Things have never not been a little weird at 179 Ludlow Street, once planned as a luxury condo. Take the fact that, just before a scheduled bankruptcy auction in early 2007, David Cross was answering the building's phone. At that auction, buyer and first-time Manhattan developer Michelangelo Russo paid $5.2 million for the project. Still on the fancy apartment track, he put in heated terraces and other luxury features. And the building had the requisite wacky brush with celebrity when Madonna popped by to consider the retail space for a kabbalah center. She decided she didn't want it, and soon thereafter, the building ran out of money. By mid-2008, the space Madonna had looked at was "ankle-deep in rat shit" and Russo's $5.2 million was probably starting to look like an awful lot of money. Now, the Lower East Side's second most notorious stalled project is headed for another twist in its saga, broker-blogger Malcolm Carter reports: a foreclosure auction on December 1. Has anybody let Madge know?
· Unfinished eyesore on Ludlow Street heads to auction [Malcolm Carter]
· 179 Ludlow coverage [Curbed]
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