BUYER: Narciso Rodriguez
SELLER: Joe Zee
LOCATION: New York City, N.Y.
PRICE: $2 million
SIZE: 850 square feet, 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom
YOUR MAMA’S NOTES: We can all thank New York City real estate snitch Polly Wannacracker for letting us know that fashion world mover and shaker Joe Zee sold his Manhattan aerie to his upstairs neighbor, A-list fashion designer Narciso Rodriguez, for exactly $2 million.
Our research shows Mister Zee — until last spring influential creative director of Elle who now toils as the editor-in-chief and executive creative officer of Yahoo Fashion — has been trying to dump his stylish and meticulously designed apartment atop a pre-war building in the heart of Chelsea since at least the fall of 2010, when it came up for sale at $1.895 million.
The 850-square-foot, one bedroom and one bathroom apartment, which carries heavy-duty monthly maintenance charges of $2,826, has a puny but proper foyer; 11-foot ceilings; north, south, east and west exposures; three compact closets, plus additional built-in storage in the living room and study nook off between the living room; an itty-bitty but expensively outfitted kitchen with an arched greenhouse roof over the dining area; and a wraparound terrace with toe-tingling views that include Hudson River, One World Trade Center and the Empire State Building.
Listing photographs show a somewhat spare but certainly curated and assuredly costly day-core that includes a probably cashmere monogrammed Chanel blanket draped across the bed and, propped up on a slab wood shelf above the toilet in the tiny but well-appointed and blessedly windowed bathroom, a small portrait by art world superstar John Currin.
Mister Rodriguez, who famously designed the wedding dress Carolyn Bessette wore when she married John Kennedy Jr., already owns a small, terraced penthouse apartment directly upstairs that we presume he’ll combine with Mister Zee’s old place, and we turned up digital evidence Mister Zee continues to own a relatively modest but no-doubt well-turned-out house in the Hamptons — in Sag Harbor, to be more precise — he picked up in 2005 for $785,000.
Listing photos and floor plan: Sotheby’s International Realty
