Townhouses

Bidding wars have become too familiar to cause much of a shock, and things have cooled down a bit in the city's most competitive markets, but a nice turn-key townhouse can still bring out the competition in full force. This was certainly the case when this four-story townhouse at 235 East 72nd Street changed hands for $10.1 million–well over the $9.5 million ask–after a bidding war between developers Naftali Group and Toll Brothers in February. The former emerged victorious, though rumor has it that both parties may have plans for amassing properties on the prime Upper East Side block. The furnished townhouse is now seeking a short- or long-term tenant to fork over $50,000 a month for the privilege of dwelling on its four renovated floors of five-bedroom spaciousness. The 5,250-square-foot 1910 house has been completely furnished with no detail left unfinished, and since it's managed by onefinestay, renters won’t have to pay utilities and get to enjoy perks like hotel-grade linens and towels, maid service, 24/7 concierge services, and iPhones with unlimited local calls and curated property and neighborhood information.
See all 5,250 square feet of this turn-key townhouse

Distinctive Homes

March 21, 2016

The Sale of This $2.8M Stuyvesant Heights Corner Limestone Beauty Will Benefit Creative Kids

There's so much to love about this 4,100-square-foot, four-story limestone townhouse at 271 Stuyvesant Avenue we hardly know where to start. For lovers of historic homes, this 1890s townhouse has a bounty of intact original details on every floor, from fireplaces to inlaid parquet floors to moldings and wainscoting. It's in a great corner spot in the prized Stuyvesant Heights historic district, the Bed-Stuy neighborhood known for its rows of architecturally notable brownstones and limestones. There's outdoor space and a deck; use the garden-level apartment for extra income (or live in the lower unit, with the yard and finished cellar). But perhaps the most rare blessing of this property is that proceeds from the sale of the $2.795 million home will "enable the launch of a non-profit creative residency for marginalized youth," founded by the current owner, renowned photojournalist and Guggenheim Fellow Brenda Kenneally.
Tour this amazing historic townhouse

March 21, 2016

Soap Star Cameron Mathison Sells Turn-Key Harlem Brownstone for $3.3M

In September, 6sqft uncovered the listing for 136 West 130th Street, the brownstone owned by Emmy-nominated “All My Children” regular and current "Entertainment Tonight" correspondent Cameron Mathison and his wife, Vanessa. The couple bought the four-bedroom home for $1.2 million in 2004 after house hunting and falling in love with Harlem's "Sesame Street” vibe. It had already been through a substantial developer-led renovation, but Mathison finished up the job, creating an urban oasis that's a mix of classic charm and contemporary fixes. Though the Canadian actor told the Times in 2009 that he “envisioned being in this place forever,” the plans changed when the TV show moved studios to Los Angeles. That same year, the couple listed the four-story home for $2.7 million, followed by a price cut to $2.5 million in 2011. There were no takers, so they rented the property out for $6,900 a month, before re-listing it this past fall for $2.9 million. Despite moving back to NYC, Luxury Listings NYC reports that the soap opera heartthrob has now sold the residence for $3.3 million, pretty significantly over ask.
Check out the space

March 14, 2016

Former Headquarters of the Christian Brothers Is Now a $15M Hell’s Kitchen Mansion

Spanning 7,000 square feet, with a two-story master bedroom that cantilevers out eight feet over the back garden, a back wall of glass and smart-everything, this single-family modern masterpiece may be mere blocks from the trophy towers of Billionaire's Row, but it outshines any of those eight-figure abodes by a midtown mile. Built in 1910, this six-story, 7,000 square-foot building at 416 West 51st Street was the headquarters of the Christian Brothers, whose main role was to keep neighborhood youth out of trouble, from 1953 until 2011. In the middle days of the 20th century through its end decade, there was trouble aplenty in the rough district known for tenements and street gangs. The neighborhood has come an almost unfathomly long way in recent years, and "the manse," as the listing calls it, is as good a parallel as we've seen. What's now being offered for $15 million is the result of the current owners' four year effort, in collaboration with Suk Design Group, to create a single family home fit more for a heavenly host than the Hell's Kitchen of history. Every inch of the building is wired for comfort and control, and there's a fully-stocked arcade and a "glass-wrapped floating staircase winding around the elevator like a helix," four enormous bedroom suites and that dramatic duplexed master suite.
Tour this unbelievable vertical mansion

March 14, 2016

Surfboard Storage and Skylights at This $2.7M Mixed-Use Building in Williamsburg

This Williamsburg townhouse at 61 Withers Street has been outfitted with all kinds of bonuses. A recent reno brought skylights, custom built-in shelving -- perfect for a surfboard collection -- and a new kitchen. Then there's 1,700 square feet of outdoor space and a commercial unit on the ground floor for some extra income to pay off that $2.69 million price tag. Finally, the zoning for this site allows a new buyer to expand the property, adding an extra 1,800 square feet.
Take a look inside

Distinctive Homes

March 10, 2016

Indulge Yourself in History at This $15K/Month Park Slope Brownstone Rental

When you think "historic Brooklyn brownstone," this restored Park Slope home is likely to at least come close to what's on your mind–and more likely to hit a bullseye. Perfectly-preserved flourishes and original details frame every room, including decorative moldings, original oak floors and Lincrusta wallcoverings, adding up to elegance you don't usually find in such flawless condition. Yet there's nothing old-fashioned about daily life in this five-bedroom, 3,680-square-foot triplex currently seeking tenants at $15,000 a month. You'll get zoned central air and heat, a laundry room with a washer/dryer, a kitchen that's ready for cooking and entertaining a crowd, baths filled with luxurious details, and countless other ways this pretty period piece has been optimized for modern life.
Take a walk around

March 9, 2016

For $3M You Can Live in Williamsburg and Still Have Your Townhouse Dreams

In most cases, the beautifully renovated dream townhouse is not the sort of dwelling you'd find in prime (or any) Williamsburg, but rather in historic brownstone 'hoods like Park Slope, Cobble Hill, Bed-Stuy or Crown Heights. Housing options in the 'burg, though pricey, are limited mostly to sleek new condos or nouveau lofts, with a few old-school converted warehouses, low-lying garages and smaller wood-frame houses. And the few row houses that exist have been split up, often rather unattractively, into many apartments. But this little unicorn at 338 Metropolitan Avenue, on the market for $3 million, puts you in the cool north Brooklyn zip code while getting to live your multi-storied townhouse dreams, complete with patio, skylight, amazing kitchen and creative play space. Since this isn't a landmarked block, you even get to paint the house a cute color with cool contrasting details. In this case the fire-engine red facade matches the fire/EMT station next door.
Take the tour

Distinctive Homes

March 7, 2016

Baxt/Ingui Architects Designed This $19M UWS Townhouse As an Energy-Efficient Passive Home

The listing calls the townhouse at 25 West 88th Street "beyond mint," and it's certainly green enough to qualify. This 8,000- square-foot Central Park West home has gotten its fair share of publicity recently. In addition to being a landmarked 1910 historic beauty and having undergone a stem-to-stern modern overhaul, the home's current owners, investment banker Kurt Roeloffs and his wife Shyanne, worked with the well-known Baxt/Ingui Architects to create an energy-efficient masterpiece that meets both LEED platinum and passive house standards. Even with all that efficiency, they didn't skimp on luxury. With six floors (and an elevator) and a finished cellar, six bedrooms plus rooms dedicated to yoga, meditation, exercise and crafts, this may, in fact, be "one of the finest contemporary townhomes on the Upper West Side."
Find out more about this amazing, energy-efficient home

March 3, 2016

Grand Carroll Gardens Brownstone With Original Details Gets a Price Chop to $6M

The story of the historic townhouse at 46 First Place in Carroll Gardens is just as much a story of its owner, Kathryn Sennis, who has lived in and worked from the elegant 1899 brownstone for nearly 32 years. In 2012, Sennis, a psychotherapist, opened Who's On First? Children's Enrichment Studio with her daughter here, offering art classes, parties, baby yoga and programs for parents and children, including foreign language classes and parenting groups. Ms. Sennis's story was highlighted in the Observer last May, where she told of buying the townhouse in 1981 for $250,000 from an “elderly Italian woman,” how her presence confused the neighbors at the time ("you ain't even Italian!") and how much the neighborhood has changed since then. She also talks of the extensive, exhaustive renovations she painstakingly undertook. She rents out the upper two floors, and her daughter uses the garden level of the four-family home. It’s a Brooklyn story like so many others–though in this case it's one with a $6 million price tag attached.
Tour the inside

Grand, Under-Construction Carnegie Hill Townhouse Could be Yours for $18M

By Ondel Hylton

Pre-war architecture is alive and well on the Upper East Side. At 178 East 94th Street, along a bucolic, tree-lined stretch of Carnegie Hill, a six-story, 7,650-square-foot, single-family home is squeezing into place as if it's been on the brownstone block for decades. The 36.5-foot-wide home is being built and designed by Daniel Kohs, owner of Long Island-based Madik Realty. Called the Danville House, the home hit the market earlier this month for $18 million. The sole exterior rendering accompanying the listing shows a red-brick exterior accentuated by vertical piers, culminating into pointed and spherical pinnacles. It's crowned near its apex by an open colonnade not unlike that of Murray Hill's Morgan Lofts.
READ MORE

March 1, 2016

$5M Home in Boerum Hill Combines Townhouse and Loft Aesthetics

This Boerum Hill townhouse at 243 Dean Street has gone through quite the renovation. A buyer purchased it in 2008 for $2.44 million and then made big changes to the five-story, single-family property, restoring some of the old details and adding lots of new perks in a complete gut renovation. Now it's outfitted with lots of wooden ceiling beams, huge skylights, exposed and painted brick walls and restored fireplaces and plasterwork. The listing even says that new walls, doors windows were fabricated on site. The result is something between a townhouse and a loft—perhaps it's got the best of both worlds. And it's now on the market for a good deal more than $2.44 million, asking nearly $5 million.
Take a look

Distinctive Homes

February 24, 2016

$4.8M Brooklyn Heights Duplex Has Amazing Historic Details and the Great Outdoors

Built by the Pierreponts in 1858, the immaculately preserved 25-foot-wide Italianate townhouse at 104 Pierrepont Street in Brooklyn Heights holds four co-op apartments developed by architect and historian Norval White. On the market for $4.825 million, the grandly proportioned parlor and garden floor make up a nearly 3,000-square-foot duplex with 700 square feet of private outdoor space–one of the loveliest gems in New York City's first landmarked district.
Explore both floors

February 23, 2016

Designer Fawn Galli’s Carroll Gardens Townhouse Is Inspired by Fantasy and Nature

By Rebecca Paul

The home of designer Fawn Galli is an eclectic and vibrant combination of colors, patterns and style, reflecting her not-so- typical childhood (she spent her early years living in a California home without electricity or plumbing) and and rich design background (she spent time abroad in Paris and Madrid). Located in Carroll Gardens, the Brooklyn brownstone is inspired by fantasy, nature and the world at large, bringing together unexpected combinations of style and influence.
READ MORE

Distinctive Homes

February 23, 2016

Restaurateur Keith McNally’s Greenwich Village Townhouse Is on the Menu for $13.95M

After spending some time on the rental market, first at $25,000/month then $19,000/month, restaurateur Keith McNally's 4,600 square-foot Greek Revival townhouse at 105 West 11th Street is for sale for $13.95 million (h/t Curbed). The New York Times once called McNally, whose success stories include buzzy establishments like Balthazar, Cherche Midi, Odeon, Café Luxembourg, Schiller’s and Minetta Tavern, "the man who invented Downtown." McNally purchased the house in 2002 for $2.496 million. Built in 1910, this 21-foot-wide, five-bedroom, four-story home should appeal to historic townhouse lovers as well as anyone with kitchen ambitions. From the walk-in wine cellar to the rustic French-country interiors, the house has been restored with a floor plan that considers both entertaining and daily life. Impressive details include five wood burning fireplaces, imported timber beams, reclaimed wide plank oak floor boards, casement windows, Venetian plaster walls and landscaped outdoor spaces, all on a historic townhouse-lined Greenwich Village street.
Take a look inside

February 22, 2016

A Three-Year Renovation and a Glass Rooftop Studio Perfect This $26M West Village Townhouse

The listing calls this $26 million historic West Village townhouse a "singular and exceptional offering," and it’s hard to disagree (h/t Curbed). Brit expat and tech entrepreneur Jos White and his wife Annabel, former director of The Rug Company, bought the house from interior designer James Huniford in 2009 for $7.25 million and embarked on a three-year renovation helmed by notable architect Basil Walter of BWArchitects with interiors by Poonam Khanna. The end result, according to the architects, "fuses past and present into a new, sophisticated 4,000-square-foot home," which includes a wild rooftop glass atelier (inspired by the Maison de Verre in Paris), 17th-century wood paneling, and a never-ending roster of impressive decor.
Check out the interiors

February 17, 2016

Looks Like Sarah Jessica Parker Is Combining Two West Village Townhouses

Carrie Bradshaw may not have been able to make her mind up about men, but Sarah Jessica Parker is more indecisive when it comes to real estate. The actress and hubby Matthew Broderick sold their Greenwich Village townhouse for $20 million back in March, which came after quite a few price cuts and almost three years on the market. And just a couple of weeks ago, they were seen checking out the Shephard, a new condo conversion in the 'hood. But it looks like SJP misses her townhouse, because broker-to-the-celebs Dolly Lenz shared an Instagram picture today, announcing that the couple is the buyer of two adjacent brick homes at 273 and 275 West 11th Street. Her caption implies that the power duo will combine the residences, which would result in a 50-foot-wide, 13,900-square-foot mega mansion, according to Curbed. The properties were last listed for $35 million total.
Find out more

February 12, 2016

Rent the Landmarked Clinton Hill Townhouse From ‘White Collar’ for $7,995/Month

This wood-frame townhouse at 106 Cambridge Place in historic Clinton Hill is in much better shape than some of its nearby Civil War-era brethren, many of which have been shored up and shined up with modern conveniences, leaving little remaining of their 19th century details. This 1860s house, however, is both gracefully preserved and filled with modern comforts both practical and stylish. Another distinction: The house appeared on the TV series "White Collar," as the home of FBI Agent Peter Burke. This five-bedroom, 20-foot-wide townhouse, after being listed for sale for $2.89 million last year, is now on the rental market for $7,995 a month. Since the listing refers to the upper triplex, we're assuming the garden apartment is either separately rented or otherwise used by the owners.
Take a look around

February 11, 2016

Notorious Novogratz Townhouse Where Heidi Klum Summered Sells for $14.5M

It only took nine years and a $10 million price chop, but the notoriously-hard-to-sell townhouse at 400 West Street has finally found a buyer for $14.5 million, reports the Post. Husband-and-wife design team Bob and Cortney Novogratz bought the West Village townhouse for $4.3 million back in 2007, and then undertook a complete renovation, adding an indoor basketball court, eight-person elevator, and insane rooftop terrace complete with a pizza oven and hot tub. All these amenities, coupled with the colorful and funky decor, caught the eye of Heidi Klum, who rented the home several times over the years, most recently for $70,000/month this past summer.
See the full spread

February 9, 2016

$19M Extravagant Riverside Drive Mansion Once Belonged to the ‘Father of the West Side’

There's something a little intimidating about an 8,000-square-foot, seven-bedroom single-family mansion that once belonged to "the father of the West Side" himself. The property in question is 327 West 76th Street, in the Riverside Drive area of the Upper West Side. The home was built in 1892 and quickly sold to Cyrus Clark, a businessman who retired from the silk business and went into real estate, making it his mission to campaign on behalf of developing Manhattan's West Side. The house wasn't distinct just for its owner, but because the exterior architecture stands out so distinctly in a row of more refined townhouses. For years the home was broken up into apartments, but developer Leonard Zelin converted it back to a single-family a few years back. Now he's hoping the investment will pay off: Zelin bought the townhouse for $8.8 million in 2010 and it's now asking an impressive $18.995 million.
Take a look around

February 8, 2016

Brooklyn’s Most Expensive Rental Ups Its Price to $29K/Month

The listing calls this 6,300-square-foot Brooklyn Heights townhouse at 11 Cranberry Street, for rent at $29,000 a month, "five floors of fabulous.com." We'd hope it lives up to the praise: The meticulously restored and painstakingly designed historic home is available furnished, for short or long term, and the asking rent (up from last summer's $25K monthly ask) makes it the borough's most expensive rental. The pretty–and pricey–neighborhood, transcendent bridge and river views, and proximity to Brooklyn Bridge Park already count for a premium. In addition to historic bones and soaring ceilings, the home has designer flair and up-to-the-millisecond modern conveniences like "an epic 5 zone Sonos music system" (though with five stories, we're noting the lack of an elevator).
Take the tour

Distinctive Homes

February 5, 2016

UES Townhouse With Hermès Leather Walls and Smoking Room Could Set Record at $84.5M

Somerset Partners’ Keith Rubenstein just put his 15,000-square-foot townhouse at 8 East 62nd Street on the market for $84.5 million, outdoing Carlos Slim's $80 million listing. The luxury-filled Upper East Side home is one of the city's priciest townhouse listings ever (h/t WSJ), and if it fetches the listing price it would set a Manhattan townhouse record, besting the Harkness Mansion’s 2006 $53 million sale. In addition to marquetry flooring inspired by those at Pavlovsk Palace in St. Petersburg, there are his and hers suites, a basement spa and gym, and a pretty unique modern art collection (see the massive KAWS bunny sculpture in the living room). Some off-the-wall features include red Hermès leather walls, a smoking room equipped with ventilation system, and a dressing room with a lighted handbag display and temperature-controlled fur vault.
Check out the rest of the zany house

February 5, 2016

Combine This Matched Pair of UES Townhouses for a $22M Mega-Mansion

Last year, three massive UES townhouses were marketed for megamansion potential and listed for $120 million, and Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich bought this sprawling townhouse combo for his own makeshift manse. Now, here's an opportunity to combine a pair of more modest–though by no means small–late-1800s townhouses for an Upper East Side mansion of your own, albeit on–let's call it a more human scale (forgetting for a moment that some lucky human gets to live in 6,700 square feet with 38 feet of frontage.). When you first see this matched pair of houses side-by-side at 159-161 East 82nd Street, you're struck by their charm and how much they epitomize the neighborhood's tree-shaded, brownstone-lined blocks. The fact that both four-story homes are for sale as a package deal for $22 million presents a mind-boggling list of options. There are even alternate plans that show you where to put a cellar pool (plus a sauna and a gym)!
Take a look inside

January 28, 2016

A Former Engraver’s Studio in Sniffen Court, Now a Townhouse, Asks $6.45 Million

Who wouldn't want to live in a townhouse with lots of interesting history, located in one of just a few private mews in New York City? Enter this listing at 156 East 36th Street, a Murray Hill townhouse that originally served as stables during the Civil War era, then was converted to an engraver's studio in 1915. The Romanesque building is also a part of the Sniffen Court Mews, which is blocked from the public by a private gate off East 36th Street. Sniffen Court was constructed between 1863 and 1864 as a collection of carriage houses–the off-street placement helped solve noise and odor issues related to the horses. The stables were in use until the early 1920s, when automobiles replaced horses, and eventually they were converted to residential.
Read more about this house

January 27, 2016

Facebook Co-Founder Revealed As Buyer of $23.5M West Village Townhouse With an Underground Tunnel