Designer Sara Story, who creates fun and stylish interiors, has expensive taste. Story and her husband, Ken Garschina, principal of Mason Capital Management, just bought a $4.35 million Gothic Victorian stone mansion in posh Sneden’s Landing.
The 7,800-square-foot Rockland County residence on 6 acres is a few doors down from a mansion that Mikhail Baryshnikov is in the process of selling. (As we previously reported, Baryshnikov recently went into contract to sell his home, known as the “Red Barn,” and an adjacent 1-acre lot for around $4 million.)
While Story’s new house is an extraordinary home with “great bones,” we hear it’s also a serious fixer-upper — in need of a total renovation, down to the electrical and plumbing systems.
The seller is Donald Drapkin, an old-school corporate raider who worked closely for two decades with billionaire Ronald Perelman before moving to Lazard and then founding his own hedge fund, Casablanca Capital.
Broker Richard Ellis of Ellis Sotheby’s declined to comment.
Young Turks
A swanky villa in Turks & Caicos where model Miranda Kerr and actor Orlando Bloom recently vacationed is now on the market for a whopping $16 million. The four-bedroom, 4½-bathroom dream home is 12,315 square feet. The villa is set in the Amanyara resort — where a flock of Victoria’s Secret models also recently stayed for a shoot.
Prudential Douglas Elliman listing broker Jared Seligman declined to comment.
We hear . . .
That fine-art dealer Edward Tyler
Nahem is showcasing contemporary pieces from his personal collection at Town Residential’s offices. Artists include Pablo Bronstein (currently featured in a solo show at London’s Institute of Contemporary Art) and Ben Peterson (whose large-scale works on paper are on view at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts).
Summer of Sapir
Cabbie turned billionaire real estate mogul Tamir Sapir isn’t just renting a Southampton beach house. He’s renting a compound. The waterfront estate — two homes on a bluff with stairs to the beach — includes a pool, two spas overlooking the bay, a tennis court, two cabanas and a generator. The main house, a traditional shingle-style home, has 10 bedrooms and 7½ bathrooms.
The property, once owned by fellow New York real estate bigwig Andrew Farkas, was listed at $260,000 from Memorial Day through Labor Day. In the past, Sapir, who was born in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, spent summers on his yacht. Now, multiple Russian billionaires have been spotted on the way in and out of his rental.
Sapir made news last year by selling his Fifth Avenue Duke-Semans mansion to Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim for $44 million — without using a broker.
It takes two
We wonder if Mexican businessman Fernando Chico Pardo has been picking up Manhattan real estate tips from his old boss Carlos Slim, who, as mentioned above, owns the Duke-Semans mansion on Fifth Avenue.
Pardo has, in two separate purchases, acquired a serious New York trophy home of his own — a full-floor spread at power palace 15 Central Park West. Pardo quietly made his first 15 CPW condo purchase last year for $12.4 million. Now he’s bought the only other condo on the floor — which had an $8.5 million asking price — and, we’re told, has plans to combine the apartments.
We doubt that Pardo will ever have problems making travel arrangements to Manhattan. He’s chairman of Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste, which operates nine Mexican airports.
Fit for royalty
The former Upper East Side home of American-born Italian countess and fashion icon Consuelo Crespi has just sold for close to its current $1.05 million asking price. Crespi, who was a model and editor of Vogue Italia, died last October at the age of 82, and her one-bedroom co-op at exclusive 1120 Park Ave. hit the market with an original $1.2 million asking price in January.
The apartment, purchased by Eileen Villa, includes a sitting area off the living room that faces the Central Park Reservoir. There’s also a large dining gallery with white-and-black, diamond-patterned marble floors.
Crespi is survived by her daughter, Pilar Crespi Robert (a socialite, former fashion p.r. executive and Vogue editor), as well as a son, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.