London Terrace, a storied apartment complex in New York’s Chelsea district, was built in 1930 and occupies an entire city block between West 23rd and West 24th Streets and Ninth and Tenth Avenues. Some of the handsome buff brick buildings are co-op apartments and some are rentals, but they all surround a block-long private garden. The best apartments, of course, are the penthouses that top the quartet of co-op buildings that anchor the complex’s four corners.
This fabulous 2,700-square-foot penthouse is U-shaped, so that every room opens up to a terrace. It currently belongs to Canadian tennis pro Milos Raonic, 31, who at one point was seeded number three in the world men’s singles but has been on hiatus since last year due to injury. The 6’5″ power server purchased the penthouse in April 2019 for $7.6 million from “Sopranos” creator David Chase, who sold the place at a major loss. Now, just three years later, it’s back on the market with Mark Thomas Amadei of Sotheby’s International Realty at a hair under $10 million, and just a bit over the $9.65 million Chase paid for it in 2012.
This place is pretty easy to love. The renovated unit offers three bedrooms and three and a half bathrooms, and 200 linear feet of wraparound terraces add up an extra 1,000 square feet of outdoor living space with views of Manhattan, the Hudson River, and over to New Jersey that are simply epic. The penthouse’s terraces also provide rare, up-close views of the quirky stone gargoyles that are emblematic of the humongous complex.
With lovely pre-war proportions and up-to-date creature comforts, the penthouse’s many highlights include several wood-burning fireplaces, which are not allowed in new buildings in New York City, high ceilings, chevron pattern white oak parquet floors, integrated security, five-zone air-conditioning, and a high-end lighting system.
The great room’s three exposures (south, east, and west) ensure tons of light all day long, and French doors lead to terraces on the east and west ends of the 27-foot-long room. With a coveted walk-in pantry and windowed laundry room, the kitchen is open to a dining area with its own wood-burning fireplace and views of the High Line. Adjacent to this, a library has yet another fireplace and an ensuite bathroom, which makes it easily converted to a third bedroom, as well as its own terrace with open views of Hudson Yards.
Nicely separated from the public entertaining areas, the bedroom wing encompasses a guest bedroom, with private bathroom and north-facing terrace, and a spacious master suite that boasts six closets, its own terrace, and a bathroom complete with soaking tub, shower, and marble floors.
London Terrace is ideally situated near all the exciting attractions of Chelsea, Hudson Yards, and the Meatpacking district and, hence, it’s long been favored by notable and artistic New Yorkers. Past and present residents include Debbie Harry, Tim Gunn, Susan Sontag, Annie Leibowitz, Chelsea Clinton, Pete Davidson, Malcolm Gladwell, Nicole Kidman and Bridget Moynahan. Access to the building is controlled with locked doors and 24-hour doormen but management nonetheless hired extra security — allegedly armed security — to patrol the area in anticipation of potential unrest by extremists around the 2020 election.
In addition to enhanced security, the complex offers its residents a fitness center, basement storage, an on-site parking garage, a landscaped roof terrace, and an unusually famous indoor swimming pool. Of course, living in an iconic building amidst all this creativity, fame, security and charm and luxury doesn’t come cheap; Raonic’s penthouse is saddled with maintenance charges of nearly $10,000 per month.
