Madonna has just plunked down millions more to live in our boring city. But it required a Manhattan court to clear the way for her to purchase an apartment adjacent to her spacious duplex co-op in Harperly Hall at 1 W. 64th St. (otherwise known as 41 Central Park West).
Now public records show the pop icon has paid $7 million for the unit directly above her current 6,000-square-foot digs, which already includes a gym and salon.
Last December, she filed suit against the building’s co-op board, charging that it wrongfully blocked her from buying the apartment owned by Julie Clark Thayer. In papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, the singer says the board prevented her from closing on a deal to buy the home. She was seeking a court order allowing the sale to go through and for the reimbursement of legal fees and expenses.
Adding more intrigue to the purchase is that she bought it under her maiden name, Madonna Ciccone, which will likely fuel more rumors about the state of her marriage to Guy Ritchie. It has been reported that the muscle-bound Material Matron was looking to spend more time in the city, despite being quoted in a recent Vanity Fair story that New York is “not the exciting place it used to be.”
Bronfman bouncing
Edgar Bronfman Jr. apparently doesn’t know where he wants to live. The entertainment mogul and his wife, Clarissa, sold their East 64th Street townhouse last year for $50 million, then bought an 11-room co-op apartment at 1040 Fifth Ave. for about $19.5 million – then quickly re-listed it a few weeks later for $24 million.
At about the same time, the Bronfmans paid $19.2 million for a 10-room penthouse condo in the historic Carhart Mansion on East 95th Street, prompting reports that they may have finally found their Shangri-La. Now that property – with five bedrooms and six terraces in a stately limestone building – has just resurfaced on the Corcoran Group Web site for $24.5 million.
Sources say the Seagram’s heir/CEO of Warner Music Group and his family are giving the Upper West Side a try, in a condo rental of more than 7,000 square feet on West 63rd Street. The new place, which was for sale at $31 million, is a 15-room duplex with five bedrooms and a 1,200-square-foot landscaped terrace with great views of Bronfman’s East Side properties.
Carrie Chiang, who is the broker on the Carhart and West Side properties, did not return calls.
Need some Spacey?
Kevin Spacey has become a motivated seller in the last few months.
The Academy Award-winning actor has recently sliced the price of his TriBeCa duplex apartment to $4.67 million. It was listed for approximately $5 million when it quietly went on the market last October.
Located atop a small storefront, five-apartment condo building on Harrison Street, the three bedroom, 2½-bath penthouse of nearly 2,300 square feet features a 900-square-foot terrace off the master bedroom with a built-in grill, planters with a timed irrigation system and retractable awnings.
Also included is a Crestron system that controls the window shades, lighting and entertainment equipment.