Homes with private basketball courts are a rare breed in New York City (just look at how small some apartments are!), but for those rich people who have just boatloads of space, they are an amenity too over-the-top to pass up. So with March Madness and the NCAA Tournament coming to a close this weekend with the Final Four, here's a look at seven Manhattan homes made for hoops lovers. From courts with retractable glass walls to rooftop courts with domed ceilings, these places are not your average home gym.
↑ On East 38th Street, there's a fully renovated townhouse with a pretty baller (get it?) basketball court on the top floor. The brokerbabble elaborates: "The top floor dazzles with a half-court basketball gym equipped with electric hoop/backboard height adjuster, and is also utilized as a spectacular open space for entertaining. A windowed glass wall opens to the back roof terrace and a large front roof terrace adds to the openness." It's on the market for $8.35 million (down from $9 million in 2011).
↑ The insane six-story loft mansion at 144 Duane Street sold in 2013 for a whopping $43 million, and we can only hope that the indoor basketball court was the selling point. The 23,500-square-foot space first hit the market in 2011 for $50 million, and its other luxuries include one of the best floating staircases and a landscaped rooftop deck.
↑ This basketball court probably has the best/cutest location: a carriage house behind the townhouse at 340 West 12th Street. Current owner/seller Christopher Burch gutted the townhouse, but it looks like the basketball court was spared destruction, as it's still included in a listing photo. Burch bought the house for $11 million in 2012, and has been trying to sell it since 2013, when he listed it for $19 million. It's now asking $16 million. The interior photos above are pre-gut.
↑ The most recently listed house on this list is an 8,000-square-foot townhouse on the Upper East Side. In addition having "one of the largest private gardens in New York City," the $29.5 million house also has a 360-square-foot gym that currently holds a basketball court with glass ceiling.
↑ The Novogratz, a husband-and-wife design team, love to hoop it up, and two of their Manhattan projects hold basketball courts. The court in the townhouse at 400 West Street is located in the basement level, but there's a skylight to let in natural light. The house, which was recently listed for rent at $70,000/month (but that listing is now gone), has been looking for a new owner since 2009, when it first listed for an ambitious $25 million. It's currently not on the market (did it sell??), but the last asking price was $17.95 million.
↑ And here's the second basketball court-equipped Novogratz offering: the townhouse at 5 Centre Market Place in Little Italy, which has a domed-in space to shoot hoops on the roof. It sold for $12 million in 2010 to Gregory Soros, son of George, and for two years now, Soros has been trying to get rid of it. He first listed it for $12 million, and it's been a bit of a price roller coaster since then, though it was chopped in January to $10.5 million.
↑ Sure, this doesn't count as "court," but bonus points to these Soho loft owners for the basketball dedication. The loft, located in the iconic Singer Building, hit the market in April 2010 with the basketball hoop getting a prime spot in the listing photos, but by the second pricechop, the basketball hoop was eliminated. But they made up for it in the third chop by sticking their dog in the listing photos and highlighting their basketball love with two framed jerseys in a bedroom. It sold for $5.25 million in 2013.
· StreetEasy [official]
· Hoop It Up in Soho's Little Singer Building for $6.495M [Curbed]
· 400 West Street coverage [Curbed]
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