"Sorry, but the figurine stays," we imagine Mr. Cohen told the photographer at Corcoran.

Over the past year, hedge fund honcho Steve Cohen has shelled out $150 million for a Picasso, $60 million for an East Hampton estate and $616 million to get the Securities and Exchange Commission off his back. Now, it looks like he wants to get a little bit back—$115 million, to be exact.

Via our friends at Real Estalker comes word that Mr. Cohen's 9,000-square foot spread at One Beacon Court, the residential portion of the Bloomberg Tower at 151 East 58th Street, has officially hit the market. Mr. Cohen and his brokers—Deborah Grubman and David Dubin at Corcoran—are hoping to knock reigning real champion 15 Central Park West out of the park and set a New York City record.

But with no outdoor space, three blocks between the building and the park and nowhere near the name recognition of 15 Central Park West, can Mr. Cohen's 51st-story duplex do it? (Even if it can't, he only paid $24 million for the apartment back in 2005, so he'll come out ahead either way.)

"The $88 million unit"—Dmitry Rybolovlev's record-setting digs at 15 Central Park West—"overlooked Central Park, and had 135 feet of direct outdoor terrace," Brown Harris Stevens mega-broker Paula Del Nunzio told The Observer. One Beacon Court, on the other hand, "is very convenient to Bloomingdale's and the subway" (how good of Ms. Del Nunzio to think of the help!).

Then again, "there are exceptionally good views" from One Beacon Court, said Ms. Del Nunzio, "and the finishes"—interiors by Charles Gwathmey, natch—"are very good" (which we're sure the contractors will appreciate as they rip them out and leave them for dead at the curb).

In any case, Mr. Cohen isn't hurting for competition—the city is positively booming with would-be record-setters. Martin Zweig wants $125 million for his triplex at the Pierre (a co-op, so at least Mr. Cohen will have the shady Eastern European oligarch market all to himself), Steven Klar wants $100 million for his CitySpire penthouse (which, at 8,000 square feet, is looking a bit shabby in comparison) and Leroy Schecter wants $85 million for his 15 Central Park West spread (down from $95 million).

"Whether it's worth that amount," Ms. Del Nunzio said, "remains to be seen." But "everyone says it can't be done—until it is."

Enter Steve Roth, chairman of megadeveloper Vornado, who knows a real estate deal when he sees one and is renowned for waiting out the market until the time is right to sell.

Back at the turn of the millennium, Mr. Roth bought up a 3,322-square-foot duplex penthouse at 345 West 13th Street from developer Hudson Companies. Mr. Roth, who paid $1.72 million for the light-filled duplex, has just sold it for $6.8 million, according to city records.

The apartment, which was listed with Corcoran brokers Deborah Grubman and David Dubin, was asking $7.25 million. (It first went on the market at $7.95 million in May).

The condo is currently configured as a very generous two-bedroom, according to the listing, with 12-foot-high ceilings, original wood beams and columns, an exposed brick wall and a study area with a wood burning fireplace. It also comes with downstairs neighbor Will Ferrell.

The place seems nicer even than many of Mr. Roth's well-known developments, which include such blockbusters as the Bloomberg Building (home to the luxe One Beacon Court condos), 280 Park Avenue and the skyline busting 15 Penn  Plaza.

The buyer is Zoltan Wesley LLC, which was incorporated in December of this year. When reached on the phone, Mr. Dubin said he could not comment on either the buyer or the seller.

Still, it is a good outing for the brokers. They may have fallen short of Mr. Roth's high-minded initial ask by about 14 percent, they bested a $6.5 million Mr. Roth wanted back in 2009, when he put the place on the market with Douglas Elliman. It kicked around from March until August, when it slipped off the market at $5.5 million. This was, of course, the depth of the doldrums.

But Mr. Roth is no stranger to sitting on a site, be it the old Alexander's department store that was eventually replaced by the Bloomberg Building or the Filene's Basement site in Boston, which has sat vacant for years to the consternation of everyone in Beantown, the mayor included.

While the apartment, beautiful though it may be, hardly seems like a fitting home for a billionaire, it's not his only address. He listed he and his wife's Easthampton address on the deed. As might be expected of a man who heads a famously tight-lipped company, Mr. Roth has not yet returned a request for comment.

Maybe he's just a man of comparatively modest tastes? As the listing puts it: "The calmness one finds in this home is a juxtaposition to the exciting neighborhood just steps away - stroll along the Hudson or perhaps walk the High Line, what more could one want?"

How about a massive portfolio of Manhattan real estate chock full of trophy towers and blockbuster development projects?

kvelsey@observer.com

Attractive but distant and a little cold. The perfect pad for Harrison Ford?

Who knew that locating a buyer for a $16 million loft conversion in Chelsea would be as hard as finding the Ark of the Covenant? Indiana Jones, a.k.a. Harrison Ford, has certainly had a lot of trouble pinning down buyers for his four-bedroom, 4.5-bath spread at 206 West 17th Street.

The actor first listed his 5,664-square-foot condo for $16 million back in December 2010. Now, some two years later, Mr. Ford is finally in contract, according to the Olshan Luxury Market report. Certainly, it's not the longest time a property has lingered on the market. But let's face it, this place was not moving at the speed of light, or even the speed of a competently-wielded light saber.

It's hard to say for sure, but we'd pin this place's sluggish performance on price. Mr. Ford purchased his bachelor pad for $5.3 million back in 2002 and gave it a sleek makeover. Sure, it helped him woo Calista Flockhart, but did the renovation really justify asking triple the price?  If we were a Hollywood producer negotiating this contract, we'd have taken a hard stand against lavishing that much cash, even on a marquee name. After all, the penthouse's 1101 Architects look may add value, but can it really triple the box office?

Corcoran listing brokers Deborah Grubman and David Dubin seem to think so. They gush that not only does the place come with a huge terrace, four exposures and a private elevator, but that there is "amazing custom craftsmanship" that has wrought industrial touches like "poured concrete radiant heated floors." So authentic for a Chelsea loft! And to think that the fabulously wealthy once put their craftsmen to work doing intricate things with wood and plaster.

Mr. Ford never wavered on price, so it will be interesting to see what this deal closes at. One thing is for certain, however: living here will cost a whole lot more than $16 million. The monthly common charges and taxes on the apartment ate $15,269. And as Donna Olshan points out, that doesn't buy any amenities but a video intercom system.

kvelsey@observer.com

Was the sky, or the wedding-cake ceiling, the limit?

Amassing and connecting a melange of co-op apartments scattered about a coal baron’s Fifth Avenue mansion was an outlandish dream, even for Howard Ronson, the commercial real estate developer who kicked off the buying spree at 828 Fifth Avenue, also known as the Berwind mansion, before his death in 2007.

His heirs tried to carry on, but they could never quite replicate their patriarch's acquisitive charms. With four of the nine apartments in hand, they stopped far short of Ronson's goal of total building domination. Nor could they (or would they) sell the spread, at least not for $72 million. After putting the apartment on the market in May, in a bid to catch one of the many over-eager trophy hunters said to be sniffing around New York, the family pulled the property just a few months later.

Several sources told The Observer that Ronson's widow Angelika and children have decided to stay put in their puzzle-piece palace. Or at least as "put" as renowned jet-setters said to spend much of their time in Monaco can stay.

Does this also mean they've decided to carry on Ronson's vision of re-assembling the entire house and returning it to its former glory? As they like to say, in for a penny, in for a pound. Or rather, in for $33.95 million (the amount the four apartments cost the Ronson family), in for $100 million (or more!)?

We'd wager that this clan is not quite so cavalier with its dough and that the decision to pull the property had more to do with a lack of interest. None of the former listing brokers—it was held by Corcoran brokers Sharon Baum, Leighton Candler and Deborah Grubman, as well as Stribling broker Alexa Lambert, returned The Observer's phone calls, so we can't be sure, but we'd say the agglomeration was not so popular with buyers and the family is waiting for a later date to list the individual units.

A $72 million sale would set a townhouse sale record and then some (the largest sale to date remains the $53 million dollar sale of the Harkness Mansion). The co-op record lingers at the same threshold, having been set this spring with the sale of the Courtney Sale Ross apartment for $52.5 million. And no matter how magnificent this corner mansion might have been, the units weren't even attached. After all, an ultra high net townhouse lover would probably be inclined to go for the intact Woolworth Mansion, listed at $90 million, rather than bribing/begging his neighbors to move out and then undertaking a huge renovation.

"I’m sure it couldn’t be bought," one broker not associated with the listing told us. "For god’s sake, it was a lot of different units."

kvelsey@observer.com

As The Observer noted at the time, it took the Dubins nine months to bring their home to market, and now twice as long to sell it, and at quite the discount, no less.

The duplex, which looks down on the Met, just sold for $13.75 million to another budding banker, Alexander Klabin, who runs Senator Investment Group. According to an article in Absolute Return + Alpha, the fund is having Dubin-esque success, "thriving at a time when most new funds are finding it difficult to raise funds." The firm has won seed money from the Blackstone Group and manages more than $2 billion in funds. How long before he serves atop the Robin Hood Foundation, or some other prestigious New York charity, as Mr. Dubin once did?

Mr. Klabin bought the six-bedroom, five-and-a-half bath home that the Dubinz assembled over a number of decades with his wife Kristin, a former middle school teacher. The 12-room whopper is a beaut, as Corcoran star Deborah Grubman makes clear in her listing: "Excellent condition - Central Park Views - West and South facing views from major rooms - Full Service, White Glove Building." Carter Horseley puts things a little more grandiloquently in his description of the 1928 Fred F. French building: "With its handsome Italian Renaissance-style detailing, sidewalk landscaping and attractive sidestreet entrance, 1010 Fifth Avenue is one of the classic elegant addresses in the city."

The Klabins are leaving behind a decidely different home as they depart the glassy, four-year-old condo tower at 255 East 74th Street.

Besides Mr. Dubin (No. 773 on last year's Forbes rich list), other notable residents at 1010 Fifth include Richard Kalikow and Anthony "Tommy Bahama" Margolis, whose eighth-floor three-bedroom has been on the market for more than three years and is currently asking $10.25 million. The building is across from the Duke Semans Mansion, which Carlos Slim (No. 1 on said list) bought last year for $44 million, the most expensive sale of 2010.

Read past Manhattan Transfers here. >>

mchaban [at] observer.com | @mc_nyo

Media scion Lachlan Murdoch has now found a buyer for his (unfinished) $14.75 residence in Nolita, according to the Corcoran Group website. Corcoran broker Brooks Nicholson confirmed that a contract was signed on June 29th for the five-story, brick building at 11 Spring Street, but could not discuss the sale price.

Back in Sept. 2003, Mr. Lachlan dropped $5.25 million on 14,000-square-foot building that served as a horse stable in the late 19th century. However, Mr. Murdoch's plans for extensive renovations were never fulfilled--especially since his public split with Rupert, and subsequent flight back to Australia.

As Mr. Murdoch told The West Australian newspaper last May:

Both Deborah Grubman and Carol Cohen, of the Corcoran Group, also have the listing with Mr. Nicholson. Ms. Grubman--who is also Rupert's broker--could not be immediately reached for comment.

- Michael Calderone

William Neuman may have skipped out on the Big Deal this past weekend, but he has now uncovered the listing for one of downtown's most talked about buildings.

Lachlan Murdoch's epic project to transform a five-story, former stable building into his palatial residence is not happening. Mr. Murdoch is offering the 14,300-square-foot building--which he paid $5.25 million for in September 2003--for $14.75 million, listed with high-end Corcoran brokers, Deborah Grubman and Carol Cohen.

Although Lachlan and his father, Rupert, parted ways last year, they might have more in common than they think to bridge that generational divide. Ms Grubman and Ms. Cohen sold Rupert's Soho spread last year to Elie Tahari.

Like father, like son.

- Michael Calderone

According to sources, Melinda Nix of Sotheby's International Realty had the original listing on the four-bedroom spread, but after her buyers were turned away by the building's co-op board in the fall, the property hit the market on Jan. 21 with a high price tag-$11.5 million-and high-profile broker Deborah Grubman of the Corcoran Group, along with fellow Corcoran broker Carol Cohen, to represent it.

Ms. Nix didn't return calls seeking comment. Ms. Grubman and Ms. Cohen also declined to comment on the listing.

The 5,200-square-foot apartment, where former MTV News anchor turned CBS correspondent Serena Altschul grew up, occupies the entire 12th floor at 993 Fifth Avenue at 80th Street, overlooking the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The 12-room apartment features a library and master bedroom with open views of the museum and Central Park, a renovated kitchen, a wood-burning fireplace and planting terraces.

"The one downside is, you see smokestacks and pipes on the museum's roof," said one source who had recently visited the spread.

The finicky board at 993 Fifth Avenue is no less than what one would expect at the luxurious Upper East Side building. The apartment had been the family home of Arthur Altschul, a former general partner at Goldman, Sachs and Co. and chairman of General American Investors. Mr. Altschul passed away in 2002 at the age of 81; in addition to his tenure on Wall Street, the financier was also a renowned neo-Impressionist and Pointillist art collector, a former reporter for The New York Times and a major philanthropist as chairman of the Overbrook Foundation, a charitable group founded by his parents with assets of more than $150 million. Mr. Altschul's wife, Siri von Reis, also added to the family's prestige (and good looks) as a half-Finnish, half-Swedish Harvard-educated ethnobotanist and a full-time poet.

By signing Ms. Grubman at the Corcoran Group, the family may be hoping that she can resuscitate the sale. In September, Ms. Grubman helped former Sony Music chief Tommy Mottola unload his 11,000-square-foot condo at 9 East 64th Street for $13.8 million, after the sprawling apartment sat on the market since November 2002 (it originally had the stratospheric asking price of $34 million). Across the park at 101 Central Park West, Harrison Ford recently got lucky: After the board turned down hedge-fund manager Gary Lieberman's bid to buy the apartment for $16 million, they recently approved the new buyer in December.

Newly appointed Tommy Hilfiger President and chief executive David Dyer has a new Trump condo to retire to after a long day at the streets-meets-prepster fashion house-a place where he can unwind with sprawling views of Central Park.

Mr. Dyer, the former head of catalog retail giant Land's End, and his wife recently purchased a $2.77 million apartment at the Trump Parc building at 106 Central Park South, between Sixth and Seventh avenues.

Robin Rothman, a senior vice president at Sotheby's International Realty, who sold Mr. Dyer and his wife the apartment, didn't return calls seeking comment. Through a spokesperson, Mr. Dyer also declined to comment.

While such fashion icons as Calvin Klein have been drawn to downtown-chic spreads like the fish-tank Richard Meier towers or the leafy streets of the West Village (where Diane von Furstenberg lives), Mr. Dyer's uptown perch is conveniently close to Hilfiger's West 39th Street corporate headquarters.

As in all the apartments in Mr. Trump's signature properties, the 2,821-square-foot apartment was finished in lavish detail and features three bedrooms, three and a half baths and open views to the north and east overlooking Central Park. Alain Ducasse's two New York restaurants-Alain Ducasse at the Essex House and Mix-are one block away.

The building has also been a destination for New York's society circuit. In September, marketing executive Stephen Adler hosted an opulent dinner party in the building-with guests including hip-hop star Wyclef Jean-as part of the 150 dinners celebrating the 150th anniversary of Central Park.

Mr. Dyer's purchase comes several months after landing at Hilfiger. The fashion executive was hired in August to replace outgoing chief executive Joel Horowitz, who moved to become Hilfiger's chairman.

Before arriving in New York, Mr. Dyer was the C.E.O. of Dodgeville, Wis.–based Land's End, the mail-order clothier best known for the pastel-colored golf shirts and trim-fitting slacks seen on suburban golf courses across the country. At Land's End, Mr. Dyer oversaw the catalog's $1.9 billion sale to mass-market retailer Sears, Roebuck.

Recent Transactions in the Real Estate Market

Upper West Side

45 West 89th Street

Two-bedroom, two-bathroom co-op.

Asking: $735,000. Selling: $725,000.

Maintenance: $1,108; 68 percent tax-deductible.

Time on the market: 26 days.

STREETS OF PHILADELPHIA When moving to a new city, many buyers look to re-create the ambiance of their former residences. A quiet block and charming townhouses were a must for this corporate executive who had recently relocated from Philadelphia-a city that, in addition to its infamous cheese steaks, is renowned for its quaint colonial townhouses and tree-lined streets. After a brief visit to this 1,000-square-foot apartment on the fourth floor of a brownstone that dates to 1890, she felt right at home on the Upper West Side and made an offer. The sellers were a growing family who were relocating for more space. "So many people come to the city, and it's a major change. This apartment had so much of what she comes from," said broker Sheila Lokitz of the Corcoran Group, who represented the buyer. The floor-through apartment, between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue, featured such charms as a wood-burning fireplace, a modern kitchen with dishwasher, renovated sky-lit bathrooms, exposed brick walls, hardwood floors, and north and south exposures. "She only needed to see it once. She just loved it, and that was it," Ms. Lokitz said. Fellow Corcoran brokers Tony Brown and Mark Schoenfeld represented the sellers.

Murray Hill

148 East 38th Street

Six-bedroom, five-bathroom townhouse.

Asking: $2.7 million. Selling: $2.5 million.

Time on market: two years.

Auction block When the private real-estate partnership that owned this three-family townhouse went into bankruptcy more than two years ago, the building sat on the market for a year and a half-until six months ago, when the building's lawyers were brought in to liquidate the property. The 19th-century brownstone, between Lexington and Third avenues, was on a tree-lined block in Murray Hill, where quiet side streets could pass for the Upper East Side if it weren't for the midtown skyscrapers and the Empire State Building's colored spire towering over the low-rise streetscape. When the judge in the bankruptcy case recently mandated the building be put up for auction, a buyer thought he could win over the creditors and score the building on the cheap. "One of the bidders thought he could get the building at a steep discount," said Kathleen Hoffman, the senior vice president and director of townhouse sales at William B. May. Her clients, a physician couple from Westchester County, saw the building and outbid their competitor by nearly $1 million. They plan to use the ground floor for their medical practice and rent out the rest of the building residentially. They had been renting office space in midtown, but now they will enjoy their new purchase, which features a private rear garden and three floors above their office for apartments. And since the building sat unoccupied on the market for two years, it needs a serious renovation. "They are working with an architect and drawing up plans," Ms. Hoffman said. "Everything needs to be redone."

Greenwich Village

3 Sheridan Square

One-bedroom, one-bathroom co-op.

Asking: $625,000. Selling: $649,000.

Maintenance: $1,128; 52 percent tax-deductible.

DO YOU KNOW THE WAY TO SANTA FE? Greenwich Village has been home to countless New York artists, writers and intellectuals since the 19th century, when boot-strapping bohemians inhabited the quaint townhouses and filled the neighborhood's smoky cafés. How times have changed: Today, many artists-including the couple that owned this renovated apartment-have fled for more affordable and airy artist enclaves such as Santa Fe, N.M. Cafés are no longer smoky under Mayor Bloomberg's smoking ban, and wealthy urbanites have taken over the townhouses and loft spaces left behind by the artists. When this couple-two professional potters-sold their West Village studio and relocated to Santa Fe, they found an attorney in his 30's from Manhattan eager to move in. "He wanted to purchase and get on the bandwagon like everyone else. With interest rates being so low, it made sense to buy," said Douglas Elliman senior vice president Darren Sukenik, who represented the sellers. To score the spread, the buyer had to outbid an advertising executive and an art director, who were both drooling over the doorman building's finish and quality. This 1,000-square-foot corner apartment features dark wood floors, a beamed ceiling, a renovated granite kitchen and a marble bath. Nancy Teague of the Corcoran Group represented the buyer.

Who knew Lizzie Grubman was a divorcée?

Before launching into an extensive celebration of her 30th birthday–starting with a party at Moomba on Jan 29, where she hung out with Mick Jagger, and hopefully ending with a joint party with publisher Jason Binn at Eugene on Feb. 13–Ms. Grubman, a debutante turned public-relations executive, sold the apartment she once shared with her ex-husband, Eric Gotoff, and bought another apartment for $2.1 million.

The new apartment is a 1,430-square-foot duplex, with two bedrooms and four bathrooms, at 200 East 61st Street. She's been renting a smaller apartment just downstairs for the last couple of years. "It's the simplest move in history," she said.

The other apartment, an eleventh-floor co-op at 150 East 69th Street which Ms. Grubman said she'd bought with her then husband when they got married, was sold earlier this year. It had been occupied by Mr. Gotoff, an associate in her father's law firm, since they separated in July of 1997. The two are "the best, best, best of friends," said Ms. Grubman.

Their October 1995 wedding was a lavish affair at the Pierre Hotel, complete with a performance by the Village People and a sturgeon ice sculpture filled with $12,000 worth of beluga caviar. The ceiling was covered in wild smilax dendrobium orchids, and the tables were bedecked with 10,000 white roses. The 420-person guest list included Martha Stewart, Mariah Carey and Mort Zuckerman.

A year ago, the exes decided it was time to sell the apartment at 150 East 69th Street, and they both started looking for new places. "We agreed it was time," said Ms. Grubman. Mr. Gotoff wanted to move downtown, and Ms. Grubman asked her stepmother, broker Deborah Grubman of Alice P. Mason Ltd., to help out. Mr. Gotoff is currently renting an apartment in the West Village.

"Really, in this world, mortgages are more affordable," said Ms. Grubman of her decision to buy a place. She signed a contract on Nov. 15 for the 61st Street apartment, which is a combination of two units and has a large living room, three terraces and southern, eastern and northern exposures. She plans to turn the upstairs den into an office and move in by the end of February. Ms. Grubman said the decor would be "modern country" with "lots of blues."

"I think my decorator is great," she said about Ralph Harvard.

Ms. Grubman, who is currently single, will share her new apartment with her Yorkshire terriers, Peanut and Crunch.

ROMEO GIGLI HOUSE TO BECOME V.I.P. FERTILITY CLINIC

For the past year and a half, a dusty blue brocade curtain hugging a glass door has been all that remained of Romeo Gigli's boutique on the ground floor of a grand old townhouse at 21 East 69th Street. It's a sight for sore eyes, when one considers the number of retail establishments along nearby Madison Avenue that are currently shuttered while they're renovated into boutiques of flagship proportion.

Mr. Gigli, the ephemeral if celebrated designer, had snagged as much publicity for the lavish boutique, outfitted with imported Murano glass fixtures, as for the romantic, even splashy fabrics he used. Once derelict, the storefront was a drag on the whole five-story structure it anchored: a brick "classic" on a quiet block, said broker Barbara Stone of Marcus and Millichap, who marketed the property. Building owner Takashimaya Madison Avenue–a subsidiary of the Japanese retail concern–had tried to sell the property through two other brokers over the course of two years, without getting a bite.

But now, thanks to Ms. Stone's efforts over the last seven months–she set up a "wide net" to market the property nationwide–there's a doctor in the house. For $5.25 million, Dr. Norbert Gleicher of Chicago hopes to make the building fruitful again. A nationally renowned fertility expert and a much-cited proponent of "embryo adoption" (where prospective parents are fertilized with frozen embryos rather than submit to fertility treatments, which result in multiple births more than 40 percent of the time). Dr. Gleicher bought the property last November. He plans, Ms. Stone said, to set up a practice in the lower four floors of the 7,100-square-foot building as well as V.I.P. suites on the top floor. According to Ms. Stone, Dr. Gleicher will also keep his practice and home in Chicago.

Dr. Gleicher is no stranger to the city. In the 1970's, after graduating from Tel Aviv Medical School in Israel, he completed a residency at Manhattan's Mount Sinai School of Medicine, moving on to a faculty appointment as an assistant professor in obstetrics and gynecology, and then an administrative post as chief of reproductive immunology.

According to Ms. Stone, the building–originally built around the turn of the century for wine merchant Frederick Wildman–is already ideally suited for commercial purposes on the lower floors, with open plans, windows on three sides and an elevator. Few period details survive, so integrating the medical functions with the historic building's interior will not be an issue. And it appears Dr. Gleicher got a deal: Just 10 days before he came on board, the building's asking price came down more than half a million dollars, from $6 million.

"We tried to price it more in line with the current market," said Ms. Stone, who specializes in townhouses. "The market is leveling off … and it's definitely a good time to be a buyer in the market."

Still, Dr. Gleicher plans to spend as much as $1.5 million to renovate the space for use as a medical practice.

Ms. Stone insisted the property–whose entrance is set below street level and three doors east of Madison Avenue–is ideal for any commercial use, but did admit that Dr. Gleicher was probably not looking for foot traffic.

"It's going to be a destination," Ms. Stone said, making its location off the Avenue less of a detriment. In contrast, the quiet, quaint block may be just the right fit for Dr. Gleicher and his clients, for whom discretion, rather than promotion, may well be the watchword.

EAST VILLAGE

272 East 10th Street

Five-story, 6,000-square-foot townhouse.

Asking: $2.495 million. Selling: $2.275 million.

Time on the market: seven months.

NO MORE SATURDAY NIGHTS It was a typical-looking East Village house, said Meredith Hatfield of the Corcoran Group, the exclusive broker on this townhouse between First Avenue and Avenue A. The five-story house had generously sized, full-floor, three-bedroom apartments and was in need of renovation. But it wasn't full of rent-controlled tenants. "Houses in the East Village just can't be delivered vacant" usually, said Ms. Hatfield. "They always have rent-controlled tenants." This one was filled with a bunch of guys who liked to throw parties. "There was nobody in the building older than 32," said Nick DiMinno, who produces music for advertisements and was the last person to move out of the building, on Feb. 2. He first rented the three-bedroom apartment on the third floor seven years ago, "and as people moved out, I got my friends to move in." One of his friends befriended the owner, a musician, and became the super. "It was no one's permanent residence," said Mr. DiMinno. "Everybody considered it a place to live before you settled down and matured. It was an open-door policy in the building. Every Friday or Saturday night, different people–friends–were partying on every floor." Mr. DiMinno and his roommates–buddies from college–were paying $2,400 a month when the owner asked everyone to move out. The tenants thought about fighting it, but they had no legal recourse. And "it was time," said Mr. DiMinno, who is now shacked up in a one-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn Heights. The building was sold to a young banker who will gut it and make a duplex for himself, as well as apartments on the other floors that will be rented out for much more than Mr. DiMinno was paying. This is not the first time the banker has revamped a dilapidated house. According to Ms. Hatfield, he did the same thing a few years ago in Little Italy. Ms. Hatfield thinks this is a little unusual, too. "Even though he's a banker, he didn't go for the West Village," she said. "He goes for a little more run-down neighborhoods." The banker has already had several architects in to look at the house but hasn't made any official decisions on how he will renovate yet. The deal closed Feb. 9; the last tenants moved out a week earlier, and the last official party was a week before that.

TRIBECA

108 Reade Street

One-bed, two-bath, 1,800-square-foot condo.

Asking: $1.3 million. Selling: $1.35 million.

Charges: $339. Taxes: $300.

Time on the market: two weeks.

SHE HAS TIME–AND MONEY Unlike most people in the market for a home in New York, the woman who bought this apartment in late January was in no rush. She had been living in a nice rental in the neighborhood and, although she wanted to find something to buy, she had the luxury of being picky. "She was looking for outdoor space, and light was a major requirement," said her broker, Andrew Darwin of Douglas Elliman. It took her two years to settle on this 1,800-square-foot loft with a mezzanine level and roof access. The couple she bought the condo from had been living there for a year and, although they had an architect draw up plans, they were transferred to California before they had a chance to start any work. That's fine with the buyer. She has had architects up already and will redo the entire space. Mr. Darwin expects the work to take roughly a year to complete, but the buyer doesn't mind; she's got time.