Jellybean Benitez to relist Gramercy Park brownstone as $33K/month rental

Grammy Award-winning bassist, music producer and DJ John Benitez, better known as Jellybean Benitez, will relist a triplex at his 11,610-square-foot Gramercy Park townhouse today as a rental, The Real Deal has learned.

The apartment, which takes up three floors of the 27-foot-wide brownstone at 11 Gramercy Park South, will be listed by Luis Ortiz of Keller Williams NYC, asking $33,000 a month. It was previously listed for sale as a co-exclusive by Douglas Elliman’s Raphael De Niro and broker-to-the-stars Adam Modlin of the Modlin Group. It was last asking $18 million.

When contacted by The Real Deal, Ortiz said Benitez and his wife Carolyn, a former model who now owns a Union Square coffee shop, had decided to hold off on selling the property for the meantime. Their reasons for delaying a sale were not clear.

“It’s a good property to hold onto. Gramercy Park was already established but it’s going to become even bigger once the move-ins start at [18 Gramercy Park],” Ortiz said, referring to the new condominiums by developers William and Arthur Zeckendorf.

Modlin declined to comment on the listing, while De Niro was not immediately available for comment.

Benitez bought the five-story property from County Dollar Corp. in 1992, paying an undisclosed sum. It is currently configured as three apartments, including two duplexes that span the fourth and fifth floors.

The triplex unit has three bedrooms, three bathrooms and a south-facing patio and garden, according to a previous listing.