One broker could single-handedly lower New York’s collective IQ, after parading two of California’s better-known bottle blondes through Manhattan apartments.
And oops, Britney Spears is looking to buy in New York again! Our sources say that the singer mom/pop tard is searching for a West Village loft in the $9 million price range. She had previously owned an apartment in the Silk Building on East Fourth Street that she sold for $4 million last year. “Britney and her manager recently looked at a couple of places a few weeks ago,” says a source. “She apparently wants to start over in NYC.”
Meanwhile, sources says Prudential Douglas Elliman’s Darren Sukenik, the broker who’s taken Britney shopping, has also brought Jessica Simpson through one of his listings on West 17th Street with a $3.99 million price tag.
The loft-like, six-room duplex penthouse condo in Chelsea, with three bedrooms and two baths, has 2,400 square feet of space with a wood-burning fireplace and a terrace with views in three directions.
When we finally reached the elusive Sukenik, he had no comment.
Write price
The co-op apartment that served as the office and sanctuary of late historian and author Arthur Schlesinger has already gone to contract after only two weeks on the market. The prewar apartment of approximately 1,200 square foot at 455 E. 51st St., which had a $1.5 million asking price, has two bedrooms, a fireplace and river views.
The unit is located across a courtyard from Schlesinger’s main residence, where his widow, Alexandra, still resides. A resident of the building is said to be the buyer. Schlesinger, the author of more than 20 books, was a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner.
“This is where Arthur wrote for the past 15 years,” says listing broker Kathy Sloane of Brown Harris Stevens. “There is still a list of the fax numbers of editors taped up on the wall.”
New York, New York
Martin Scorsese departed and has now returned to his old neighborhood. After selling the townhouse on East 62nd Street that he owned for 20 years, the Oscar-winning director has bought another vintage home just two blocks away.
His new digs on East 64th Street, for which he paid $12.5 million, is a six-bedroom, six-bath renovated 1920s townhouse of approximately 7,000 square feet, with 10 rooms on five levels plus a finished basement. Features include an elevator, period details, lots of dark paneling and a chandelier in the third-floor master bedroom.
The property also has a bricked garden on the first level and an English garden terrace on master-bedroom level.
The listing broker was Cindy Bernat of the Corcoran Group.
The seller is Harvey Schiller, who is president of the International Baseball Federation and previously served as executive director and secretary general of the U.S. Olympic Committee. Schiller was also president of sports for Turner Broadcasting.
Scorsese and his fifth wife, Helen, sold their four-story residence with five bedrooms and six baths, located on East 62nd Street, for $6.158 million last July.