Our daily roundup of the most notable high-end residential transactions from the past 24 hours.
Canadian actor Paul Gross, best known for starring role in the Paul Haggis television series Due South, bought a converted commercial loft space on the Lower East Side with his wife, fellow Canadian actress Martha Burns. The couple, who have two children, bought the fifth-floor apartment at 62 Orchard Street for $2.2 million from Smart Design engineer Eric Freitag and his artist wife, Jil Weinstock, who bought the loft space completely raw and abandoned for $275,000 in 1998. The apartment, which the Freitags converted into a three-bedroom, was listed by Halstead’s Richard Orenstein. The listing boasts that “rustic, romantic, poetic, are just a few words to describe this authentic 2400SF full-floor loft located right in the heart of Downtown’s Lower East Side!” Filed: 4.29.10
As evidence that some industries are recession-proof, bankruptcy lawyer Ira Dizengoff and his wife, Betsy, bought a $6.451 million townhouse at 157 East 65th Street from the estate of Gordon and Frances Dewey, co-founders of Dewey Electronics. Mr. Dewey was also the grandson of the late philsopher and educator John Dewey (not to be confused with the decimal system inventor, Melvil Dewey). The five-story, elevator-equipped brownstone was listed by Corcoran’s Linda and Dennis Stillwell. One of 13 townhouses designed by John B. Snook in the 1860s, the row of townhouses share a large sunken rear garden (it even has a name: the Jones Wood Garden!), with fountains, multiple planting levels and no dividing walls or fences, creating “your own park in the backyard.” The late Ms. Frances Dewey received Garden Club of America Historic status for her landscape design of the garden, which is now registered with the Smithsonian.
cmalle@observer.com
