Robert and Cortney Novogratz, designers, and reality TV stars have been into house flipping for the past two decades, buying run-down houses, renovating and refurbishing them with eclectic exotic materials and then re-selling them for a lot more. They live together with their seven kids in whichever house doesn’t sell. It’s a way of life that keeps the boredom awayJ
Celebrated Golden Globe/ Academy Award/ Grammy-winning singer/songwriter, Carly Simon, 67, paid $1.2M for her New York City duplex pied-a-terre back in 2004. In 2008 when asked why she was selling her duplex in the West Village (with an asking price of $3.850 million), she explained, “I’m not in New York enough now.” Five years later, she is re-listing the bohemian home cutting the asking price to $2.975 million.
Back in the 70s Banker Herbert Allen Sr., one of the most affluent businessmen on Wall Street at the time, purchased the Upper East Side penthouse at 733 Park Avenue for $526,500, which has recently been sold for $2o million.
The foyer features two-floor windows and a spiral staircase connecting the 30th and 31st floors of the penthouse. The duplex three-bedroom pad boasts a private elevator, an all- marble bathroom, a unique hand-laid parquet floor and three magnificent landscaped terraces covering 1,250 square foot. The behemoth bedrooms feature large windows overlooking awesome views of Central Park – actually no other building from Park Avenue offers such views since this is the tallest residential building on this street.
At the end of 2012 eight-time NBA All-Star, professional basketball player Chris Bosh of Miami Heat and his wife, Adrienne, bought a $9.4 million luxury mock-Med mansion in Pacific Palisades, CA. Recently he has leased the resort-like estate for $45,000 a month.
It has recently been reported that John J. Mack, 67-year-old former executive of Morgan Stanley, the American multinational financial services corporation, and his wife Christy, owning her own business herself, Waterfall TALF Opportunity, have just listed their duplex penthouse in a condo building on East 63rd St.
The global head of Deutsche Asset Management, a member of Deutsche Bank Executive, Kevin E. Parker, has dropped asking price on his Southampton estate to $25.8M. The mansion has been on the open market for four years, with a price tag going up to $30M (December 2011) and down to $25.8M (end of December 2012).
Founder and manager of Azoff Music Management Group, Inc and personal manager of The Eagles, Christina Aguilera, Van Halen, Neil Diamond, New Kids on the Block, Gungs N’ Roses – to name but a few, Irving Azoff is currently having his luxurious Beverly Hills Tudor estate done up (where Kim Kardashian and Kanye West had their wedding reception back in 2009). Reason enough to go house hunting for a swank temporary residence, which they allegedly have found.
In the autumn of 2012, the former luxury home of rock-and-roll legend Elvis Presley, situated in the star-studded Trousdale Estates neighborhood, was listed for an asking price of $12.9 million and in December 2012 it was scooped up for $9.8 million by (co-)founder of the Hard Rock Café global chain of dining restaurants, Peter Morton. Elvis and Priscilla had bought the property in 1967 and sold it six years later, when they got divorced. Reportedly, the house was leased out for $25,000 per month until recently.
Barry Levinson, 70, Academy Award winning screenwriter, film director, actor and film and television producer (And Justice for All, Diner The Natural, Young Sherlock Holmes, Good Morning Vietnam, Rain Man, Avalon, Bugsy, Toys, Sleepers, Wag the Dog, Oz), whose primary family residence is in Connecticut, has picked up a 3,090 sq ft crash pad in a luxury apartment building at 104 Wooster Street. The asking price was $300 higher, so it was sort of a bargain for our man.
Academy Award nominated Ethan Hawke, actor, director and writer (Training Day, Before Sunset, Dead Poet’s Society) has put his four-floor townhouse in Chelsea, Manhattan up for sale for $6.5 million.
