There's a working fireplace and a grand piano. Everything you need... except for furniture.

You know those movies that you can watch over and over again? The ones that you can never get enough of until suddenly, one day, you're done? You just want to see something, anything, different? We assume a similar thing happened to Rodney Schiffer, who's selling his townhouse at 217 East 62nd Street after five years.

Mr. Schiffer, the former managing director of Column Financial, bought the 3,750-square foot house from Martin Scorsese back in 2007. Mr. Scorsese departed from his home of 20 years for a $12 million townhouse on E. 64th Street, apparently figuring that he and his long-overdue Oscar deserved some fancier digs.

The property is listed for $6.49 million with Leslie J. Garfield & Co., only a little more than the $6.15 million that Mr. Schiffer paid for it back in 2007. Not that he didn't try for more, listing it for $7.9 million with Prudential Douglas Elliman back in January. Hey, the streets, and the market, can be mean.

Still, the place sounds pretty awesome, especially because it appears to be almost the same as Mr. Scorsese left it, with the top of the home dedicated to a "director's screening room with en suite bath, drop down projector screen, Crestron system, Pullman kitchen and synchronized black out shades," according to the old Elliman listing.

Other nifty features of the six-bedroom house include a working fireplace, a balcony overlooking the garden and a dumbwaiter. Fun and creepy!

Apparently not Mr. Schiffer's cup of tea anymore, though. In fact, it's unclear if the house was ever his cup of tea. At the time of the purchase, when asked to describe the townhouse for an Observer reporter, he begged off with: “It’s really not that great.”

kvelsey@observer.com

Mr. Segal diversified from there, and now his firm is working on such high-profile projects as One World Trade Center and the renovation of Madison Square Garden--the sort of projects that would give a humble electrician from Queens the means to own a townhouse on the Upper East Side.

"The closing was so relaxed," a broker told The Observer when Mr. Segal bought the four-story limestone townhouse at 162 East 64th Street nine years ago from an old high school buddy. He paid $3.79 million at the time, according to StreetEasy, and now he has sold it for $6.45 million, city records show.

"It's an unusual situation, because it's located 100 feet from the avenue, that means it's zoned commercial," Francis O'Shea, the listing agent from Leslie J. Garfield & Co., said. "It's an unusual arrangement for the Upper East Side, where the bottom two floors are commercial and the top two are residential." He added that that is how the seller had used the house, which came on the market for $7.75 million in July and was reduced by $500,000 in October, and the buyer will be doing the same.

The home and office now belongs to John Tonelli, who runs Advanced Global Investments, which does pretty much what its name says, "with holdings in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Latin America," notes Forbes, adding, "Mr. Tonelli has advised the governments of Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay on a wide variety of matters."

Mr. Tonelli did not win four Stanley Cups with the New York Islanders.

Perhaps, then, this will become an office or landing pad for Advance Global Investments' clients. After all, he and wife Isabel just purchased another townhouse in October, paying $3.63 million for 201B East 86th Street, a 3,312-square-foot, five-bedroom brownstone.

By comparison, his latest acquisition is large, 5,000 square feet, and could be much larger, as zoning allows for at least a few thousand square feet to be tacked on. "It does need some work," Mr. O'Shea admitted. Maybe Mr. Tonellie can hire Mr. Segal to do the wiring.

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mchaban [at] observer.com | @mc_nyo

The Nicholses are leaving behind Greenwich Village, where they owned a duplex. Mr. Nichols had been selling the three-bedroom himself since September, asking $2.25 million; it slipped off the market in mid-January. A 718 number attached to the listing was disconnected and emails were not returned.

"A rare opportunity to own a two-story home... nestled inside a luxury building with a full staff, turnaround driveway, landscaped garden, 24-hour garage, exercise facility and so much more!" declared 10thStreetDuplex.com, the Web site Mr. Nichols launched to market the renovated home, which had been purchased in 2004 for $1.255 million, according to StreetEasy. Mr. Nichols has worked in the music industry, but it appears he has a future ahead of him as a broker.

As for the new home, it was purchased for $5.2 million from Edward and Sharon Kreps, doctors who had owned the mansarded beauty since 1970, according to city records. "In addition to six stories above grade, there is also unbelievable amounts of basement storage including a wine cellar," Lydia Rosengarten writes in her Leslie J. Garfield listing. Hope all that wine does not give the Nicholses Heartburn.

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mchaban [at] observer.com | @mc_nyo