SELLERS: Casey Affleck and Joaquin Phoenix
LOCATION: New York City, NY
PRICE: $3,895,000
SIZE: (approx.) 2,400 square feet, 2 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms
YOUR MAMA’S NOTES: Friends, professional collaborators and soon to be ex-brothers-in-law Casey Affleck and Joaquin Phoenix — Mister Affleck and Mister Phoenix’s sister Summer amicably separated about a year ago after almost 10 years of marriage — have a duplex loft they are reported by the New York Post to co-own in an unassuming but famously celebrified building in New York City’s SoHo ‘hood up for sale at $3,895,000. Various property record databases we peeped and poked around are a mite muddled so it’s not clear when Misters Affleck and Phoenix acquired the house-sized loft apartment, seemingly a combination of at least two units, but this is not the first time it’s come up for sale. In February 2016 the seventh- and eight-floor spread, then divided into two independent units joined by a door, was listed with a laughably rose-tinted asking price of $5 million. The price steadily declined to $3.65 million before it was taken off the market in September 2016 only to be re-listed a few weeks later at $4 million and likkety-split taken off the market just two weeks later.
The stripped down co-operative loft, measures in at about 2,400 square feet, per online marketing materials, with two bedrooms, three bathrooms, two small kitchens expensively outfitted with designer appliances, 11-foot exposed concrete ceiling, a small bit of exposed brick wall, and an industrial mix of raw concrete and hardwood floors. With the wall now removed between the two units, the combination living/dining area stretches decadently to more than forty feet long with half of a dozen over-sized sash windows that provide open southern city and Hudson River views. A downstairs bedroom has a walk-in closet and en suite bathroom but not, unfortunately, an actual window while the master bedroom, privately located on the upper level, includes a walk-in closet, separate office/dressing room and a renovated bathroom with white subway tile lined walls, a claw-footed bathtub and a glass-fronted shower.
The architecturally unremarkable building, which dates to about 1911, has long attracted showbizzy residents. One of the lower floor lofts is currently owned by influential celebrity literary agent Luke Janklow who, per property records, bought it in November 2013 for $5.225 million from director/producer Jesse Peretz, whose professional credits include “Nurse Jackie,” “Divorce,” and “Girls.” Kirsten Dunst, a 2016 Golden Globe winner for her role on the TV series Fargo and recently engaged to her “Fargo” co-star Jesse Plemons, recently put her eclectically appointed loft up for sale at $5,000,000 and the boutique building’s extensively terraced duplex penthouse, with a custom kitchen designed by Mario Batali, was once owned by indie filmmaker Gus Van Sant who sold it to none other than Casey Affleck who, in turn, sold it in 2007 for $5.75 million to R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe who first put it up for sale over the summer of 2012 with a $10.95 million price tag but didn’t sell it until October 2014 when a mysterious and inscrutable blind trust scooped it up for $9.6 million.
Mister Phoenix, nominated for an Oscar three times between 2001 and 2013, and Mister Affleck, winner of the Best Actor Academy Award this year for “Manchester by the Sea,” co-wrote the 2010 mockumentary “I’m Still Here.”
Exterior image: Christopher Bride for Property Shark / Listing photos and floor plan: Douglas Elliman
