SELLER: David Blaine
LOCATION: New York City, NY
PRICE: $2,270,000
SIZE: 1,044 square feet, 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom
YOUR MAMA’S NOTES: Spectacle oriented magician David Blaine put one of his two downtown New York City apartments up for sale on the open market, as was first sussed out by the property gossips at The Observer, with an asking price of $2,270,000. The 42-year old, Brooklyn-born showman is best known for grandiosely planned, publicly executed, and potentially life threatening feats of endurance. He once held his breath under water for just over 17 minutes on the “Oprah Winfrey Show;” He encased himself in a coffin-like box of ice in the middle of Times Square — he had to be chain-sawed out of the ice block after almost 64 hours and taken to the hospital for observation; And, in October 2012, he stood for 73 consecutive hours atop a 22-foot tall pillar in a custom chain mail suit surrounded by seven Tesla coils that continuously discharged one million or more volts of electricity. Not exactly everyone’s idea of a great day at the office, but the outrageous stunts have certainly earned Mister Blaine global fame and, presumably, a good fortune.
Mister Blaine purchased the 1,044-square-foot lower Fifth Avenue co-operative sometime in 1998 for an unknown amount and our research indicates this isn’t the first time he’s tried to sell the top floor pad. He unsuccessfully listed the apartment in May 2013 at $1.995 million and dropped the price to $1.85 million before it was taken off the market in early November of the same year. Current online marketing materials show the two-bedroom and one-bathroom apartment has three exposures — north, south and east — and transfers with not exactly insignificant monthly maintenance fees of $3,263. Glammy, high-gloss black onyx floor tiles continue from the oversized foyer in to the comfortably ample but hardly huge corner living room that has stark white walls, a wood-burning fireplace, built-in bookshelves, and open city views through a trio of windows on two walls. Conveniently accessible from both the foyer and the living room, the smartly arranged galley kitchen is expectedly compact in the manner of many if not most lower Manhattan kitchens and fitted with black granite counter tops on custom cabinets, name-brand appliances that include a snazzy and expensive glass-fronted fridge/freezer, and a handy-dandy laundry closet installed in what was once a windowed half bathroom. The two bedrooms are roughly equal in size — one is lined with built-ins and has two meager closets while the other has but one punishingly puny closet — and the apartment’s lone and desirably windowed bathroom has a soaking tub and separate stall shower lined with some sort of pourous, limestone-like beige stone tile.
The dignified and discreet, dark brown brick building was designed by acclaimed architect Rosario Candela and, besides it’s plum address and conveniently central location along Greenwich Village’s historically nabobish Gold Coast — the seven swank blocks of Fifth Avenue that stretch north from Washington Square Park to 14th Street, offers its well-heeled residents part-time doormen and full time elevator attendants, communal laundry facilities, a bike storage room, and a planted rooftop terrace with wrap around downtown views.
Once the apartment disappears from the master illusionist’s petite property portfolio he’ll still own a 3,453-square-foot duplex condo in Tribeca he scooped up in April 2005 for $1.675 million.
Listing photos: Douglas Elliman
