British thriller author buys UWS townhouse for $17M

The creator of the Jack Reacher series is moving to the Upper West Side.

British author James Dover Grant — known for penning the adventure novels under the name Lee Child — paid $17 million, or $2,215 per square foot, for a townhouse at 25 West 88th Street, according to public records. 

The sellers, real estate investment banker Kurt Roeloffs and his wife Shyanne, bought the five-story home for $5.4 million in 2011. At the time, it was configured as a multifamily property with a quadraplex and four one-bedroom units.

Since then, the couple underwent a significant renovation to combine the units into a single-family home sprawling 8,000 square feet, six bedrooms and six bathrooms. As part of the renovation, the two added a high-speed elevator and updates to the home’s facade, including a new stoop. 

The Roeloffs partnered with Baxt/Ingui Architects to convert the home into a LEED-certified passive house designed to reduce energy consumption and enhance air quality. The home is outfitted with hospital-grade air filters, solar panels and triple-filtration water system. 

“The point was to do a renovation that was more sustainable, highly effective and that didn’t make any compromises,” Shyanne Roeloffs said. 

She added that the purpose was to reduce construction waste, which included donating appliances and sourcing materials locally. The backyard fence was constructed using some of the home’s original materials as well as recycled wood from the Coney Island boardwalk. 

The landmarked brownstone, built in 1889, also features a 500-bottle wine cellar, a terrace with an outdoor fireplace, a yoga, dance and entertainment studio and an eat-in kitchen. 

The listing describes the home as “triple mint,” which means its kitchen, bathroom and overall condition are pristine, Elizabeth Ann Stribling-Kivlan wrote in Forbes in 2018.

Roeloffs said the couple invested heavily in the renovation with expectations to stay in the home for years, but they ultimately chose to move to the U.K. to pursue higher education opportunities and to be closer to family. 

“It’s a bit of a shame to have put so much heart and soul into a place,” Roeloffs said. 

The Roeloffs first listed the home for $19 million in 2016 before pulling it off the market and relisting it for $17.5 million in 2021. The townhouse hit the market again last April with an asking price of $18 million. 

Leslie J. Garfield’s Richard Pretsfelder and Thomas Wexler had the listing. 

Renovated townhouses are the market’s “sweet spot” right now, though there aren’t many of them on the market, according to Pretsfelder. He added that though activity in the neighborhood has been strong, he’s expecting transactions to continue to pick up. 

Kurt Roeloffs is the former head of Deutsche Bank’s real estate investment banking arm in Asia. He now serves as the global chief investment officer of RREEF and as the chairman of Seaforth Land, a London-based developer focused on restoring commercial real estate in the city. 

Shyanne Roeloffs is a PhD candidate studying the psychology of hunger at Anglia Rustin University in Cambridge. 

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