The sprawling Soho loft belonging to rocker Lenny Kravitz, which has been on the market since 2002, recently landed an offer at close to the $13.95 million asking price, real-estate sources familiar with the apartment said.
The 6,000-square-foot duplex, which Mr. Kravitz purchased in October 2000 for $8 million, first hit the market at $17 million in July 2002, before dropping to $14.95 million last year. In October 2003, the four-time Grammy Award–winning musician slashed an additional $1 million off the asking price. According to sources, the bidder on the five-bedroom, eight-bathroom spread in the Loft, the illustrious building at 30 Crosby Street, is a finance executive who fell for the rock ‘n’ roll refuge.
Andrea Wohl Lucas, a vice president with Douglas Elliman (DOUG) who has the listing on Mr. Kravitz’s spread, declined to comment on any potential offer, only saying that “there are no proceedings.”
A spokesperson for Mr. Kravitz didn’t return calls for comment.
But according to sources familiar with the building, a serious offer is on the table, and if Mr. Kravitz, 39, does indeed accept, he’ll finally part ways with the penthouse that he transformed into a study in rock ‘n’ roll design. The apartment, designed by celebrity decorator Benjamin Noriega-Ortiz (who also designed the building’s lobby, complete with aromatherapy), features a gourmet stainless-steel and marble kitchen, ceilings reaching 30 feet, a billiard room, a media room, a glass-encased terrace with a hot tub and a living room that features the apartment’s signature detail-an undulating wall that spits fire. A glass staircase leads to the upstairs master bedroom and the three guest bedrooms, while a second glass staircase accesses the roof deck and its built-in grill.
“It’s for someone who has extremely showy tastes,” one source who has toured the property said.
Over the years, the home has reportedly been the downtown crash pad for Mr. Kravitz’s celebrity friends, including Denzel Washington and, most notably, Nicole Kidman. During Ms. Kidman’s sojourn in the sumptuous spread, a romance was sparked between the rocker and the lissome Aussie. The couple dated before reportedly calling it quits this winter.
When the former 19th-century paper factory, on a cobblestone block between Broome and Grand streets, underwent a $25 million conversion into 13 loft apartments in 2000, it became a magnate for house-shopping A-listers. Raucous rocker Courtney Love bought a fourth-floor loft in January 2001 for $2.6 million, and promptly sold the place for $3 million the following year. Other celebrities who toured the building when it was being marketed in 2000 include Liv Tyler, Claudia Schiffer, Rosie O’Donnell, Mike Piazza and Cindy Crawford; in 2001, Ben Stiller used a third-floor model apartment as a shooting location for his fashion-world spoof Zoolander .
If Mr. Kravitz does strike a deal with the current bidder, he won’t be left wanting for luxurious real estate. According to a 2002 report in The New York Times’ Home Design Magazine , in addition to his Soho spread, Mr. Kravitz-the son of NBC news producer Sy Kravitz and the late Roxie Roker of The Jeffersons fame-owns a 50-acre, 12-building compound in the Bahamas; a 19th-century “Creole” cottage in New Orleans’ French Quarter; and two Miami properties: a home in his former recording studio overlooking Biscayne Bay and a sprawling 15,000-square-foot Mediterranean-styled mansion named “Villa Roxie,” after his mother who passed away in 1995.
The former penthouse apartment of Rock Hudson, in the famed Beresford, on Central Park West at 81st Street, is now up for grabs at a reduced asking price. According to the open listing system available to brokers, the apartment was listed with Lois Lawrence of Douglas Elliman for $9 million in July 2003. And on April 2, according to sources, the price on the 19th-floor penthouse was dropped to $7.75 million.
Ms. Lawrence, when reached by phone, declined to comment and said the apartment would be taken off the market if it was reported in the press. As of April 20, the property was still showing as available on the Douglas Elliman Web site.
The apartment first made headlines back in 1986, when the Associated Press reported that Hudson’s estate had sold the spread for $2 million after the actor died from AIDS in October 1985, at 59. Following the sale of the New York City home, a private trust reportedly purchased Hudson’s 2.5-acre Beverly Hills estate for $2.89 million.
According to sources, the owner who purchased the 19th-floor Beresford apartment nearly 20 years ago has since completed a dramatic renovation. Douglas Elliman’s Web site describes the apartment as having three bedrooms, two and a half baths and terraces with full park views.
“They ripped out every inch of it,” said a broker who recently toured the spread. “The elevator opens up directly into the apartment. It’s one of the most breathtaking apartments on Central Park West.”
“It’s one of those ‘wow’ apartments,” the source added. “It’s for a single person or a couple. It’s a very adult apartment, perfect for a celebrity-at least one who could pass the board.”
RECENT TRANSACTIONS IN THE REAL ESTATE MARKET
Harlem
116 West 124th Street
Four-bedroom, three-bathroom townhouse.
Asking: $849,000. Selling: $800,000.
Time on the market: three days.
NORTHERN EXPOSURE Six months ago, the owner of this turn-of-the-century townhouse on West 124th Street came close to being foreclosed on by his bank. Instead, a wealthy and prescient investor, sensing Harlem’s continued real-estate renaissance, stepped in and purchased the 3,400-square-foot building between Seventh and Lenox avenues. With the ongoing trend of house shoppers looking north of 110th Street, the real-estate investor knew that he would find a buyer for the three-unit building. Indeed, he was right. Less than a week later, an art dealer and his attorney wife purchased the home from the real-estate investor, and now the couple plan an extensive renovation to the four-story spread. “It’s one block from Bill Clinton’s office, and right near the building the N.B.A. purchased on 126th Street and Lenox,” said broker Glenn Rice, a partner with the Harlem broker Willie Kathryn Suggs, who sold the three-family house. “They’re putting in all-new bathrooms and kitchens.” The historic Harlem townhouse has such details as a copper triangular bay window, and will be configured with a ground-floor duplex that the owners will occupy, and two floor-through apartments on the upper stories.
Boerum Hill
438 Pacific Street
Two-bedroom, one-bathroom co-op.
Asking: $405,000. Selling: $405,000.
Maintenance: $713; 72 percent tax-deductible.
Time on the market: one week.
DIPLOMATIC DECISION While the tony blocks around the United Nations serve as home base to a multitude of foreign-service workers, this Australian diplomat and his wife preferred the quieter enclave of Boerum Hill in Brooklyn. The couple and their two children had been living in this two-bedroom brownstone co-op on Pacific Street for about three years when health problems forced them to return to the land down under to be closer to family. “The place is stunning. You look out the front windows, and there’s gigantic cherry trees,” said Christine Scholtz of the Corcoran Group, who sold the spread to a woman who had been renting in the neighborhood for several years. The buyer, who runs the P.R. department at Hunter College, wanted to remain in the neighborhood and fell for the renovated 840-square-foot apartment after an open house tour. “It has very clean lines. With high ceilings and three skylights, it really feels like a loft,” Ms. Scholtz said.
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