Charles Street's wannabe megamansion returns, now wants $49.5M

It wasn’t so long ago that 134 Charles Street, a boxy three-story office building with megamansion aspirations, was on the market with the absurd price tag of $45 million. But despite the fact that the property didn’t find a buyer at that price (nor for the $47.5 million it was originally listed for in 2014), it’s back—and it’s now asking an even more absurd $49.5 million.

Why the price bump? It could be the change in brokerages: The property is now on its fourth marketing team, and this time, superbroker Dolly Lenz is trying to work her megamansion magic (she arranged the sale of Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick’s $34.5 million spread on West 11th Street). So chalk it up to extreme broker confidence?

Otherwise, things seem to be about the same as they were when the building was listed last May: Though it was renovated by its current owner, real estate investor Ciaran O'Kelly, the place has a long way to go before it could be the utterly ridiculous single-family home of some very wealthy person’s dreams.

But the over-the-top features depicted in previous renderings—a rooftop pool, a squash court, an architectural interior staircase connecting the various floors—seem to be intact, suggesting that they’re part of the “plans … envisioned by celebrated AD 100 architect Leroy Street Studios” that come with the sale.

This is just one of many megamansions that are will soon be littered throughout the West Village—a neighborhood long associated with smaller, historic townhouses, not extravagant Frankenhomes for the über-rich. But indeed, they’ve been popping up all over: just since the beginning of the year, bunker-like homes on Jane Street (allegedly for pharma bigwig Jon Stryker) and Perry Street (for billionaire hedge funder Steve Cohen) have gotten approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, to say nothing of the pieced-together compounds of folks like SJP and Napster founder Sean Parker.

• Listing: 134 Charles Street [Dolly Lenz via StreetEasy]
• Charles Street Building With Megamansion Aspirations Returns For $45M [Curbed]
• $47.5M Charles Street Building Wants to Be a Megamansion [Curbed]