Looks like Sebastian Junger found a “perfect storm” in the quickly-recovering condominium market, as it were. The award-winning journalist, documentarian and author of the 1997 book “The Perfect Storm,” has sold his two-bedroom Hell’s Kitchen condo for $1.24 million, according to records filed with the city today.
The war correspondent, Vanity Fair contributor and an owner of the Half King bar and restaurant in Chelsea bought unit No. 14D at 315 West 36th Street for $750,000 in 2003, records show.
The buyer was the condo board itself, exercising its right of first refusal, listing broker Daniella Schlisser of the Corcoran Group confirmed. She did not give details for why Junger’s buyer was refused, or disclose the person’s identity.
“The board wanted to buy the condo,” she said.
A lawyer for the condo board declined to comment on the decision. It was not clear who the prospective buyer was.
The 20-unit, 17-story tower, between Eighth and Ninth avenues, offers polished concrete floors and in-suite baths, according to Streeteasy.com.
Junger may have opted for a more adult neighborhood: his residence listed on the deed is 120 West 86th Street, a stately pre-war rental building between Columbus and Amsterdam avenues.
Junger financed and co-directed an experimental documentary called “Restrepo” with British photojournalist Tim Hetherington beginning in 2009. The film, which chronicles a year with an American platoon in Afghanistan, was nominated for an Academy Award in 2011. That same year, Hetherington was killed while covering the war in Libya.
The property had been on the market for a month before the board entered into contract for it, information from Streeteasy.com shows.