Well-heeled buyers eye commercial sites for mansions

From left: TOWN's Wendy Maitland and a possible "mansion" on the corner of Perry and Greenwich streets
From left: TOWN's Wendy Maitland and a possible "mansion" on the corner of Perry and Greenwich streets

At least one interested buyer of a parking garage on the corner of Perry and Greenwich streets in the West Village wants to tear down the building and construct a 40,000-square-foot mansion, which would take the record for the city’s largest single-family home. And this unknown bidder is not alone.

Across the city, well-heeled buyers are taking a page out of Edith Wharton’s novels and eyeing former film studios and old commercial spaces as the raw materials for their stand-alone dream homes — far from the clamor of condominium neighbors and finicky co-op boards, the New York Times reported.

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Nearby 145 Perry Street, a small commercial spot in a former life, sold to billionaire Steven Cohen for almost $39 million, and an old film studio in the same nabe went to a Texas oil heiress who enlisted architect Annabelle Selldorf to revamp the enormous 12,000-square-foot space.

“The townhouse buyer doesn’t want a multi-unit condominium that is mass produced,” Wendy Maitland, a senior managing director of sales at TOWN Residential, told the New York Times. “This is an entirely private home, built for the lifestyle of someone who has multiple staff, a private driver. These people do not need a doorman, and they aren’t sharing amenities.” [NYT]Julie Strickland