Despite the widespread devastation, Superstorm Sandy left at least one big winner in its wake.
A California trailer-park king turned swimsuit designer snapped up a posh 12th-floor pad in one of architect Richard Meier’s celebrity-packed West Village glass towers — for $1 million below market price.
Brian Fitterer, who made a fortune in real estate before launching haute Kandy Wrapper Swimwear, forked over $5.5 million sight unseen for an 1,800-square-foot condo in the Sandy-battered building at 173 Perry St.
“I used Hurricane Sandy as a negotiating tool,” Fitterer, 54, told The Post yesterday. “Because of the hurricane, the owner wanted out. He was losing rent. No one was buying in this market.”
A similar apartment in Meier’s Perry Street towers — which celebs like Calvin Klein, Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman have called home — was listed pre-Sandy for $6.4 million.
Fitterer displaced Pablo Picasso’s great-granddaughter, Diana, an art historian who was paying $25,000 a month in rent to owner David Yontef until she and the building’s other residents were forced to evacuate.
“Diana Picasso had hundreds of Picasso books, memorabilia and art in the apartment. She wanted to buy the apartment, but my client signed the contract fast,” says Sarah Williams of Douglas Elliman, Fitterer’s broker.
Another offer came in that was $800,000 more, but it was also too late.
Fitterer’s new digs offer sweeping views of the Hudson. Few units in the all-glass towers have curtains because of the spectacular vistas.
Williams blamed the quick, cut-rate sale on “the weirdness of Hurricane Sandy” that spooked the owner.
“Everyone was freaking out. It was like having a murder in your neighborhood. No one wants to come by,” says Williams, who closed the deal with fellow broker Alyssa Soto, of Douglas Elliman’s SOTOWILLIAMS team. “But then Hurricane Sandy went away. New Yorkers stopped freaking out. They have short memories.”
Yontef originally wanted $6.2 million, Fitterer’s brokers say, based on what Kidman got per square foot when she sold for $16 million in 2012.
Sandy hammered the Perry St. towers, flooding the basements and knocking out power to the buildings.
Klein — who reportedly spent $20 million for a 16,000-square-foot penthouse — sought refuge at the Mercer Hotel in SoHo before moving back a few weeks ago.
The gym was destroyed, as was celebrity chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s restaurant, Perry Street.
By December, the city had granted permission for residents to move back, and Vongerichten’s restaurant reopened last Wednesday.