The Observer has not ruined things for Laurie Tisch, not entirely.
Whether or not it was our fault, last December, in these very Web pages, it was revealed that Greenwich Village power couple Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick had ended a two-year real estate hunt at Ms. Tisch’s massive and stunning and stunningly massive 88 Central Park West duplex, which combined two co-op units on the 9th and 10th floors into a languorous 14-room, L-shaped spread. But before the month was through, ParBro had, horror of horrors, 
changed their minds.
They wound up staying in Greenwich Village, where they bought another townhouse April, and Ms. Tisch was forced to put her home back on the market–she had already decamped across the Park for the pinnacle of New York living, 834 Fifth, where she paid $29 million to watch the polar bears be fed from the 13th floor. Meanwhile the star-dusted building, where Robert DeNiro spent $20.9 million for a similar duplex on the fourth and fifth floors in 2006, and where Sting departed last year for $17.75 million, went wanting for new neighbors.
But Ms. Tisch need look no further than the neighbors already there.
Jeffrey Gates, head of an eponymous private equity fund that invests in media properties, and his partner Richard Michael Moran, an administrator at the Westside Montessori School, are moving up from 6W to 9N, for which they paid $15.15 million, according to city records.
The Brentmore, which was built in 1910, features an unusual design by Schwartz and Gross. The U-shaped building has three apartments to a floor, and each with their own unique design. The slightly larger southern units are spread out wide across the wing with eight rooms, the narrower western units stretch across the back of the building and the northern units feature staggered duplex that crisscross up their side. Both of the latter covered
The duplex Messrs. Gates and Moran bought was unusual, though, because it featured two extra rooms from the adjoining 10th floor western apartment, creating a unique a rare spread with full northern frontage. “From the moment you enter the 20-foot gallery leading to the elegant 32-foot living room are dazzled by superb Central Park views from oversized windows,” write Cindy Kurtin and Jessica Vertullo-Maher in their Stribling listing. “This is a magnificent room for entertaining.”
Who would want the leftovers, a five-room tail on the back of the building with only two bedrooms, a kitchen and a dining room? Why one of the immediate neighbors, who could use it to expand their own spread. A source would not name names, but did say it had been bought for around $4 million.
Ms. Tisch had originally listed the 14-room combo for $25 million last July, before cutting it to $21.5 million in November, not long before the dynamic duo showed up. After their departure, it came back on the market for that amount, with the option to buy both or just the bigger of the two units for $18.25 million. A million-dollar chop in early March was followed by the listings being pulled at the end of the month, the gambit having worked.
With $19 million in hand, and no idea what ParBro would have paid, we have to assume Ms. Tisch has done pretty well for herself, just maybe not as well as she might have.
