Loft Peeping: Extreme Edition

If real estate in New York is a religion, then this is the altar.

The Stapes Street bridge and the two apartments on either side of it have been for sale since 2015, but now it’s with a new broker – Sotheby’s – and a more competitive price: $35 million. What, you say? Only $35 million? You heard me. But it is safe to say there is nothing comparable, and for the realtors trying to put the right price on the place, literally there is nothing comparable. It is the only residence in Manhattan with a skybridge. It is the most iconic site in Tribeca. It is a piece of New York history. Some lucky dog will claim it all – more than 8,000 square feet plus a roofdeck. (It’s most fun to click on one photo and view the slideshow that way, using the arrows.)

“We need a visionary,” said Mara Flash Blum, who along with Kaptan Unugur holds the listing. “Someone who appreciates the history of Tribeca and the history of Manhattan.”

The 1907 townhouse on the west side of the bridge – 9 Jay – was originally the carriage house for the building on the east side of it – 67 Hudson – which, when it was built in 1900, was New York Hospital. Ambulances pulled into the Jay Street building (it has two curb cuts – one on Staple and one on Jay) and patients were taken upstairs and across the bridge to the hospital.

It is being sold by Zoran Ladicorbic, the American fashion designer from the ‘90s known by his first name only, who bought it in 1985 for $499,000. (The New York Times in a 1999 review called him the “master of deluxe minimalism,” or the Gap for the very rich.) A couple months later, he bought 3A and 3B at 67 Hudson for $300,000, combining the two apartments and completing the connection. According to Zoran, who now lives in Europe, he beat out Andy Warhol in a bidding war for the townhouse. He then put more than $600,000 into the two apartments in the ‘90s, but left the ground floor and the basement much as it was with the original subway tiles.

The townhouse now has two unfinished floors on 1 and the basement, and two stark, spare, all-white boxes with massive bluestone tiles for floors and brushed steel stairs. On the 67 Hudson side, there’s an open bathroom, a bedroom and living room – basically one huge ‘80s bachelor pad. Views out of the 50 windows – including the dozen or so from the skybridge — are perfect vignettes of old Tribeca.

The question is, who will buy it? The realtors imagine it could be a super-swanky live/work, or the headquarters for a tech company, or a family home. “It could go to a collector,” said Unugur, who had the listing originally when he was at Million Dollar Listings. “Like people who collect art, but this is collecting history.”

 

6 Comments

  1. Wow, that staging is super budget. You’d think for a commission on $35m you’d get a bit more than that.

  2. Pity the interior looks like a dentist’s office.

  3. There’s a small sign above the buzzer that says ‘buzzer doesn’t work’ (seems like they could have gotten that fixed sometimes in the last 3 years that the place has been on/off the market.)
    Sadly Staple Street has become a mecca for instagram posts/wedding photo shoots/music video filming that runs late into the night. People on the alley have resorted to throwing eggs to break up the inconsiderate people.
    The buildings on Hudson that back onto the Alley refuse to maintain the back side of their buildings- (something they’re required to do) so the one block between Harrison and Jay attracts pot smokers and construction workers et al who need to relieve themselves. People dump their garbage in the flower boxes along the west side of the alley. It’s sad to see how run down it is compared to Cortlandt Alley.

  4. For such an expensive city (which most are) it is sad how poorly maintained it can be by property owners. If you own real estate you would think you would want it kept up. Have some self respect. Our world is so odd. Unfortunately we cannot control disgusting people. But how hard is it to throw your stuff out in a garbage pail? Are they really that lazy? As for the construction workers is there nowhere to pee? I get that restaurants don’t allow people to use their rest rooms but something needs to be done about that.

  5. I would love to see that alley (Staple Street) re-cobblestoned. It should be.

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