SELL BUY PROPERTY

SELLER: Pilar and Juan Pablo Molyneux
LOCATION: New York City, NY
PRICE: $48,000,000, allegedly
SIZE: 5 bedrooms and bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Since we're feeling in a New York State of mind today let's continue from a contemporary, art-filled Union Square area loft owned by a Pulitzer Prize winning writer we discussed this morning to an opulent Upper East Side townhouse owned by the impeccably refined Chilean-born interior decorator Juan Pablo Molyneux and recently heaved on the open market with an asking price that may or may not be $48,000,000.

Mister Molyneux's classically rigorous, decidedly decadent and elegantly eccentric designs are really only available to corporate kingpins, potentates with limitless funds and other super rich sorts who can afford a much lauded and applauded decorator of international renown. We do not, of course, have an inkling of intel about Mister Molyneux's fee structure or net worth but its seems safe to say whatever he earns doing up the palatial dachas and voluptuous villas of the global elite is sufficient such that he and the missus, Pilar, are able to maintain a substantial townhouse mansion in New York City and am equally, if not more substantial office and residence in a very serious, 17th-century hôtel particulier in Paris'  4th arrondissement (Marais).

In additional private residences in South America, Russia and the Middle East Mister Molyneux's budget busting—or, more likely, budget free—projects span the globe and include (but are not limited to), as per his website, a garrett in Paris, a chalet in Colorado, several chateau in France, a penthouse in Manhattan, and "An approximately 150,000-square-foot manoir in northwest Quebec [Canada] on a property almost as big as Belgium that is inspired by the Kuskovo Palace." Sheesh. Wonder who's "house" that is?

Anyhoo, property records indicate Mister and Missus Molyneux picked up the east-of-Madison/west-of-Park Avenue townhouse way back in 1990 for an undisclosed amount of money. If they did a traditional 20% down purchase, based on the mortgage they secured (available through public property records) Your Mama guesstimates they shelled out somewhere right around $3,000,000.

When Mister and Missus Molyneux's Manhattan mansion first popped up on the interweb a few days ago, we were sent a link to the listing by the ever-industrious aide de camp Hot Chocolate. At that time, the listing showed the price tag set at $48,000,000. Current listing information has gone all mysterious and now shows the price as "Upon request."

Current listings available online skimp on the photographs and no floor plan was provided that we could locate. What it does show is the six story, limestone-faced townhouse has 15 rooms, five "serene" master bedroom suites and seven bathrooms (plus staff quarters), eight working fireplaces, four planted patios and balconies, a fitness facility, media room and, outdoor lovers will note, a duplex roof terrace with a "therapeutic pool."

The interior spaces shown in the few listing photos are positively palatial. Mister Molyneux speaks a hyper-sophisticated, upper crust kind of decorating language that, quite frankly, Your Mama just does not understand. None-the-less, we can understand that every scrap of fabric and French polished piece of pedigreed furniture is absolutely correct. It's museum quality Ming this and Han Dynasty that, a few Louis the Whatever fauteuils thrown around, and miles and miles of prodigiously passamenteried brocades and velvets woven with golden thread from Clarence House and/or Stroheim & Romann, every precious yard of which is so ludicrously expensive the drapery in the formal sitting room alone could probably break the bank of a lesser millionaire.

We're not sure if Mister Molyneux's townhouse interiors were photographed for one or another of the gloss shelter publications but we'd be surprised if it had not. The bi-continent couple's Parisian residence and studio/showroom, however, was photographed twice for Architectural Digest and once for the high-society chonicling blog New York Social Diary.

It's a good time, it seems, to float homes on the market with extraordinary price tags. There seems an almost endless supply of buyers looking to spend tens upon tens of millions to acquire trophy properties around the world only to spend another ten or twenty million on extensive renovations and customizations. If we've said it once we've said it a trillion times, such are the wacky and wildly profligate real estate ways of the rich and/or famous.

listing photos: Stribling

SELLER: Michael Cunningham
LOCATION: New York City, NY
PRICE: $1,595,000
SIZE: 1,300 square feet, 1 bedroom, 2 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Once again we have our unofficial (and unpaid) aide de camp Hot Chocolate to thank for turning up the airy, art- and book-filled New York City co-operative apartment of Pulitzer Prize winning novelist and screenwriter Michael Cunningham, now on the market with an asking price of $1,595,000.

Mister Cunningham, an accomplished scribe who currently teaches writers how to write at Yale, is perhaps best known for his 1999 book The Hours, later made into an Oscar-winning movie with Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore. More recently Mister Cunningham published more novels—Specimen Days in 2005 and By Nightfall in 2010—and in 2007 he co-wrote the screenplay for Evening, a film adaptation of a late 1990s novel of the same name by Susan Minot that featured a slew of famous lady actors including Toni Collette, Meryl Street, Glenn Close, Claire Danes, Vanessa Redgrave and the late Natasha Richardson.

Property records Your Mama peeked at and poked around proved a wee bit incomplete so we don't know exactly when Mister Cunningham—along with his long-time domestic partner, a psychoanalyst and author—purchased the updated and upgraded apartment near New York's bustling Union Square or how much they paid. There is some evidence in the property records they've owned the airy, top-floor aerie since at least 2004.

Current listing information reveals the light-flooded urban residence measures approximately 1,300 square and the floor plan included with marketing materials (above) shows it's currently configured as a pretty damn deluxe one bedroom spread with two bathrooms. One bathroom was all done up and did over as a wet-room with heated concrete floors, honed tile on the walls, a postage stamp-sized sink and a narrow, tower of bookshelves conveniently nested into the wall next to the terlit. The other bathroom, larger and with two gigantic windows, does curious double duty as a library with a soaking tub set into a bamboo and marble plinth and walls lined with built-in book cases. Your Mama can certainly understand why people keep reading material in their poopers and we've definitely heard "library" used as a silly euphemism for the crapper, but Mister Cunningham's bookshelf lined bathroom takes the expression to a whole other level that we've never considered.

Anyhoo, a compact foyer steps up to a lofty, L-shaped kitchen/lining/dining space lined with black ink-stained hardwood floors, glass pocket doors, and half a dozen over-sized, sound-proofed and pane-free windows on two walls that allow for long eastern and southern views over the water towers and roof tops down to the new World Trade Center. The furnishings are decided eclectic and literary salon-friendly with a luscious seal grey silk area rug and variety of mis-matched sofa and chairs accented with animal prints and (what appears to be by may not actually be) an actual animal skin.

The floors switch to polished concrete in the galley-style, center island kitchen expensively finished with stainless steel and bamboo cabinetry, stainless steel counter tops and a full complement of apartment-sized, commercial-style stainless steel appliances that includes a glass fronted Sub-Zero fridge/freezer that probably costs more than a fully loaded Kia and makes Your Mama swoon with appliance envy. An adjoining walk-in pantry is large enough to accommodate a side-by-side washer/dryer set up, a true luxury in a downtown Manhattan apartment.

The various components that comprise the master bedroom spoke off an unusually spacious entry vestibule/dressing room and include two closets (one a walk-in), the two aforementioned bathrooms, and a long, skinny bedroom with three gigantic windows including one that faces north and frames unimpeded, head on views of the Empire State Building.

Current listing information shows the modern-minded co-operative apartment has 12.5-foot ceilings and is equipped with a central climate control, security and sound systems. The boutique-sized building offers a newly renovated lobby and a roof deck. Maintenance and common charges are listed at a not inconsiderable $1,929 per month.

Property records indicate Mister Cunningham and his psychoanalyst man-mate also own at least two tiny (and possibly combined) one bedroom and one bathroom bay front condominiums in (super gay and drop dead gorgeous) Provincetown, MA bought in the early Aughts for $240,000 apiece.

listing photos and floor plan: Corcoran

SELLER: Dan Harris
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $2,395,000
SIZE: 3,085 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: A little birdie chirped in our ear over the weekend that Tinseltown action/adventure screenwriter/director Dan Harris (Until Death, Superman Returns, X2) listed his celebrity pedigreed property just above Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, CA with an asking price of $2,395,000.

Property records indicate Mister Harris coughed up $2,075,000 when he bought the house in October 2005 from musician Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics). Mister Stewart and his wife Anoushka purchased the house only about 1.5 years earlier for $1,590,000 from a married couple who had themselves acquired the house from Aussie-Brit pop songstress Kylie Minogue in February 2001 for $1,225,000. Miss Minogue kept the house less than one year and property records reveal her classic case of The Celebrity Real Estate Fickle cost her $60,000 not counting carrying costs, upkeep and real estate fees.

Current listing information shows the gated, turreted, somewhat dour and putty-colored two-story French Normandy-style residence spans 3,085 square feet with a total of 3 bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms.

The house retains whiffs and hits of its architectural roots—there's some heavy-duty paneling here and there and a coffered ceiling in the dining room—but the interior spaces have been significantly pared down and, where not wood paneled, bathed in white paint that sets off Mister Harris's impressive, idiosyncratic and mostly contemporary art collection that includes what may (or may not) be an Inka Essenhigh painting from the late 1990s in the dining room.

Espresso-colored wood floors in the elegantly spare entrance hall extend into the partially wood-paneled and partially window-lined "formal" living room that steps down into an ample formal dining room with mosaic tile-faced fireplace flanked by built-in book cases filled with actual books, a bank French doors, and a chunky wood table the size of a Honda surrounded by 10 or 12 chairs that look like they came out of the prop room for some epic, historical drama about King Arthur.

The adjacent cook- and family-friendly eat-in kitchen has extra-thick, Calacatta slab marble counter tops, high-grade stainless steel appliances and a center island cook top with snack bar. Mister Harris has outfitted the gleaming, white Shaker-style cabinets with door handled and drawer pulls fashioned from chef-quality cooking knives, a quirky and sinister conceit that adds a deliciously nerve-wracking element of danger and (melo)drama to the kitchen.

There is a fully paneled and book shelf-lined library but it looks so very narrow even the wide-angle listing photos make Your Mama feel a mite claustrophobic. More spacious is the upstairs master suite with vaulted ceiling and exposed trusses, more built-in book cases, private bathroom, an adjoining sitting room/office, and an over-sized dressing room that opens through a bank of French doors to a private terrace with a bit of a city view.

Several of the lower level rooms open to a small well-outfitted back yard where flagstone terracing wraps snugly around the back of the house, surrounds the plunge-sized swimming pool and elevated spa and continues around to an elevated dining patio under an arched pergola.

listing photos: Sotheby's International Realty

photo: Google

...from Lenny Lemmetellya, an unimpeachable source deep inside the Platinum Triangle real estate game, the lavish and downright legendary Los Angeles (CA) estate known as Owlwood is quietly being shopped around with an astronomical (but not surprising) asking price of $150,000,000.

(Gasps heard 'round the globe.)

The sprawling Holmby Hills spread (above), set between Sunset Boulevard and the famously clannish Los Angeles Country Club, has over the years been owned by a long list of high profile people. Owlwood's current owner, however, is a relatively low profile lady named Dawn Arnall, the billionaire widow of sub-prime mortgage mega-mogul Roland Arnall, who went to meet The Great Loan Processor in the Sky in 2008.

Long before he acted as George W. Bush's a U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands (2006-2008), Roland Arnall founded Ameriquest, the company that pretty much invented stated income home loans, otherwise known as "no-doc" or "liar's loans" in which little (or even no) verification of income or financial resources was required to secure a mortgage. Although his fortune has been greatly reduced by the recent mortgage meltdown and near collapse of the American economy, at one point Mister Arnall's estimated net worth ran up to around three billion bucks. Perhaps due to declining health and/or wisely prescient of the economic collapse just around the corner, Mister Arnall got out of the sub-prime mortgage business in 2007 when he sold most or all of his interest in Ameriquest to Citigroup for an undisclosed amount of money.

For a woman of such substantial financial means The Widda Arnall manages keep almost entirely out of the hot glare of the judgmental public eye. Her name was, however, splashed all over the tabs and papers earlier this year when nearly $10 million worth of her jewelry, reported missing in 2006 from a hotel in The Netherlands, turned up in the possession of a Dutch hotel maid who mistook them for costume jewelry. The jewels—a pair of earrings, two rings and two necklaces—were returned to the insurance company that paid out Missus Arnall's claim. As far as we know—which ain't nuthin'—no charges were filed against the hotel maid who was given the gems out of the hotel lost and found, in accordance to hotel policy, when they went unclaimed for six months. Anyhoo, fascinating as all that gem business may be, let's skedaddle back to the property matter at hand.

According to the fairly well scrubbed property records we peeped (and other online resources) Mister and Missus Arnall acquired the three parcels that make up the Owlwood estate in a trio of transactions in 2002. Various reports and other online resources indicate they paid somewhere around $30-35,000,000 for the three properties that by our rudimentary calculations total 9.83 acres. That makes it one of the largest estates in the Platinum Triangle. To put it in (real estate) perspective, the massive mansion Candy Spelling sold last year to 20-something year old Petra Ecclestone for $85,000,000 sits on just about 4.7 acres and wealthy divorcee Suzanne Saperstein's uncommonly opulent Fleur de Lys mega-mansion, listed since the dawn of time for $125,000,0000, sits on just about 5 acres.

We can't be sure the figures are accurate, but the Los Angeles County Tax Man show the house has 9 bedrooms and 12 bathrooms and a two-minute video made when Owlwood was for sale in the late 1990s and early 2000s (accessible on the YouTube) states the multi-winged mansion encompasses 22 rooms including a baronial, 1,500 square foot living room with solid oak paneling and marble-faced fireplace. Public property records reveal Miz Arnall's 2011 tax bill for the three parcels that comprise Owlwood came to more than $450,000. Just think about that for a moment...

photo: Dan's Hollywood Tours 

Each of the three separate but adjacent parcels that make up Owlwood at one time had a substantial mansion on it. Two of them were torn down. The last mansion standing on the hoity-toity Holmby Hills homestead is a 12,000-plus square foot Italian Renaissance-style pile (vintage photo above) designed by accomplished architect Robert Farquhar and built in 1936 for Florence Quinn, the ex-wife of department store magnate and real estate mogul Arthur Letts Jr.

The property was later owned by hotelier Joseph Drown—he of the recently re-vamped Hotel Bel-Air—and Tinseltown mover and shaker Joseph Schenk—founder of 20th Century Fox—who, even though he was an older married man, reportedly (and allegedly) had a fling with a young Marilyn Monroe who lived in the guest house for a short period of time.

Mister Schenk sold the house to oilman William Keck who is said to have added an indoor swimming pool and gold-plated bathroom fixtures shaped like—you got it!—oil derricks. In the mid 1960s Mister Keck sold to actor Tony Curtis who in turn sold it to Cher and Sonny Bono in 1974 for around $750,000. Cher—who was granted sold ownership the house in her divorce for Sonny—unloaded the house in 1976 for $950,000 to carpet magnate Ralph Mishkin who flipped it just a couple years later to a flamboyant and (maybe) shady arms dealer named Ghazi Aita.

It was Mister Aita who added the 4.6 acre spread next door, purchased from pioneer porn producer Bill Osco. The old Osco-estate is where Owlwood's extensive swimming pool and tennis court complex are now situated a significant distance from the main house. Mister Aita put the two pieces of the estate on the market in 1999 for a combined $58.9 millions dollars. Finally, in 2002, it was sold to Mister and Missus Arnall.

photo: Dan's Hollywood Tours

At the same time they picked up the two-parcel estate from the arms dealer Mister and Missus Arnall also acquired a third adjacent parcel with a gaudy, pink-colored mansion (vintage photo above) and kitchy heart-shaped swimming pool. The Mediterranean mansion was originally built for Rudy Vallee—who never occupied the premises—and was later owned by busty pin-up babe Jayne Mansfield, who painted the whole thing a putrid but somehow endearing shade of pink. Eventually the Sunset Boulevard estate was bought by crooner Engelbert Humperdinck, who left it pink. Much to the chagrin of many, Mister and Missus Arnall razed the appropriately dubbed Pink Palace in 2004, allegedly without the proper permits, and as far as we know—which ain't nuthin'—the undeveloped site of the former Pink Palace functions as little more than a parking lot.

We don't know if Missus Arnall and her Real Estate—Lenny Lemmetellya told us Owlwood is being represented by a relatively unknown agent at The Agency—plan to put the property on the open market but certainly if they did it would garner a heap of international press that might help to attract a foreign potentate, tech tycoon, or pampered heiress with an ocean of money to spend on what is arguably one of the most desirable estates in all of Los Angeles. Has any one called Petra Eccelstone's sister Tamara who is rumored to want a Los Angeles estate that puts her baby sister's 56,000 square foot behemoth to shame? Imagine.

A short list of Missus Arnall' nearby bigwig neighbors include (but are far from limited to) Hugh Hefner at The Playboy Mansion, recent divorcee Jamie McCourt, contemporary art gallerist Larry Gagosian, couture-collecting octogenarian socialite Betsey Bloomingdale, and actress turned make-up mogul Connie Stevens. Directly across Sunset Boulevard is the monstrous mansion where Michael Jackson met his early end in June 2009.

Less than two years after they acquired Owlwood Mister and Missus Arnall paid movie producer Peter Guber a staggering $46,000,000 to purchase Mandalay Ranch, a 650-acre ranch property just outside Aspen (CO) with a 15,000 square foot main house (with 7 bedrooms, 7.5 bathrooms, movie theater and indoor basketball court), 2 guest cabins and at least one barn with additional living quarters. As best as we can tell Missus Arnall still owns Mandalay Ranch.

SELLER: Mark Wahlberg and Rea Durham
LOCATION: Beverly Hills (Post Office), CA
PRICE: $12,995,000
SIZE: 11,500 square feet, 7 bedrooms, 10.5 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: It's baaack! Ever since the fall of 2008, when it was first listed on the open market with an in hind-sight optimistic asking price of $15,900,000, two-time Oscar-nominated actor/producer Mark Wahlberg and his baby-making wife Rhea Durham—who may (or may not) be preggers with their fifth bambino—have been on a so-far-unsuccessful journey to unload their deluxe and fully-customized compound tucked into a fancy-pants hillside holler deep in the mountains above Beverly Hills, CA.

By September 2011 the asking price for the mini-resort-like spread had plummeted to $13,995,000 and yesterday the Wahlberg-Durham spread, around a few tight bends on the same street in the same Beverly Hills (Post Office) 'hood where Demi Moore lives, was de- and quickly re-listed with a new and lower asking price of $12,995,000.

Property records (and other online resources) indicate the Tinseltown power player acquired the Beverly Hills estate in November 2001 for $4,950,000.

Current listing information shows the mock-Med mansion-compound has a total of 11,500 square feet with 7 bedrooms and 10 bathrooms divided between the nearly 9,000 square foot main mansion, the two bedroom and two bathroom two-story guesthouse and wherever else on the property there might be a restroom.

The gated and landscaped 1.73 grounds, the proverbial, self-contained and very private, celebrity-style playground, come complete with with meandering putting green; lagoon style swimming pool with loopy waterfall and water slide; multiple poolside cabanas and tented lounge areas; a grotto spa; lighted, full-sized sunken basketball court; and a cavernous fitness facility—a giant shed really—with professional quality gym and regulation-sized boxing ring.

Presumably Mister and Missus Wahlberg's desire to sell their private paradise of 10-plus years has something to to with the posh pad they're (allegedly) set to build in the unapologetically (and almost cartoonishly) lavish, guard-gated Beverly Park community.

Back in May 2009, several sources snitched to Your Mama that Mister Wahlberg and wife spent $8,250,000 to purchase one of the few remaining vacant parcels in the architecturally steroidal community of mega-mansions.

Listing information for the 6-plus acre lot from the time of the sale stated plans were available for a "30,000 square foot Mediterranean Villa." We don't know if Mister and Missus Wahlberg opted to go with the 30,000 square foot Mediterranean Villa but we did receive unconfirmed reports through the celebrity real estate gossip grapevine the couple recently broke ground on whatever it is they've embarked to build.

As far as Your Mama knows—and, of course, we don't know a damn thing about anything—beside this Bev Hills compound and the big Beverly Park parcel Mister Wahlberg's property portfolio is otherwise empty.

listing photos: Hilton & Hyland

SELLER: Armistead Maupin
LOCATION: San Francisco, CA
PRICE: $1,198,000
SIZE: 1,606 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Last night—or rather very early this morning—Your Mama received a brief (but breathless) phone call from our boozed-fueled b.f.f. Fiona Trambeau up in San Francisco who slurred and shouted in our sleepy ear about the long-time residence of quintessentially San Francisco writer Armistead Maupin coming up for sale with an asking price of $1,198,000.

Mister Maupin and his younger man-friend-husband Chris Turner—a former holistic healer who founded (and sold) the homosex-oriented hook up site Daddy Hunt—revealed to the press some time ago they planned to decamp to the Native American pottery and turqwahze infested haven of Santa Fe (NM), so this particular real estate turn of events isn't such a big surprise for literary-minded real estate watchers like Your Mama and Fiona, who despite her wanton ways and stevedore vocabulary, is quite well read with deep and real roots in the San Francisco literary scene. Even though Mister Maupin is currently at work on a new book, the move, Mister Turner somewhat tongue in cheek told S.F. Gate writer Leah Garchik back in mid June the move to Santa Fe was precipitated by "Armistead's retirement and my mid-life crisis."

Through his internationally renown Tales of the City series Mister Maupin is most closely associated with the Barbary Coast area of San Francisco, where many of his iconic, soap story-like novels are set. That would be in and around the North Beach nabe. However, property records show Mister Maupin has owned this modestly sized (if hardly inexpensive) house in the upscale Parnassus Heights 'hood near the Haight Ashbury since 1993 when he shelled out $615,000 for the cozy cottage set privately and high above the street behind a thick screen of trees.

Current listing information ol' Fiona scared up out of the interweb shows the three story, cedar shingled Craftsman/Edwardian-style house, was originally built in 1906 and is currently configured with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms in 1,606 square feet.

A gated and gluttially punishing brick stairway at the street level, next to the single car garage tucked into the verdant hillside, zig-zags up the steep slope to a tree-shaded view deck and front door that opens directly into the somewhat compact living room finished with inlaid hardwood floors, textured Anaglypta wall coverings, built-in book cases—natch—and a through the tree tops city view.

The adjoining dining room opens though sliding glass doors to a small, lushly planted back yard with a variety of flag stone and brick terraces plus a built-in barbecue. The unfortunately squeezy kitchen isn't going to win any design awards from Your Mama but it is outfitted, as per listing information, with "Corian type counters, stone floor and stainless clad appliances" that include a radiant and convection oven, whatever that is. A slender breakfast counter nestled into one end of the kitchen has direct views of the backyard.

One of the two second floor bedrooms—listing information calls it the master bedroom—has a built-in seating bench, custom shelving for books and knick-knacks, dual fitted closets, and "expansive" views that sweep over the city from Marin to the East Bay. The second floor master bedroom unfortunately shares a compact hall facility (with marble counter top) with a second, smaller bedroom with garden outlook.

A second master suite tucked up into the eaves on the third floor has an origami-like ceiling, over-sized closet, attached private bathroom, sweeping views and direct access to a roof terrace with garden and Sutro Tower views.

Mistes Maupin and Turner plan to pack up their Labradoodle and road trip across the country and loop back to attend Burning Man in late August before resettling in Santa Fe.

listing photos: Herth Real Estate

SELLER: Kevin Wendle
LOCATION: New York City, NY
PRICE: $12,500,000
SIZE: 8,475 square feet, 6 bedrooms, 5 full and 4 half bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: This morning we awoke to a flurry of communiques from Hot Chocolate—one of Your Mama's unofficial (and unpaid) aides de camp—who thought we might want to have a wee look-see at a rather striking New York City townhouse recently listed at $12,500,000. Ever the astute observer of the nuances of real estate, Hot Chocolate included a brief note in which he sassily snipped the townhouse sits so far to the east on East 75th street "you could grow tea."

For the record, the red brick mansion with the very contemporary interiors sits mid-block between 1st and York Avenues. So—let's be honest—as Hot Chocolate suggests, stereotypical Upper East Side real estate snobs who prefer to be west of Park Avenue at all times probably do see the townhouse's far east locale as akin to Bumfuck Somewhereundesirable. Unless, like Madonna's daughter, their children attend the $26,000-plus per year Lycée Français de New York. Then it's a super convenient location.

A quick run around the interweb and a perfunctory peek-n-poke through property records shows the house is owned through a corporate entity connected to Showbiz and media world bigwig Kevin Wendle. Tabloid reader may not recognize Mister Wendle's name but a good amount of the people who appear in the tabloids and gossips glossies surely know exactly who he is: a co-founder of the Fox network, E! Online, CNET and iFilm. At least one bio accessible online says Mister Wendle developed The Simpsons and Beverly Hills 90210 (the original one) and launched the careers of both Will Smith and Johnny Depp. Big stuff if that's the professional pond you swim in, you know?

Anyhoo, the tee-vee producer turned tech investor only purchased the townhouse in January of this year (2012), according to public property records, for $8,400,000.

He bought the four-floor, former carriage house from a French-American banker named Pierre Olivier "Oliver" Sarkozy, otherwise known as the recently divorced half-brother of former president of France Nicolas Sarkozy and the current, much older man-beau of pint-sized billionaire Mary-Kate Olsen.

Monsieur Sarkozy (et famille) acquired the property in early 2005, according to property records, for $6,500,000 from the estate of world renown art and fashion photographer Richard Avedon who, arty-farty types recall, went to meet his maker in 2004 while on assignment for The New Yorker in Texas.

Presumably having something to do with there parting of romantic ways Mister and ex-Missus Sarkozy first attempted to sell the townhouse in May 2010 when it popped up on the market to much hoopla and fanfare with an asking price of $11,995,000. Several price reductions and 2.5 years were required before our Mister Wendle came along and paid, as mentioned earlier, $8,400,000 for the townhouse.


Current listing information shows the 25-foot wide townhouse, originally erected in 1910, stands four floors above ground plus one below and measures in at and impressively spacious (and approximate) 8,475 square feet. The current configuration as shown in floor plans included with current marketing materials allows for five (an possibly six or even seven) bedrooms with five full and four half bathrooms.

The lazy, the infirm and domestic workers of all types among us have already noted—no doubt—the lack of an elevator. Certainly not the worst possible problem in a five-floor urban mansion, but one that will likely cool the jets of one or two deep-pocketed potential buyers.

The 45-foot long, loft-like main living/dining/kitchen at the top of the main stairs as the rear of the residence's second floor was stripped of any and all traditional architectural paradigms such as molding. A pair of chunky columns and a low, rectilinear peninsula hint at divisions of commodious chamber where there are radiant headed white oak floors under foot and stark, gallery white walls all around. Listing information indicates the slate-lined half bathroom tucked into a back corner of the space is newly installed and Your Mama imagines the sparingly utilized, contemporary and vintage furnishings (not to mention the artwrks) are probably papered, pedigreed and/or frightfully pricey.

A simple, black rectilinear counter top divides the lounge area(s) from the cooking and eating area(s) where the counter tops are black granite slabs and a full wall of floor-to-ceiling glass panels peel open to a decked backyard landscaped with boxwood hedges and cherry trees. A floating steel staircase ascends to an even larger, landscaped roof deck simply outfitted with cushioned, built-in bench (sort of) shaded by a barely there, minimalist's dream pergola.

The first of two master suites discretely occupies the street side of the second floor and includes a long entrance hall with built-in storage, walk-in closet and attached bathroom slathered in enough thickly veined white marble to build an impressive mausoleum for a Gilded Age robber baron.

One flight up a second master suite at the rear has fireplace, private bathroom and direct access to the aforementioned roof terrace while a home office/den on the street side has a fireplace and attached bathroom and could easily be converted to a third master suite.

A spacious sun run and three fairly compact bedrooms on the fourth floor share two hall bathrooms, one windowless and the other with a sky light. Two of the bedrooms face the street and each have two large windows while the third bedroom has only a sky light for light and ventilation.

The street level gallery space—Mister Avedon's former studio, one imagines—has direct access from the street through an inset brick archway and double arched doors. A wide, art gallery-like hall stretches past a fully-equipped stainless steel kitchen and adjoining half bathroom and opens into a large, flexi-use studio/gallery/entertainment space. Another half bathroom and a well-lit hair and make-up nook complete the street level space. The half-floor basement below, according to the floor plan, has a small home gym, dark room and a number of storage options.

Current listing information states the exterior was "painstakingly and expertly repointed" and the interiors equipped with a central vacuum system, new boiler and water filtration system, a video intercom system, and all-inclusive state-of-the-art security and safety systems (gas detectors, water sensors and intruder detectors, etc.).

Your Mama don't know a cat's ass from a cookie jar, of course, so we really can't say what's behind Mister Wendle's real estate change of heart here. Whatever his motivations may be it's clear he and his swanky Real Estates believe the improvements he's made in the short time he's owned it render the stunning and stark townhouse worth more than four million clams more than he paid for it.

Discuss.

listing photos and floor plan: Town Real Estate