Sandcastle is listed for $43.5M (Doug Kuntz)
Miranda Kerr (Sara De Boer/startraksphoto.com)
Media mogul Arianna Huffington might be persona non grata in Chelsea — where she is accused in a lawsuit of trashing a $32,000-a-month apartment designed by architect Charles Gwathmey and owned by his filmmaker stepson, Eric Steel — but she has moved on to SoHo.
On Dec. 27, just in time to avoid the higher taxes in 2013, Huffington bought a marvelous Mercer Street luxury loft for around $8 million. “Arianna is just finishing decorating the apartment, and she is really happy there,” a source says.
The founder of the Huffington Post’s new three-bedroom, 4,000-plus-square-foot home includes a 50-foot-wide entertaining space with high ceilings, wide-plank floors, a professional-grade kitchen and a regal master suite.
The seller was former Goldman Sachs investment banker Matt L’Heureux, who has moved to California.
Down at the W
Keller Williams Realty broker Luis Ortiz — who will co-star in Bravo’s second season of “Million Dollar Listing New York,” set to start airing next month — is renting a one-bedroom, one-bathroom, 747-square-foot furnished corner apartment at the Residences at W New York Downtown. That’s the Financial District building where Jeremy Lin lived during the height of Linsanity, before the Knicks traded him to Houston.
Building amenities include a residents-only roof terrace, a lounge and the BLT Bar & Grill restaurant. Fellow residents include rapper Bow Wow.
Cruz control
Banking heavyweight Zoe Cruz, the former co-president of Morgan Stanley, just bought a $7.1 million, three-bedroom, three-bathroom abode at 912 Fifth Ave.
In 2006, Cruz was ranked the 10th-most powerful woman in the world by Forbes magazine, and her massive new home is worthy of a high roller. The prewar co-op, built in 1925, is 2,700 square feet. It includes a marble foyer that leads to a large living room with a woodburning fireplace, big windows and great views of Central Park and the skyline.
Pied in full
Hamptons developer to the stars Joe Farrell is finally getting urbanized. Farrell just closed on a $3.5 million Manhattan home at 510 Park Ave.
“It’s a pied-à-terre,” a source says. That home, which was once listed for $4.9 million in 2011, is a three-bedroom, 4 1/2-bathroom co-op. The classic space includes a corner parlor with a woodburning fireplace, a formal dining room and a library with a wet bar.
Brokers Vincent Santoro and Michael Lorber, of Douglas Elliman’s Sroka Worldwide Team, had the listing.
The home was owned by the estate of Jan Mitchell, who owned the famed Lüchow’s restaurant.
Farrell built his dream home in the Hamptons, known as Sandcastle, where he now lives with his family. But he’s willing to part with it for the right price. That 26,500-square-foot mansion, which Jay-Z and Beyoncé rented last summer, is on the market for $43.5 million. It’s also available for rent again this summer.
We also hear that Lorber has declined to return to “Million Dollar Listing New York” for a second season.
“They upped Michael’s salary, but his clients didn’t want to be on the show. He had fun but was worried that he’d never pass a co-op board if he continued,” a source says.
Model home finds buyer
Aussie supermodel Miranda Kerr has closed on her deal to sell her condo at the Jade building at 16 W. 19th St. for $1.345 million.
The one-bedroom, one-bathroom Flatiron bachelorette pad, which Kerr purchased before marrying Orlando Bloom, sold for its asking price. It is 904 square feet and features Miele and Sub-Zero kitchen appliances, plus a Juliet balcony. Jade Jagger, daughter of Mick Jagger, designed the condo building’s interiors.
Ty Havlioglu of Town Residential represented buyer Zafer Civelek.