Wednesday, 23 January 2013
LOCATION: New York City, NY
PRICE: $6,250,000
SIZE: 3,500 square feet (approx.), 6 bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms (total in two units)
YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Listen chickens, Your Mama is in dental hell so we just have a few minutes today to drop a nice celebrity real estate morsel in the form of a two-family New York City townhouse recently pushed on the open market with an asking price of $6,250,000 and owned, according to property records, by scruffy-faced Oscar-nominated actor and writer Ethan Hawke (Training Day, Gattaca, Dead Poet's Society, New York, I Love You).
Texas-born and New Jersey-raised Mister Hawke is a scruffy-faced movie star more than anything else but he once said, according to the Internet Movie Data Base, that "most people are good at more things than the world gives them the opportunity to do" and he himself refuses to be hemmed in by his movie star status in good standing. Not only is one of his two Academy Award nominations for best adapted screenplay (Before Sunset) he's also written a couple of novels (The Hottest State and Ash Wednesday) and earned a Tony nomination for his spin across the boards in the star-studded Tom Stoppard-written play The Coast of Utopia.
Along the way he married, made two children with and divorced arty-farty Oscar-nominated actress Uma Thurman and subsequently made two more children with his current wife Ryan who, scandalously, once worked as a nanny for Mister Hawke and Miz Thurman.
Property records show that Mister Hawke acquired his fairly non-descript four-floor townhouse in the heart of Manhattan's art gallery filled Chelsea district in April 2005 for an even-steven $3,000,000. The 21-foot wide townhouse, located just around the corner from the perennially-popular Billy's Bakery on Ninth Avenue, contains two units with a total of six bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms, according to listing information and the floor plan included with online marketing materials.
The well-organized ground floor apartment has a private entrance, a 14-foot(ish) square living room with wood burning fireplace surmounted by a large flat screen t.v., a compact but efficient U-shaped kitchen, two small bedrooms, one (windowless) bathroom and two surprisingly large walk-in closets. One of the bedrooms opens directly to a terrace and deep garden that—unfortunately—is in full view of a large apartment building to the north.
The triplex owners unit is entered on the parlor floor through a private entry and stair hall with a half bathroom that is both convenient and perfectly located for privacy. Double pocket doors connect through to the main living area that includes a south-facing living room with fireplace (that may or may not be in working order) and a built-in bookshelf lacquered a deep grass green and filled with actual books. The day-core is quite colorful, multi-patterned and suitably actor-bohemian with a funky patchwork rug on top of what looks to be original wood floors, an upright piano and a fairly spare collection of comfortably mis-matched upholstered pieces.
The well-worn but nicely preserved wood floors in the living room extend into the retro-modern kitchen that includes sunshine yellow cabinetry, white subway tile back splash, and high-grade appliances including a funky Old-Timey tomato red refrigerator. In addition to a built-in breakfast banquette in the kitchen area there's a small dining room at the rear of the parlor floor with a giant casement-style window that looks out over the back garden and a door that opens to a small balcony and stairs that lead down to the lower level garden area.
Up on the second floor there are three bedrooms—one quite large the other too somewhat small—that share a pair of hall bathrooms the sit on either side of a laundry room. The master suite consumes the entire top floor with an L-shaped bedroom painted royal blue, a small adjoining den/dressing room, a couple of small clothes closets, a vintage style bathroom with claw-footed tub—and towel heating rack—and a good-sized north-facing private terrace.
At one point Mister Hawke owned a small private island with a couple of small cottages in Nova Scotia that he bought when married to Uma Thurman but to be honest, children, we're not sure if he/they still own it or not.
exterior photo: Nicholas Strini for Property Shark
listing photos: Corcoran
