Alex Rodriguez might not yet know his fate as a Yankee. But if there’s a hint of his possible future as a pinstriper, it’s on East 80th Street.
According to our sources, A-Rod has been involved in negotiations not only with Yankees management, but also with the owner of a stately renovated seven-bedroom townhouse on the block between Madison and Fifth avenues. But the home has no official sales listing.
“The price being bandied about is somewhere between $39 million and $41 million,” according to an insider who says a contract has been drawn up but not inked. “Nothing is going to be signed, if at all, until [Rodriguez] is aware of his fate.”
The All-Star Yankees third baseman is expected to know whether he stays or goes by mid-November.
With word that his wife, Cynthia, is pregnant, and that nannies and in-laws are sure to soon be arriving, the ’07 home-run champ is looking for something more spacious than his three-bedroom pad at Trump Park Avenue.
Rodriguez and his wife have also been spending time at a home they’ve been renting in Rye, to test the suburban waters.
“The Rodriguez family is not in the market for a New York home at this time,” insists A-Rod‘s broker, Adam Modlin of the Modlin Group.
Country Grammer
Kelsey Grammer is already looking for a buyer for his (relatively) new Hamptons home.
The “Cheers,” “Frasier” and now “Back to You” sitcom star and his wife, Camille, have just listed their Bridgehampton mansion for $16.1 million, less than two years after buying the new-construction home. Included in the two-story, 8,000-square-foot manse are seven bedrooms, 7½ baths, a great room, a home theater, a gym, a wine cellar and a gourmet kitchen. The home includes several fireplaces, an elevator, two staircases, custom moldings and staff quarters.
Its landscaped 1.7-acre lot features a heated pool and spa, a pool “cottage” with two fireplaces and a sunken tennis court.
The Grammers closed on the Joseph Farrell-built home in January 2006 for $8.517 million, according to public records.
“It’ll be the first home that we actually bought in the Hamptons,” Grammer told us at the time. “It’s new construction, which we’re happy about. We didn’t want to get involved with a project.”
Faye Weisberg of Sotheby’s International Realty has the listing.
Camelot co-op
The co-op apartment that served as the office and sanctuary of late historian and author Arthur Schlesinger has just gone on the market.
Included in the prewar apartment at 455 E. 51st St., with a $1.5 million asking price, are two bedrooms, one bath, a fireplace and river views. The approximately 1,200-square-foot unit is located across a courtyard from Schlesinger’s main residence, where his wife, Alexandra, still resides.
Schlesinger, the author of more than 20 books, was a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner. As a Kennedy White House insider, he chronicled the administration in “A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House.”
“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.”
Schlesinger was 89 when he succumbed to a heart attack last February.
SoHot in SoHo
The hottie factor at the 40 Mercer condo building got a serious upgrade this week when Tyra Banks and a pregnant Halle Berry both looked at the same apartment on different days.
Sources say model and TV host Banks came by to check out a three-bedroom, 3 1/2-bath apartment with 11-foot ceilings, which is sporting an $8.5 million price tag in the Andre Balazs building.
The next day, Berry and her significant other Gabriel Aubry looked at the high-floor unit with unobstructed SoHo views.
“It’s the perfect celebrity home,” says Brown Harris Stevens broker Wilbur Gonzalez, who lives in the building and wasn’t surprised by our inquiry. “It’s got great services and security.” Those extras in the doorman building include a concierge, valet parking, security guards and porters.