Facebook co-founder and New Republic owner Chris Hughes and husband Sean Eldridge have bought a $23.5 million West Village townhouse.
The landmarked property at 157 W. 12th St. even comes with an underground tunnel that connects it to a carriage house.
“The homes are connected via subterranean tunnel, but it’s nothing like El Chapo’s,” joked a visitor. The underground passage is about 10 feet wide and “beautifully lit.”
The place comes with a screening room and well-stocked wine cellar, sources said. It begins in the townhouse’s finished basement, under a garden, and leads to a staircase that delivers visitors up to the carriage house. “There’s no tunnel feel at all,” a source marveled.
The carriage house can be used as a guesthouse or studio. Hughes and Eldridge bought the mansion in an off-market deal from Michael Stewart, who works for UBS in Zurich. His broker, Paula Del Nunzio of Brown Harris Stevens, did not return calls. When Stewart bought the home for $3.4 million in 2004, it came with a more rustic version of the tunnel, which he improved, a source said.
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg was mistakenly rumored to be the buyer this time. Hughes and Eldridge’s previous apartment, in a former corset factory at 30 Crosby St., just sold for $8.5 million.
It’s 4,164 square feet, “smart-wired” of course, and has three bedrooms — one of which was transformed into a gym — plus three bathrooms, a custom wet bar, a wood-burning fireplace, exposed brick, 19th-century columns, a chef’s kitchen, a home theater and an impressive, book-lined library.