Pop artist Jeff Koons has many magical powers, like turning balloon animals into millions of dollars, and creating one massive Manhattan mansion where before there were two. In 2009, Koons bought 11 East 67th Street, which is currently divided up into several apartments, for $12 million. Last year, he bought the house next door at 13 East 67th Street, owned by a Rockefeller and said to be in a "Grey Gardens" type of decrepit state, for $20 million. Now Koons is ready to move ahead with plans to combine both townhouses into a single-family home comprised of 21,500 square feet. According to our friends at PropertyShark, that's just 200 feet short of Manhattan's current largest single-family home at 4 East 75th Street, though that looks like it will be topped by the emir of Qatar's place. So what does Koons have in store for the house?
The renovation application was filed with the Department of Buildings in late September, and was disapproved on October 15. That doesn't mean the plan is dead, though, just in need of some tweaking. The permit was filed by Richard Olcott of Ennead Architects, formerly Polshek Partnership, and the renovation cost is estimated at nearly $5 million.
Looking at the Schedule A reveals some details of the plans: an exercise room and pool in the basement, four maids' rooms (making art is messy!) on the first floor and a rooftop terrace. Koons and his team will need to run the Landmarks Preservation Commission gauntlet to get any major cosmetic changes approved, and the LPC tells us no application for the property has been filed yet. So will the neighbors band together to deflate Koons' dream house? They don't take too kindly to tinkering with townhouses in these parts.
· Application: 11 East 67th Street [DOB]
· Balloon Animal Artist Buys Rundown $20M UES Townhouse [Curbed]
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