Unreal Estate: Conversation Nook Included

Author David Gibbons is a connoisseur of French cheese—he has co-written three books on the subject; however, he is also an expert on the manic vicissitudes of Manhattan real estate. The former literary agent has traded several Manhattan properties throughout his four decades living in New York, and he has always gotten a pretty good deal. “I don’t know,” he told The Observer, “it just always worked out well timewise when I was buying and selling.”

He hopes that will continue.

He recently listed his ground-floor Chelsea apartment for $1.685 million, an astonishingly modest amount considering the square footage involved: 2,200 square feet, at $766 per square foot. The three-bedroom apartment combines the ground floors of two brownstones connected by a narrow doorway, with the remnants of the old metal fire door still visible.

“Well, I mean, I love it as it is now, but I suppose it could also be a great workspace for an artist, to make the living room a studio and have the other side of the apartment be the living space,” Mr. Gibbons said, talking about the renovation possibilities. “It would work really well that way.” —Chloe Malle

Above: The subterranean living room is shockingly light-filled, with sliding glass doors that open onto a private garden.

In case the living room is too expansive for intimate chatting, there is a charmingly titled “conversation nook” nearby.

On the other side of the apartment, a gourmet kitchen opens onto a large dining area, where Mr. Gibbons, an ardent Rastafarian (his daughter’s name is Marley), currently displays his Ethiopian flag.

Mr. Gibbons uses the street-view room at the front of the apartment as his office, where he gets to procrastinate from his writing to watch tours of historic Chelsea stop in front of his window to point out the rare walking stick tree next to the brownstone’s entrance.