Monday 11 November 2013

Monday Pick Up Sticks

After a long and much-chronicled search Tinseltowner Leo DiCaprio is reported to have at long last acquired a deluxe Manhattan pied-a-terre in a newly constructed, wellness-oriented building in the heart of Greenwich Village between Union Square and Washington Square Park.

No word yet on which of the five units in the boutique building he selected but whichever it is he blew an impressive wad; The least expensive unit—almost 3,700 square feet with three bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms—carries a hefty $14.5 million price tag and the most expensive, a four bedroom and 4.5 bathroom duplex penthouse with a 2,300+ square foot roof terrace complete with solarium, outdoor shower, spa and convenient half bathroom, is saddled with a downright fat $50,000,000 asking price. (New York Post)

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Ukrainian-born Dancing With the Stars hoofer Karin Smirnoff snapped up her second million dollar-plus house this year. In January (2013) the lithe ballroom expert paid $1.35 million for a five bedroom and six bathroom house in super-suburban (and hot-as-Hades) Woodland Hills (CA) and just this month she shelled out another $1.25 million for a three bedroom and three bathroom Mediterranean villa in the the Hollywood Hills. (Trulia Luxe Living)

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After 20 years of marriage actress, long-time Malibu residents Jane Seymour and actor/producer/director James Keach are headed for the court of divorce and, so the celebrity real estate scuttlebutt goes, Mister Keach shelled out $4.4 million for a three bedroom and three bathroom bachelor pad condominium in the ever-more upscale (and notoriously politically correct) ocean side community of Santa Monica, CA. (L.A. Times)

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After an unsuccessful but valiant attempt to unload it for $95,000,000 and then $85 million, steel magnate Leory Schecter re-listed his two-unit combo condo on the 35th floor of the prodigiously pricey 15 Central Park West building in New York City with a much lower but still mind-numbing $70 million price tag. 

The children may recall that before he undertook a renovation that combined the two units into one 6,000 square foot sprawler Mister Schecter leased one of the units to beleaguered professional baseballer Alex "A-Rod" Rodriguez for around $35,000 per month. The other half was leased to big shit businessman Henry Silverman who founded the business services juggernaut Cendant Corp. (New York Observer)

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Although it was peeped by a slew of rich and/or famous people including Leo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Steve Madden, and Matt Cohler (of Facebook fame and fortune) as well as a couple of Middle Eastern potentates it was Zhang Zin, one of China's wealthiest self-made lady billionaires, who dropped $26,000,000 on a recently and completely over-hauled (and particularly stunning) 8-floor townhouse on a plum, tree-lined street block between Park and Madison avenues in New York City's hoity-toity Upper East Side.

Side note: You just gotta love that a multi-billionaire Chinese lady capitalist bought a New York City townhouse where, as per listing photographs, the formal dining room hung with eight—eight!—multi-colored Andy Warhol lithographs (or prints or whatever they are) of communist party leader Mao Zedong. Can we call that some delicious real estate irony? Yes, we can.  (New York Post)

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The large and architecturally egregious Pacific Palisades mansion that international pop star Rihanna occupied and fled after a series moe-rons attempted to trespass and burglarize the property—one man was found up on the God damn roof—has returned to the market with an asking price of $65,000 per month. Ri-ri has reportedly settled into a rented downtown New York City duplex and bought a $22 million dollar townhouse-type mansion on her native Barbados. (Trulia Luxe Living)

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The boxy contemporary mansion in a swanky gated development in Phoenix (AZ) that child actor turned race car driver Frankie Muniz bought in 2010 for $2.65 million has popped up on the open market with an asking price of $2,995,000. Blah. Blah. Blah. (Realtor.com)