It's a busy winter for the West Village's favorite off-pink fun house. Artist Julian Schnabel's Palazzo Chupi at 360 West 11th Street has been hit with a partial stop work order for scaffolding that doesn't adhere to safety standards. Meanwhile, banking exec William J.B. Brady?a Palazzo Chupi buyer two times over!?has begun renovating the penthouse he bought in October for $10.5 million (down a wee bit from the original $32 million asking price). But that's all nothing when it comes to mind-blowing Chupi news. It appears the last lingering unsold apartment in the 12-story, five-unit building?the nearly 4,000-square-foot duplex on the eighth and ninth floors (above) that also once sported a $32 million price tag?sold for $12 million in December, when rumors were flying that a buyer was circling the Chupiriffic pad. So, it's all over? What a two-year ride it's been!
The deed was filed in January, and sadly the buyer is cloaked behind a corporate entity called Magellan 360 LLC. An attorney did all the Johnny Hancocking on the paperwork. Lame! Julian Schnabel's unbridled drive to build his neighbor-enraging nod to Venice, Turkey, Stanford White, Addison Mizner and 10,000 other influences did a real number on his finances and art collection, so how'd the building make out? Here's how the units fared in the end:
1) The full-floor unit bought by Brady for $15.5 million in September 2007, making him the first Palazzo Chupi buyer. He's still holding onto it.
2) The full-floor unit bought for $12 million by Schnabel's buddy Richard Gere, though he never moved in. Gere tried flipping it for $18 million, but he ended up unloading it for $11 million to an unknown buyer late last year.
3) We'd always operated under the assumption that #3 is Schnabel's place, but the $12 million duplex is listed as #3. Wacky number games are nothing new at the Chu.
4) Apparently Schnabel's duplex, though we think he may have given over an entire floor to his swingin' son Vito. Father of the year?
5) The triplex penthouse on floors 10-12 mercifully purchased by Brady last year for $10.5 million. Renovations now underway.
All in all, not bad if you look at the actual sales and not the ridiculous parade of asking prices, though who knows how much Schnabel spent on those marble tubs, terra-cotta kitchen tiles and cast iron columns. The website set up for Chupi's duplex and triplex by broker Peter McCuen is still online, so stock up on Palazzo porn while you still can!
· Palazzo Chupi coverage [Curbed]
Loading comments...