Category — Co-op Storage

There’s an open house at 164 West 79th Street for a 4th floor co-op apartment over Memorial Day weekend.

This is 3 bedroom, 3 bath, 1500+ sq. ft. ‘Classic-6′ cooperative is located in an Upper West Side building that’s had quite a few transactions over the last several years.


It’s pet-friendly co-op offering quite a few amenities that most others lack:

• 2 tranquil gardens in the back of the building, including a Zen rock garden;
• A spectacular roof-terrace for all shareholders with completely unobstructed views looking South, views of Central Park facing East, and the Hudson River facing West; and
• A finished children’s playroom in the basement adjacent to the laundry room (below)

Monthly maintenance is $1,853, and buyers must have a minimum of 25% of the purchase price for a downpayment.

Some interesting trivia on this building: this blogger learned from shareholders that The Village People actually used to live in an apartment at 164 West 79th Street, and not in Greenwich Village!

It’s an amazing location for foodies, being only 2 blocks from Zabar’s and H&H bagels, and a few more to Fairway.

Transportation is also a plus: it’s 1 block to the No. 1 subway at Broadway & 79th Street, and block in the other direction to the B and C trains.

What’s unusual about this listing is that there are four brokers from Prudential Douglas Elliman working on it: the husband and wife Michael Rosenblum and Sandra Gansberg, Jamie Heinlein, and Brad Gansberg (Sandra is his aunt!).

Open houses on holiday weekends can be a great opportunity for buyers to check out properties since a good percentage of other interested purchasers will be out of town. For brokers, however, that can be a potential negative — they want all the traffic they can get, and holidays can put a damper on that.

Some brokers offer a mid-week open house in this situation, to try and capture prospects who were out of town over the weekend.

Address: 164 West 79th Street, New York, NY 10024 on Manhattan’s Upper West Side

Sue Hostetler (inset) and Jon Diamond just sold their amazing Soho loft co-op at 81 Wooster Street for the $4.75 million asking price, according to public records. They paid $3.75 million for the co-op in 2006, making a nice gain on their investment.

Hostetler is an accomplished author, editor, and television personality. Having written Hip Hollywood Homes, she knows more than a little about real estate, style, and fashion.

Diamond is a serial music business entrepreneur and current chairman of digital media entertainment company ARTISTdirect.com where he focuses on the company’s strategic initiatives.

The buyers are Virginia Lebermann and John Wotowicz (inset) who are moving from Texas to Manhattan.

Jill Roosevelt of Brown Harris Stevens had the exclusive for this spectacular loft.

It has 3,000 square feet (see below) with wonderful views overlooking cobblestone streets in Soho’s historic cast iron district. The loft has 6 rooms, including 2 bedrooms, a sprawling living area, an office and a library, and an amazing kitchen and dining area. Hostetler described the 4-month transformation of her family’s loft by interior designer Valerie Pasquiou in Metropolitan Home.

The immaculate renovation was also featured in Gotham, In Style, and Quest Magazines.

Monthly maintenance for this pet-friendly loft was listed as incredibly low — just $1,829.

Roosevelt described the loft as having “grand proportions” and “a library with exquisite Jojoba wood built-ins, maple floors, central air, in-wall, state-of the art stereo and security system, and custom-made over-size steel and glass doors.” In addition to having a washer and dyer in a laundry room, the loft has amazing closet and storage space.

How low can you go? That’s a question that co-op apartment owners at 791 Park Avenue are probably asking themselves following buyer Gary Gelman’s purchase of a fifth-floor cooperative in the building located at East 74th Street.


Gelman knocked $820,000 off of the apartment’s original $9.95 million list price, paying $9.175 million.

Those are some great negotiation skills, especially when the sellers are Bear Stearns Director Daniel Keating and his wife Janet Keating. Looks like the investment bank’s debacle may have led the Keatings to quickly sell their Park Avenue co-op for eight-figures, and relocate to a 4-figure rental apartment in Waterside Plaza along the East River.

The sellers’ listing agent was Halstead broker Nancy Coffey (inset).

The apartment is huge. It has 4-bedrooms and 4½ bathrooms with approximately 3,700 square feet over eleven rooms. Monthly maintenance charges were $3,800 at the time it was on the market. The 14-floor pre-war co-op is pet-friendly, has its own gym, and storage space for shareholders.

Fancy kitchen accoutrements include a culinary space chock full of high-end appliances, a butler’s pantry, custom cabinetry, and a breakfast nook.

Did the buyer need a room for his books or to smoke a stogie after a hard day of making money? He’s got it: one of the bedrooms was transformed into a wood-paneled library.