By Elise Knutsen 9/12/11 2:58pm

Manhattan Transfers

320 West 22nd Street (Photo from StreetEasy)

Sylvia Sleigh Captures Male (Financier)'s Gaze With Chelsea Townhouse

Update: Observer culture editor Sarah Douglas reveals that in an almost too-perfect deal, the buyer of the townhouse is actually a swiss art collector, Ursula Hauser. It turns out Caspar Spescha is her financial planner. Ms. Hauser has a thing for female artists and just so happens to have collected a number of Ms. Sleigh’s pieces.

Original Post: The estate of feminist realist artist Sylvia Sleigh Alloway has sold her Chelsea townhouse. The painter, whose husband Lawrence Alloway coined the term “pop art” and was a curator at the Guggenheim, passed away last year. Read More

By Elise Knutsen 8/04/11 11:45am

Manhattan Transfers

44 West 20th Street (Photo from Street Easy)

Jason Reitman Directs Chelsea Co-op for $2.15 M.

Director Jason Reitman ordered a new mise-en-scene this week, buying an apartment in Chelsea with wife Michele. The couple paid $2.15 million for the co-op at 434 West 20th Street. They purchased the home from a Thomas Schieble, who lists Bloomsburg, Penn., as his current residence

The Observer talked with Corcoran broker Richard Hicks, who represented the owner on the deal, and he explained what attracted the director and his wife to the apartment. “The block, for one,” Mr. Hicks began,was a main draw. The apartment overlooks the New York Seminary’s sprawling front garden. Read More

By Elise Knutsen 7/27/11 4:32pm

Manhattan Transfers

It takes a lot to tackle The Diesel. (Fat Pickled)

Running Back John Riggins Scores $1 M. on West 39th Street

The midtown apartment of outlandish Redskins running back John “The Diesel” Riggins has been intercepted. The NFL player turned actor/sports commentator is just as famous for telling Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor to “Lighten up, Sandy, baby,” at a dinner in 1985 (before passing out under the table during a speech by then-Vice President George Bush) as for his record as a running back with the Jets and ‘Skins. Read More

By Matt Chaban 7/25/11 6:49pm

Manhattan Transfers

It's Zagreat! (PMcM)

Ted Zagat Unfriends Tribeca for $2.15 M.

Six years ago, 249 Church Street would have rated a 22 or 23 in Edward Ernst “Ted” Zagat‘s book. The restaurant survey scion purchased a three-bedroom loft there, perhaps for the proximity to Bouley, The Odeon and Nobu, for $1.6 million. Having joined Facebook in April, he just sold the home for a very friendly $2.15 million.

While Mr. Zagat came to Tribeca from his native Upper West Side, the buyer is even more of a foreigner. Aidan P. Flatley is president and C.E.O. of the Ontario-based Kenaidan company. (Get it?Founded with a guy named Ken, sounds like Canadian—these guys are clever.) Mr. Flatley’s daughter Margaret is also listed on the deed and currently resides in the Village. According to a source, the 1,700-square-foot home is for her. Read More

By Matt Chaban 6/16/11 1:59pm

Manhattan Transfers

Get out of my neighborhood! (Getty)

That ’70s Loft: Danny Masterson Doubles His Money in Tribeca

Back in the 1970s, Tribeca’s Belgian-block streets were chock-a-block with artists, and that’s about it. Nowadays, the only artists in the city’s most expensive neighborhood are those financial wizards who have made an art out of making money. There is, though, the occasional auteur, like Danny Masterson, the actor/DJ/child model/Scientologist.

Four years into his run Read More