Beekman Place Beauty Recent Closing

Closed at -21% off ask

Yes, 5.5m. Given there are no photos of kitchen or bathrooms (not to mention that mirror-paneled dining room), I am guessing it needs a total overhaul that will bring the buyer's overall cost closer to initial asking price.

What's that detail on the dining room ceiling?

Good question. I hadn't even noticed that. Oddly placed frieze of two doors? coffins? Ornate and odd.

I'm thinking it's Freemason/Illuminati/etc iconography. You know, rich people shit.

I was actually wondering the same thing. Too weird and specific not to have some meaning.

If that were my listing I would have strongly suggested they get rid of it before putting it on the market because anyone who doesn't know what it is will probably be a bit weirded out by it, and anyone who does know what it is probably is either a member of some "competing" organization or will think these people got thrown out of theirs (or know they did?).

This place has everything.

The building is really beautiful. Were I in that market, I would prefer 1 Beekman Place to River House. My hope is that it goes the way 834 Fifth did, meaning that they had to give up on old club ways and just focus on accepting anyone who had the money to keep the building in the manner to which its residents were accustomed. I have no insight into how close 1 Beekman Place is to that inevitable point other than this closing price, but that is not a sufficient indicator in and of itself given how depressed the market (and the neighborhood within the greater market) is at this point in time.

The wife’s parents may have lived in the building as the wedding announcement from a long time back.

I haven't looked up the seller's of this particular apartment, but there is a lot of the following going on: Current generation has to sell ancestral homes because the current generation cannot sustain the maintenance. Again, no idea who sellers or buyers of this property are (although now I want to look it up!) and whether they could sustain maintenance, but it is everywhere, and it ends up with some pretty interesting characters buying homes that were historically occupied by WASPs. A good read that has that concept as the backdrop is Nelson Demille's "Gold Coast."

One of my favorite examples of the phenomenon is Wendy Deng's becoming a shareholder at 834 Fifth Avenue. So awesome.

I do not think you will find the buyers of this property changed the demographic of the building. If anything, the seller was perhaps a bit of a wildcard for the building.
https://nypost.com/2019/06/19/gown-designers-beekman-place-pad-cuts-price-a-third-time/

30, Shut. Your. Mouth. That dining room ceiling detail is a Louise Nevelson.

Then they should have removed it and donated it somewhere because you know the new owner's contractor is just going to bin it.

30, Will this sales price fit into your “grave dancing” price level? I think 4000-4500 sq ft in good shape but no central AC (I see a through wall ac) needing some updates but not a gut as the layout is very nice.

All - thanks for the info. I looked up the parties and agree on all fronts. The club appears to be stronger than ever.

Scaasi and Nevelson were longtime friends -- he designed several of her outfits, and owned a few Nevelson sculptures -- The Scaasi/Ladd estate sold one at Christies in 2018 for around $168k.

The dining room piece is site specific (those white panels on the walls may be part of it), and would be a good selling point, for those who like that sort of thing (I do). If the new buyer doesn't want it, it will be worth the expense for a proper professional to remove it. It's not like Louise is accepting new commissions. It's also possible the estate will remove it themselves after closing, because they didn't want to deal with having the ceiling redone. Any 'proper' buyer would understand. (and it's not Illuminati-grade, but yes, it is rich people stuff).

I'm very surprised the Nevelson piece is being sold with the apartment.

She's not that popular right now but you could remove it and donate it to MOMA or similar for the writeoff.

In terms of the club remaining intact, I suspect one of the buyers grew up in the building based on the wedding announcement that 300_mercer referenced. Kind of cool that she is moving back in after 60 years of living elsewhere.

The chairs in the dining room look like something straight out of a San Francisco garage sale! It's so incongruous with the rest of all the beautiful furnishings throughout the home, which is really gorgeous. But then again, who am I but someone living in an alcove studio (but loving every inch of it)!!!! So much easier to furnish without making strange and incongruous mistakes.