After he was called out in 2017 by numerous women for repeated incidences of strange and offensive sexual misconduct, caustic comedian Louis C.K. made his return from show business exile official in 2020 with the unconventionally released stand-up special “Sincerely Louis CK,” which earned him a Grammy for Best Comedy Album. The scruffy, flame-haired funnyman went on to release a second comedy special in 2021, “Sorry,” and he co-wrote, directed, and self-financed the 2022 film “Fourth of July.”
More recently, he’s been engaged in a brisk shakeup of his real estate portfolio. A couple of months ago he shelled out $3.85 million for a four-bedroom co-op in an illustrious, celeb-favored Greenwich Village apartment house and last week he closed the deal on the sale an unremarkable apartment in the West Village at what appears to be a substantial loss. And now, he’s landed a buyer for his 200-year-old townhouse on a pretty, tree-lined block in an otherwise bustling area of Soho. Carl Gambino of Compass has the listing.
Originally listed a few months ago at $8.5 million, the price dropped to $6.5 million before a bargain-minded buyer came along to put the superbly located townhouse in contract for purchase at an as-yet unknown price. However, even if C.K. gets the full asking price, when carrying costs, improvements and real estate fees are considered, he’s set to take a loss on the property that he picked up just over a decade ago for $6.5 million.
Built in 1829 and part of a long row of Federal and early Greek Revival townhouses that the AIA Guide to New York City called “New York’s greatest display of Federal-style row houses”, the handsome, 20-foot-wide and 13-room red-brick townhouse spans more than 4,800 square feet over its four floors.
Easily converted to a single-family home, there are currently two independent residences, a two-bedroom and one-bath flat on the semi-subterranean garden level and a meandering triplex that offers three (and potentially up to five and even six) bedrooms and two and a half updated bathrooms.
It would be a misnomer to describe the home as decorated. Rather, it’s furnished higgledy-piggledy in a comfortably unpretentious, slightly bohemian vibe. On the parlor floor, the velvet-sofa-ed living room doubles as a creative space and office, while the adjacent dining room is animated by a multicolored fruit-themed glass chandelier. Both rooms have an elegant fireplace, though it’s unclear if either are functional.
The kitchen is updated in a country-cozy, hodgepodge fashion with a huge copper vent over the range, a classic white porcelain apron sink, and a mix of marble and wood counters. Capped by a stained-glass panel, the kitchen’s red back door leads out to a tree-shaded backyard that has built-in wooden benches and planters but is otherwise little more than a dirt patch ready to be transformed into an urban oasis. With three dedicated bedrooms, there are several other rooms in the triplex that could be used as bedrooms, including one currently set up as a green-walled den.
One of the townhouse’s more unexpected features is a 40-square-foot terrace tucked away outside a lounge decked out as a children’s study and art space on the second floor. Another unusual feature are the opaque glass openings in the floors and ceilings that allow light to pass from floor to floor. Daylight pours in through skylights in the top-floor main bedroom’s dressing room, passes though the glass floor panels into the room below, where glass panels in the floor send light down into the parlor-level dining room.
In addition to his Manhattan holdings, C.K. has owned a funky vintage Tudor Revival cottage on New York’s sleepy Shelter Island since 2014 when he bought it for almost $2.5 million.
