(Hampton Pix PHOTO CREDIT: Hampto)
Le Bernardin’s Eric Ripert is putting his money where his kitchen is.
The three-Michelin-starred chef is in contract to buy a two-bedroom, two-bathroom, 1,272-square-foot condo at the new Chelsea Green development on West 21st Street.
The floor-through unit with north and south exposures was listed for $1.835 million, and the deal is expected to close in January. We hear that Ripert is also keeping his current apartment on East 72nd Street.
Units in Chelsea Green boast the Eric Ripert Kitchen by Poggenpohl, which includes eco-friendly materials and energy-efficient appliances including a Miele induction cooktop.
On Tuesday, Alison Price-Becker of Alison Eighteen and her executive chef, Juan Carlos Landazuri, were at the Chelsea Green sales gallery to debut new menu items while demonstrating induction cooking in the Ripert-designed model kitchen, fully built-out in the sales center.
The 14-story, 51-unit Chelsea Green building is nearly sold out.
’Fein and dandy
Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein has purchased a massive estate on Ocean Road in Bridgehampton, which was listed for $32.5 million. The deal includes a second building parcel for a total of 7.4 acres.
The estate and its 8,000-square-foot main house (right) are not on the water, but it’s a lot of land south of the highway, with room to build a second house. “This purchase is all about the property,” a source says. “There is no water at all. But Lloyd isn’t really an oceanfront person. He wanted a big property.”
The sellers are Ellen Chesler, a senior fellow with the Roosevelt Institute, and retired lawyer Matt Mallow. Neither Blankfein, Chesler nor Mallow returned calls.
The main house includes seven bedrooms, a formal living room with a wet bar, a formal dining room, an upstairs great room, a pool and a tennis court. All of it is hidden behind hedges and a winding driveway.
Blankfein still owns a Parsonage Lane estate that he had been trying to sell. He had it on the market for close to $14 million but was unable to find a buyer.
Cohen gets goin’
Music mogul Lyor Cohen, the boyfriend of designer Tory Burch, is in contract to sell his six-story townhouse at 1 E. 94th St., which had a $26 million asking price, down from $28 million.
The buyer is Joseph Baratta, global head of private equity at Blackstone.
The six-bedroom home off Fifth Avenue is a 25-foot-wide limestone mansion with an 1892 Cass Gilbert façade. The residence, which even Upper West Side mainstay Jerry Seinfeld took a look at, comes with an elevator, a patio, a windowed basement and an eat-in kitchen with access to a garden. The full-floor master suite has a planted terrace with Central Park Reservoir views.
Baratta and his wife, Abigail, had been renting another townhouse after returning to NYC from London.
Last year, Cohen sold his Bridgehampton mansion for close to $10 million. The waterfront home on Jobs Lane is set on 2.9 acres.
We hear Cohen is now focused on developing his stunning 6-acre waterfront property in North Haven.
Fred’s spread
Douglas Elliman broker Fredrik Eklund, a star of Bravo’s “Million Dollar Listing New York,” knows how to get himself a deal.
He just bought a 2,400-square-foot condo loft on West 27th Street for $1.65 million. That’s less than $700 a square foot on a prime Chelsea block, which shows Eklund’s chops as a negotiator. The unit has 11 1/2- foot ceilings and oversized windows.
We hear that Eklund, who is getting married to artist Derek Kaplan on an island off Florida in February, plans to gut-renovate the unit. Will the renovation, and the upcoming nuptials, be part of next season’s show? Officially, there’s no comment. But, our intuition says stay tuned!
We hear . . .
That an 1,888-square-foot, two-bedroom, 2 1/2-bathroom condo that was featured in this month’s Elle Decor as part of Hearst’s Designer Visions showhouse has sold for $2.95 million. The interior designer was Matthew Patrick Smyth. The unit at 250 West St. was sold unfurnished to an unnamed buyer . . . That the Rudin family won the 2012 Sustainable Design Award for Global Green USA for 130 W. 12th St., which is home to buyers including Rosie O’Donnell. The building’s eco-friendly features include an on-site natural-gas-fired co-generation plant . . . That Douglas Elliman CEO Dottie Herman co-chaired the European School of Economics fifth annual gala last night honoring Donald Trump and Kathy and Rick Hilton.