Sofia Coppola's condo: No longer a starring in the director's life

It is not Versailles, certainly, but Sofia Coppola's two-bedroom condo at 161 Grand Street is lovely. Just not lovely enough to keep the Marie Antoinette director interested.

Ms. Coppola has sold her "sun-drenched" corner loft for the $2.75 million ask, according to city records. Margaret Challa is the buyer of this roomy, high-ceilinged space.

The condo offers big windows that look out at the Manhattan skyline from the sixth floor—perfect for gazing out at the city in moody reverie.

There's also a state-of-the-art kitchen, custom closets and a luxurious master bath with lots of marble and a soaking tub, according to the listing held by Corcoran brokers Carter Wilcox and Chris Poore.

It goes without saying that the luxurious loft sold quickly (only 37 days on the market). It does, after all, have the kind of muted beauty that Ms. Coppola is known for cultivating.

kvelsey@observer.com

Best to start saving, just in case. (Tax Credits, flickr)

Time. We really have so little of it. Just a few years ago it seemed like condo and co-op owners had all the time in the world with their beloved tax abatement and now it's expiring.

There are plenty of abatements out there, of course—ones for new construction and capital improvements, senior citizens and veterans, but this one is special. This is the one that gives a generous 17.5 percent property tax reduction to just about all co-op and condo owners. And it's going to die on June 30 if an extension doesn't come along to save it.

The situation has looked bad before, of course. The abatement, first passed in 1996 to help offset the disparity between the tax rates of co-op and condos versus one- to three-family houses, has required several renewals. Still, have things ever been this dire?

"I don't think that it's ever been this down to the wire," said Eva Talel, an attorney at Strook & Strook & Lavan who specializes in real estate law.

It's been a pretty sweet abatement. Owners can get the abatement on up to three apartments in the same building and none of them have to be a primary residence. There's also no cap on the assessed value of a property.

Several bills are pending in the state legislature to extend the abatement, so not all hope is lost, and two of them would extend the current policies through 2016. The third, sponsored by the city, would only extend the current policy for one year before instituting a much less generous one.

The tax abatement costs the city hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue. Maybe the city's being greedy here, as the Real Estate Board of New York loves to point out, real estate taxes are the largest single source of revenue for the city. But the cash cow could be producing a lot more milk.

Under the city's new guidelines, the unit receiving the abatement would have to be a primary residence, ruling out investor properties and pied-a-terres. It would also restrict the benefits to the first $100,00 in assessed value, according to Ms. Talel, which makes a pretty huge difference in tax savings for most New York apartments.

"The impact would be felt the most in Manhattan," Ms. Talel said. "The assessed valuation for buildings are getting higher and higher. The combination of that and capping the benefit at $100,00 per unit will have a very serious impact and result in a big tax increase for co-ops and condos."

Ms. Talel said there is confidence in the real estate community that at least one of the bills will pass before the new fiscal year starts July 1. Will the wait cool New Yorkers' recent ardor for buying rather than renting? Probably not. When it comes to real estate in New York, the choices are basically expensive and more expensive.

Still, even an extension does pass, the real problem remains: the tax code is unfair, and while the abatement may address disparities between two categories of property owners, the people who are left to bear the brunt of the city's real estate tax bills don't own property at all—they're renters.

Multi-unit apartment buildings pay the high rate without the benefit of abatements, a cost that is passed on to renters, according to a report NYU's Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy that was released this spring.

The tax code "effectively requires renters to subsidize owners, even though the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the two groups suggest that renters already are having a harder time meeting their housing costs," according to the report.

Ok. We admit that rewriting the tax code sounds miserable. But wouldn't it be better than abatements and special programs and incentives and favors to different constituencies? New York is a city of renters, many of whom live in multi-unit buildings, so why keep tax codes that privilege owners of single-family homes?

kvelsey@observer.com

Sophie Auster, Hudson Square dweller, emerging musician (Patrick McMullen)

Most 24-year-old New Yorkers are putting up with the indignity of shared bathrooms and subdivided living spaces converted into pseudo-bedrooms with pressurized walls.

But not Sophie Auster, whose lit-star dad Paul bought her a one-bedroom condo when she was a senior at Sarah Lawrence.

During an extended tour of Ms. Auster' amazing condo, the budding chanteuse reveals to the Post that daddy dearest, who lives in a regal Park Slope brownstone, had considered purchasing a Paris pied-a-terre. But when the economy began to hiccup in 2008, Mr. Auster dropped the idea of a pad in the city that fostered his early literary life, opting instead to buy his daughter a place in Hudson Square.

"They thought, well, if we’re going to invest money in some place, we might as well invest it in a place for our child to live while she is trying to do what she wants to do,” Ms. Auster told the Post.

Not that she was initially all that grateful for the $975,000 gift, even if it did come with Brazilian Wenge wood floors and a kitchen with custom concrete counters. During her senior year, it was a huge pain to commute to Bronxville to finish her remaining college requirements.

"I had a 9 a.m. art class 'cause you need a visual arts to graduate, and I needed some credits, and I hadn't taken one. So I had this 9 a.m. painting class and I had to wake up at like 6 a.m. twice a week just to make the train and get there on time," Ms. Auster moaned to the Post, making our hearts twinge with empathy. After all, do we not all carry burdens bequeathed to us by our parents, and are we not somewhat crippled and warped by these burdens, even as we try to forge new, adult lives? Or in Ms. Auster's case, as our parents finance and foster our new, adult lives so that we may become our greatest and most creative selves?

These days, Ms. Auster—a musician who names her influences as, among others, Tom Waits, the Beatles, Radiohead, Fiona Apple, Emily Dickinson and her father—loves her Zinc Building pad, especially the 11-foot ceilings. Great acoustics!

“I like how high the ceilings are because if they weren’t, I think it’d feel kind of cramped,” she told the Post. She also doesn't have to worry about keeping roommates up, if she gets the itch to practice—or indulge other desires—in the middle of the night. "Living with a roommate was a good experience, but I really wanted to live alone after that,” Ms. Auster admits of her post-collegiate self.

Living large. (City Realty)

In February of last year, Ilan Bracha, the developer and star broker now heading up Keller Williams NY told The Observer, "We'll be No. 1 in five years," He was referring to his firm, but the Bracha family has now taken the top spot elsewhere—at Gary Barnett's hugely successful Rushmore condominiums at the Riverside South development.

Mati Bracha, Ilan's wife, just paid $5.28 million for penthouse 3A, according to city records. It was not immediately clear if Mr. Bracha would be moving in.

The four-bedroom, 4.5-bath home is spread over 3,056-feet, taking a full floor atop the north building in the twin-towered complex. It first came on the market in July 2009 for $6.8 million, so like her husband, Ms. Bracha has a way of negotiating for the real estate she wants. Mr. Bracha did not immediately return calls and emails seeking comment.

Among the other notable residents of the tower were Alex Rodriguez, who flipped a similar full-floor residence in the south tower earlier this year, as well as Robin Williams, who rented while on Broadway, and Itzhak Perlman, the famed violinist who calls the Rushmore his primary home. The latest arrival is Knicks star Tyson Chandler.

The Brachas lived just down the block from 80 Riverside Boulevard, at Trump Place at 120 Riverside Boulevard. They purchased that home for a far more paltry $544,000 in 2006, just as Mr. Bracha's career was beginning to take off.

Maybe the family stumbled on the new place because Mr. Bracha has been marketing in the building himself, recently listing PH4B, in the south tower. The asking price is also $6.8 million. Wonder if who ever the buyer turns out to be will enjoy the same discount the Brachas did.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

Still, Mr. Sprayregen has long called the Upper East Side home, where he has just as great a propensity for turning a strong real estate deal. Three years ago, Mr. Sprayregen bought the Newhouse's duplex on East 76th Street for 40 percent off. Now, the self-storage kingpin has sold his home around the corner for twice what he paid a decade ago.

Mr. Sprayregen and his ex-wife Karen have just sold their 14th-floor condo at The Empire Condominium for $7.65 million, according to city records. The five-bedroom, 3.5-bath home at 188 East 78th Street was combined from two smaller units when the building went up in 2001. At the time, the Mr. Sprayregen paid $3.26 million for the place, according to records.

"We sold because for this size and type of apartment building, this was a very good time," Mr. Sprayregen told The Observer. "There's virtually nothing comparable to it on the Upper East Side at this time, and we're aware of a couple new condos going up in the area, so we thought the timing was just right."

Mr. Sprayragen designed the apartment. "I know a thing or two about real estate," he joked. "We put it together preconstruction. I put it together myself. It really turned out to be a very nice home."

The 3,722-square foot spread wraps around all four sides of the Empire, with full eastern and southern exposures. There are balconies on both the north and south sides and two bay windows, one off the bedroom and one between the living and dining rooms, which cover a full 600 feet. "Move right in to this spacious, triple mint condition home," Corcoran's Barbara Hochhauser writes in her listing, making special note of the high-end finishes: "A custom designed in-wall sound system, Poggenpohl kitchen cabinets, slate kitchen floor."

The purchase was made anonymously through an LLC, one so secret not even Mr. Sprayregen knows the buyer. "The buyer was unknown to us the entire time," he said. "We never met the buyers, on purpose on their part. Everything was handled by intermediaries. I really don't know anything about the buyers."

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

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.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

Toby Gad, apparent self portrait

The stars he works with live in multimillion dollar homes all over the world, yet songwriter Tobias "Toby" Gad doesn't have it too bad himself. Mr. Gad, who has written such timeless classics as Beyonce's "If I Were A Boy" and Fergie's "Big Girls Don't Cry" has just sold his New York digs for $1.9 million, city records show.

While it appears that the property was not on the market publicly,  the previous listing sheds some light on the place. Spanning 1,350 square feet, the home has two bedrooms, a 317-square-foot living room with a wood burning fireplace, herringbone floors, and a full wraparound terrace. We can just imagine Mr. Gad sitting on his terrace overlooking the city, pondering the meaning of life and penning lyrics for Selena Gomez and The Scene.

The hit-machine purchased the penthouse at 200 West 86th Street in 2008 for $1.75 million, city records show, and we imagine he was still cashing in on royalties from his first major hit, Milli Vanilli's "Can't You Feel My Love?" Meanwhile, Mr. Gad has since relocated to California, calling greater Los Angeles home.

The penthouse was purchased by Eve Dorfzaun.

eknutsen@observer.com

The development's troubled history doesn't seem to have bothered the couple, as they paid just under the final asking price for the two-bedroom, 2.5-bath condo. Originally listed by Corcoran in 2007 for $3.4 million, the place was most recently listed by Douglas Elliman managing director Holly Parker and her colleague Trisha Riedel for $2.34 million.

Ms. Parker said that Ms. Poly and her husband had been looking in the neighborhood. "I know that they had been looking within the Highline area," she said, explaining that they ultimately settled on 100 11th Avenue because of the hyper-modern structure. "If you like modern architecture, it's just a wow apartment,” she said. "You're in this matrix of aluminum and steel, and it was very dramatic. I've never seen an apartment like that in the world," Ms. Parker gushed.

The ceilings in the new place are 10.5-feet high, which will comfortably fit Ms. Poly, who stands a statuesque 5-foot 10-inches. She can practice her runway walk in the long entry foyer, and store her abundant outfits in the massive walk-in closet. The kitchen is unimposing, and there is no formal dining room—perfect for a runway diet!

eknutsen@observer.com

The couple bought their 4-bedroom, 3.5-bath condo at 521 West 23rd Street for $764,000 and just sold it for $5 million, according to city records. To be fair, price-points in West Chelsea were considerably lower when the couple originally bought the 3,280-square-foot pad back in 1998. Still, the power-pair turned an impressive profit on the place.

According to a listing from Corcoran agents Melanie and Kenny Blumstein and David Strah, the home spans a full floor. In between the typical broker-babble adjectives, ("gracious," "elegant," "soaring," "exquisite") we gleaned that the condo has 13-foot ceilings, an 86-square-foot living room and "an incredibly rich history."

Mr. Rubenstein and Ms. Fitzmaurice have what we'll call a distinct aesthetic, if pictures of their condo offer any insight. The kitchen walls are painted neon green, a sort of cephalopod sculpture squirms around the living room, and various amoebic pieces of furniture dot the home. If this sounds like a child's wonderland, like growing up at Chuck E. Cheese, the home may not be as fun as it seems for the artsy couple's two kids. As Mr. Rubenstein told The Wall Street Journal, "They grew up with art and were taught not to touch it the way other kids learn not to touch something hot."

In addition to forking over $5 million for the property, the buyers, Jon and Lisa Goldberg, will be stuck with a $22,000 bill for elevator upgrades, according to the listing. Meanwhile, Mr. Rubenstein and Ms. Fitzmaurice are soaking up the sun in their new Los Angles home.

But apparently they weren't ready to leave the Chelsea art scene forever. On the deed, the couple list their current address as a penthouse rental in (naturally) The Tate, a luxury building on West 23rd Street.

eknutsen@observer.com

HL23

While he may be headed for one of Britain's largest divorce settlements, moneyman Pierre Lagrange seems to be doing just fine on this side of the pond. The former Goldman Sachs trader has just purchased the penthouse at new Chelsea hotspot HL23.

Mr. Lagrange, who paid $11.29 million for the pad, made headlines last fall when, after separating from his wife, he came out. He has since been linked to fashion designer Roubi L'Roubi.

With estates in London and Hampshire, Mr. Lagrange's newest acquisition will add to an already impressive collection of real estate holdings. Privacy must not be a premium for Mr. Lagrange, however, as his new home is smack dab in the middle of the ever-popular High Line.

The sale was originally reported by the Post back in December, although the price was unknown. The asking price of $12 milllion was a tad more than Mr. Lagrange paid.

The three-bedroom, three-bath home spans 3,634 square feet, with all the metallic detailing you'd expect from the haute moderne edifice. The condo includes a 1,173-square-foot wrap terrace where Mr. Lagrange can imagine he's strolling the grounds of his British estate. Sadly, there's no garage for his collection of vintage cars. Those will have to stay in Hampshire, we suppose.

eknutsen@observer.com