Rihanna is chilling in the city this summer.
The 21-year-old pop star is close to signing an $18,000-a-month lease for a SoHo apartment on Greene Street. The unit was originally listed at $22,000 a month. The 2,300-square-foot residence has three bedrooms, three bathrooms and a sitting room. It has a 500-square-foot terrace, where the “Umbrella” singer plans to erect a small tent to shade herself from prying eyes.
It’s a far cry from the Stamford, Conn., manse she moved into at age 16, when she left home in Barbados to live with record producer Evan Rogers and his wife. But it might be the perfect spot for Rihanna to practice her lines as she prepares for her first film role. She’s currently taking acting classes and will start filming “Personal Protection” later this year. (Meanwhile, Rihanna’s ex, Chris Brown, faces assault charges today for allegedly mistaking the beautiful singer for a punching bag. We hope she takes the name of her new film to heart.)
Listing broker Lisa Maysonet of Prudential Douglas Elliman had no comment.
Ponzi pain
Skip a stone in the Atlantic Ocean, and the ever-widening ripples are like the East End reverberations from Bernie Madoff‘s $50 billion Ponzi tsunami.
James Marden — whose father, Bernard, was one of Madoff’s largest victims — just sold his Wainscott home at 42 Beach Lane. The beach house is currently in contract for around $11.2 million. The buyer is a New Yorker in the financial industry. The house, on 2 acres, went on the market in January with a $15 million asking price.
The custom, shingle-style home is a six-bedroom, 7 1/2-bath, 6,000-square-foot spread. It’s next to 17 acres of farmland reserves and offers pond views and a pool, all on a street that leads directly to the ocean.
“It’s a great location on a sweet street, and homes rarely come on the market there,” says Corcoran Group listing broker Michael Schultz, who added that the last sale on the street was about two years ago.
Another Madoff victim, David Silver, is also selling his oceanfront beach house, which is in contract for around $6.9 million. It was originally listed at $14 million, and the last known asking price was $7.9 million. The property, on a third of an acre, includes 100 feet of oceanfront. It’s a traditional three-story, four-bedroom, four-bath home with a lookout tower. Sotheby’s listing broker Ed Petrie had no comment.
Meanwhile, Marden’s ex-wife, Iris, a broker at Stribling, is selling her three-bedroom, 3 1/2-bath TriBeCa penthouse at 7 Hubert St. for $12.5 million. It was originally listed at $14.5 million in January. The 4,262-square-foot apartment has a 2,500-square-foot terrace. On the cover of Architectural Digest three years ago, the home with 12-foot ceilings has panoramic views uptown and downtown. Marden spent $2.5 million renovating the place.
“It’s a perfect space for an art collection,” says Stribling listing broker Sean Turner, who notes that it includes a lacquered panel wall for an art installation.
‘Small’ is the new big
Hamptons developer Joe Farrell just bought property for the first time in 18 months, and he’s planning to build two “small” houses — well, small for the Hamptons.
Farrell has purchased a tear-down Ranch house on 2 acres at 64 Bridge Lane in Bridgehampton South for $2 million. Taking advantage of lower labor costs and prices for materials like copper and lumber, he is creating a 6,000-square-foot home because “smaller is what people want now.” He’s pricing it at $4.95 million — a number, he says, that “would have been unheard of for south of the highway a year and a half ago.”
Farrell also just bought 1 acre in Southampton Village, at 91 Bailey Road, for $750,000 and plans to build a $3 million home there that he would have priced at $4.2 million last year.
Seth update
Funnyman Seth Meyers just checked out a one-bedroom, 1 1/2-bath, $1.195 million condo at 380 W. 12th St. The unit includes a 220-square-foot terrace and a communal roof deck where bikini-clad models often sun. If he moves in, the head writer for “Saturday Night Live” would be steps from celeb-friendly hangouts, including the Waverly Inn.
Listing broker Dolly Lenz of Prudential Douglas Elliman had no comment.