park Avenue on the market back in February 2004, only four years after he had bought it for $8.2 million. His asking price with Corcoran's Carrie Chiang was $23 million.

Even though the house didn't sell when the price went to $21 million and then $19.9 million, it was relisted with Paula Del Nunzio for $33 million last year. She told The Observer then that the house's value had been boosted by the mammoth success of 15 Central Park West, which was designed by Robert A. M. Stern, who once worked on the house: "Anything you do that’s so famous and so well received," she said, "makes everything you did wonderful." Her listing put Mr. Stern’s name in its subtitle, but didn't mention that he had worked on the place (a "futuristic beach house") in 1976, and that after it suffered a fire in 1992, the interior was rebuilt by Donald Trump's friend Costas Kondylis.

According to Ms. Chiang, she was consulted by Mr. Shabtai’s wife about the listing last year, but the broker said she didn't want it if the tag was over $30 million. Indeed, after Ms. Del Nunzio's price came down to $26.75 million, the house dropped off the market and was relisted with Ms. Chiang. The new price was $19.95 million.

This week, according to her Web site, that tag came down to $17.5 million, nearly half its highest price.

According to her listing, Mr. Shabtai's master bedroom suite has a gas fireplace, a 28-foot-long dressing room and a spa bathroom (though there are also approved plans for an 1,100-square-foot roof garden with a hot tub). On the downside, there's also a tenant in the townhouse's office space whose $9,223-per-month lease runs until the end of next year.

mabelson@observer.com

Consider Ramesh Singh, an executive at the huge Swiss-based bank UBS, who now has two huge Park Avenue apartments on the market—both listed at enormous discounts.

He’s spent years as the global head of mortgage-backed securities, the financial instrument that has more or less strangled the economy. Last month, after serious mortgage-related losses, UBS agreed to a multibillion-dollar government bailout.

In June, Mr. Singh and his wife, Farida Khan, reportedly paid $20 million for a 15-room, 7,234-square-foot duplex at 823 Park Avenue, a century-old building freshly remade into luxury condos. They had signed their contract in April 2007; and around that time they listed their old co-op on Park Avenue, a 4,225-square-foot sprawl at 860 Park, with Brown Harris Stevens’ Kathy Sloane. They asked $13.4 million, about twice what they themselves had paid in 2004 (when they sold off yet another Park Avenue co-op—a duplex at 941 Park).

This February the price tag at 860 Park went down to $12.75 million; a month later it was cut to $11.95 million; by this May the co-op cost $10,995,000; by the end of July it was off the market. Early last month, it came back on the market with Corcoran’s Carrie Chiang, asking just $9.5 million. It still hasn’t sold.

Meanwhile, in August, Mr. Singh put his new 15-room duplex at 823 Park Avenue on the market with Brown Harris Stevens’ Shirley A. Mueller and Paula Del Nunzio, asking $24.75 million. Floor plans show eight bedrooms; a bedroom-size reception room; a foyer; a gallery; a kitchen plus an “entertaining kitchen”; a terrace off the master bedroom suite; a massive living room; a library; and a dining room.

August’s $24.75 million asking price became $21.75 million in October. Then, last week, an amazing thing happened: The asking price came down to $19.95 million, less than what Mr. Singh and his wife paid just a few months ago.

It’s hard to imagine the place won’t sell soon, especially considering that they did work there—like extending the library’s mahogany paneling to the ceiling, according to the listing, or adding “‘art lifts’ so that a work of art drops to reveal a large flat-screen television.”

No brokers involved would comment for this story, and Mr. Singh did not return e-mails, but it’s likely that his plan is to live in the apartment that doesn’t sell.

mabelson@observer.com

Emery Roth, who designed iconic buildings like the Beresford and the San Remo, also designed 1200 Fifth Avenue, which is presently being converted into condominiums.

From the 11th-floor sales office at 1200 Fifth, it is impossible to miss the brick and terra-cotta façades of the twin-towered San Remo, standing triumphantly across Central Park.

One of the Corcoran Group’s top brokers is trying to change a common perception.

“Ninety-sixth Street now is really booming,” said Carrie Chiang, a senior vice president. “Now, this area is starting to gentrify.”

Long utilized as a rental building, 1200 Fifth is located in the comparatively less august surroundings near Mount Sinai Hospital, between 101st and 102nd streets. For three decades, Mount Sinai owned the building, before selling to a group of investors for $61 million in July 2004.

In marketing 1200 Fifth, the Corcoran Group has some major advantages. Located on Museum Mile, the condominium is close to several renowned cultural institutions as well as the Central Park Conservancy.

Ms. Chiang and Corcoran seem to be banking on a serious Upper East Side frame shift.

At 1200 Fifth, studios start at around $767,000, with two- and three-bedroom apartments costing between $1.4 million and $4.7 million. Five- and six-bedroom apartments range from about $5.5 million to $6.6 million.

But then there’s the penthouse: a 10-room spread that is currently asking $14.5 million. That’s almost $2,800 a square foot, and for some high-end brokers, that’s a hefty price for living space above the East 90’s.

For the sake of comparison, there is currently a 10-room penthouse available at 1165 Fifth Avenue, listed with Kathleen Sloane of Brown Harris Stevens. Although a co-op apartment, the prices are in the same ballpark. The asking price: $15.2 million.

“There’s a big difference between 97th Street and 101st,” said Laurance Kaiser IV, president of Key-Ventures Realty.

But according to Ms. Chiang, as many as 60 people have attended open houses on each of the last two weekends. To date, over a third of the 33 available units have already sold.

Certainly, there are some buyers that are expected to desire this location. Mount Sinai doctors in search of a pied-à-terre, for instance.

Also, neighbors slightly to the south may take the opportunity to relocate to a bigger space that’s more affordable than, say, the East 70’s or 80’s.

“It’s a very nice part of Central Park,” said George van der Ploeg of Prudential Douglas Elliman, who thinks “there is a good market for small apartments up there.”

In marketing the property, Ms. Chiang tries to make lemonade out of location. Fifth Avenue is the “easiest place to pick up a taxi in the morning” for anyone not willing to trek to 102nd and Lexington Avenue to catch the No. 6 train.

And what about safety concerns?

“As far as Mount Sinai, I have friends that have lived next-door,” said Ms. Chiang. “It is the safest area, [with] 24-hour surveillance.”

Over at the sales office, senior vice president Ralph Krueger provides tours to brokers and buyers of the model apartment—a “classic six” that is asking $3.7 million.

“Whenever possible, we’ve retained elements from the original construction,” said Mr. Krueger, who is well versed in the prewar intricacies of an Emery Roth building.

Although they tried to keep the original layouts and features—including preserving the original floors and mantelpieces, in many instances—there were plenty of modern renovations needed. The sponsors have installed new windows, high-speed Internet capabilities and landscaping, and they’ve upgraded the heating and cooling services. (Even the rent-controlled tenants who remain from the days when Mount Sinai’s owned the place have received the same improvements).

“We anticipate there will be only 10 or 11 [rent-controlled tenants] that stay,” said Ms. Chiang, who mentioned that they have an option to purchase their apartments by June 30. (Occupancy for new tenants should begin by Thanksgiving.)

The building will also include a private fitness center, individual storage, a refurbished lobby, a 24-hour concierge, and appliances throughout by Wolf, Miele and Sub-Zero.

Of course there are superb park views, and the exposure facing the hospital’s I.M. Pei–designed Guggenheim Pavilion receives plenty of light due to the building’s triangular shape.

So will high-end buyers help change the one-time demarcations of wealth on Fifth Avenue?

“There are some lovely buildings up there,” said Kirk Henckels, of Stribling and Associates. “It’s just another sign of pushing geographic limits.”

LA in Sag

Even though spring is just kicking in, summer can’t get here fast enough for music mogul Antonio (LA) Reid.

Recently, Mr. Reid closed (very quietly) on a $10 million home in Sagaponack, according to public records.

For Mr. Reid, it was the end of a lengthy search—the music executive had checked out several luxurious residences throughout the Hamptons, according to one East End broker. Surprisingly, Mr. Reid eventually settled on a spacious house that was being discreetly offered only through broker Diane Saatchi of the Corcoran Group. (Ms. Saatchi declined to comment).

Instead of going through excessive promotion—which might have brought in a higher bid—the owner was content to sell after the music executive presented him with an enticing offer.

Now, Mr. Reid has a recently renovated, 7,000-square-foot home just north of Bridge Lane. The two-story home includes six bedrooms, five full baths, an attached garage and tennis courts. Extending to roughly 3.27 acres, the property has an ideal feature for lazy summer living: a sparkling pond.

And with several acres to call his own, Mr. Reid can play his music loudly, perhaps blaring some of those talented musicians that he helped make full-fledged stars, including Usher, Pink, Outkast and Avril Lavigne. Formerly the C.E.O. of Arista Records, Mr. Reid is currently the chairman of Island Def Jam Music Group, where he famously hired rap impresario Jay-Z to work as Def Jam president.

But Mr. Reid’s wheeling and dealing hasn’t been confined to the Billboard charts. A few years ago, he made real-estate news after buying a condo at tony 515 Park Avenue, where other notable tenants have included New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, French billionaire François Pinault and ousted Vivendi Universal chairman Jean-Marie Messier.

Christine Saar, of Brown Harris Stevens, represented the buyer. Mr. Reid didn’t return calls for comment.

London Terrace Calling

Even though gallery owner Paula Cooper and her husband, book publisher Jack Macrae, have recently sold their Chelsea home for $6.05 million, the couple has no plans to abandon the neighborhood.

For almost 19 years, the couple has owned a West 21st Street townhouse just a few blocks from Ms. Cooper’s gallery, which is located further west on the same street. (Not to mention that Mr. Macrae owns 192 Books, a highbrow shop on 10th Avenue that’s a typical stop for the Saturday-afternoon gallery crowd.)

But last summer, the couple decided to trade townhouse living for the storied co-op nearby. Reportedly, they dropped close to $5 million on two London Terrace penthouses that belonged to photographer Annie Leibovitz.

Around the same time, the couple put their West 21st Street townhouse on the market for $7.995 million, a co-exclusive between Corcoran Group brokers Sara Gelbard and Meredith Hatfield and Jan Hashey, of Prudential Douglas Elliman.

By November, they had cut the price to a more market-friendly $5.995 million. The $2 million haircut seems to have done the trick, and a contract was signed in January 2006. The deal closed two months later for slightly above the asking price, according to deed-transfer records.

The five-story, 25-foot-wide townhouse is currently configured as three residential units, including a large, duplex apartment that housed the art-loving couple.

Ms. Cooper didn’t return calls for comment.

Carriage House Sweepstakes

In the West Village, one of the priciest townhouses ever has recently hit the luxury market: Stylish financier Enrico Marone-Cinzano is asking $19.5 million for his 24-foot-wide carriage house.

Of course, Mr. Marone-Cinzano is not only a patron of the arts, but also serves as financial backer for the clothing company Project Alabama—found on the racks of chic shops like Bergdorf Goodman’s and Jeffrey New York. And the previous owner similarly shared an artistic temperament.

Built in 1833, the Beaux-Arts façade includes “carved medallions by the renowned American sculptor, Charles Keck,” who spent almost six decades in the townhouse, which sits adjacent to several 19th-century mansions.

“It’s like you’re outside a little palazzo in Tuscany,” said listing broker Paula Del Nunzio, of Brown Harris Stevens. Dubbed the “Bacchus House” after the Roman god of wine, the owner’s tastes defined this unique residence, said Ms. Del Nunzio—which even includes bamboo trees growing inside.

But you get a lot more than bamboo in this 8,500-square-foot home, located on leafy West 10th Street. There are five to six bedrooms, five and a half bathrooms, a vast entertaining space, an eat-in chef’s kitchen and a living room that can be transformed into a private theater. There are also several wood-burning fireplaces and even a 40-foot interior atrium with a glazed skylight.

“The person who likes it will notice the light immediately,” said Ms. Del Nunzio. “It’s just an amazing property.”

A co-exclusive, the property was also listed with Michael Pellegrino of Sotheby’s International Realty.