BUYER: Fiona Shaw
LOCATION: New York City, NY
PRICE: $710,000
SIZE: (approx.) 500 square feet, 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom
YOUR MAMA’S NOTES: It was Manhattan-based real estate tattle-tale Polly Wannacracker who first snitched, and property records do indeed indicate, that stage-trained Irish actress and accomplished theater and opera director Fiona Shaw shelled out $710,000 — in cold hard cash, thank you very much — for a tiny, terraced co-operative apartment on a high floor of a handsome, beige brick mid-rise apartment house in the bustling heart of New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood.
The London-based showbiz hypenate, who took a turn on the fourth season of “True Blood” in 2011 and shook her moneymaker, so to speak, in five of the eight money-minting “Harry Potter” films, presumably purchased the updated and decidedly diminutive junior one bedroom apartment as a pied-à-terre that we guesstimate based on measurements shown on the floor plan included with online marketing materials comes in under or right around 500 square feet. An ever-so-brief but proper entrance hall with convenient coat closet opens to a sun-flooded corner living/dining space with open city views to the south and west, walnut-toned refinished hardwood floors, brushed steel radiator covers, and a generously high ceiling. The only other closet in the apartment is less-than-ideally located in the main living space, and the picayune pad lacks what most people would consider an actual bedroom and instead sort of pretends to have one with a cramped but blessedly windowed sleeping nook wedged up in to the tight corner between the living/dining room and the compact but also fortunately windowed bathroom.
This being a New York City junior one-bedroom apartment, the kitchen is expectedly puny; it’s fitted with stainless steel cabinets, stainless steel countertops and a quilted stainless steel backsplash. As far as we can tell, the kitchen lacks a dishwasher, which is sort of drag, and substitutes a full-sized fridge-freezer for space-saving side-by-side under-counter models. A glass door in the living/dining room leads to a wrought iron railed wrap-around terrace that has wonderfully unobstructed city and river views and is so terrifically slender it’s sure to cause anyone who suffers from even a shred of acrophobia to sweat blood and, if they don’t already have it, find religion. Listing details show the itty-bitty apartment carries hefty monthly maintenance charges of $1,410 per month, and the pre-war building’s residents are provided with full-time doorman and a live-in super, a bike storage room and communal laundry facilities.
Listing photos and floor plan: Patrick Quagliano Real Estate
