From left: Katie Holmes, Ryan Serhant and the Chelsea Mercantile

The Chelsea apartment building where Katie Holmes is staying, in the wake of filing for divorce from Tom Cruise, is benefiting from all the attention it’s getting. One broker says that interest in his listing, at the Chelsea Mercantile, is five times what it was prior to the media frenzy taking hold.

“We went from showing once or twice a week to five showings today, four on Thursday and seven on Friday so far,” said Ryan Serhant of Nestseekers, who is listing a $22.5 million apartment at the building with his colleague Regis Roumila. “We may even have an open house this weekend, just to handle the traffic.” [more]

From left: Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise, the 42 West 12th Street townhouse they purchased and the Chelsea Mercantile (buildings credit: PropertyShark)

In the weeks before filing for divorce from megastar Tom Cruise, actress Katie Holmes reportedly rented a unit in Chelsea, where she is apparently with the couple’s 6-year-old daughter, Suri, according to the New York Post and other publications. A crush of news cameras Monday morning had staked out the entrance to the Chelsea Mercantile, located at 252 Seventh Avenue, between 24th and 25th streets, where Radar Online and other websites had Holmes staying.

Cruise and Holmes own a 8,100-square-foot West Village townhouse, located at 42 West 12th Street, between Fifth and Sixth avenues. According to public records, the couple purchased the Greenwich Village townhouse in April 2009 for $15.1 million.

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Fashion designer Marc Jacobs has moved out of the 2,062-square-foot
penthouse he had been renting from Montreal Canadian hockey star Scott
Gomez at the Chelsea Mercantile at 252 Seventh Avenue since 2009, the New York Magazine reported. For $20,000 a month, he rented the property, which has an outdoor
kitchen on the terrace, five flat-screen TVs and remote-controlled
lighting. He is moving into the Superior Ink townhouse, one of six
that comprise Superior Ink, a Robert Stern-designed condominium that
reportedly includes, among numerous perks, valet bike parking for
residents. [NYMag] … [more]

Scott Gomez, a client and friend of Victor Shaio, and the Chelsea Mercantile

While hockey coaches, trainers and referees are figures of authority on the ice, one mortgage originator has emerged as the most trusted man in real estate among some of the National Hockey League’s biggest stars. A relative unknown three years ago, Victor Shaio, a mortgage originator who heads an eponymous group with MetLife Home Loans, is an unlikely sensei — he contends that the glamorous life of an athlete holds no appeal to him.
But today, industry insiders say Shaio is the go-to guy among Rangers players looking for solid real estate advice…. [more]

Scott Gomez, a client and friend of Victor Shaio, and the Chelsea Mercantile

While hockey coaches, trainers and referees are figures of authority on the ice, one mortgage originator has emerged as the most trusted man in real estat… [more]

HGTV’s new realty reality show, “Selling New York,” premiers tonight at 9 p.m., promising to showcase the “top of the real estate food chain.” The show follows Gumley Haft Kleier’s Michele Kleier and her broker daughters, Samantha Kleier Forbes and Sabrina Kleier Morgenstern, as well as Core’s Shaun Osher, among other brokers from each firm as they maneuver their way through some of the city’s most high-end real estate transactions. In honor of the debut, The Real Deal did some digging to find out which of the city’s prized properties are slated to be featured this season. Among them: a four-bedroom loft at the Chelsea Mercantile listed for $22.45 million, the 25 Murray Street loft for which former Giants star Michael Strahan is asking $1.85 million, a $17 million landmarked townhouse at 109 East 69th Street, and a 2,295-square-foot spread at highly-anticipated One Brooklyn Bridge Park (see slide show of many of the homes above). Click here for more information about the residences expected to appear in the upcoming season.
… [more]