West Village Townhouses Lead Manhattan Luxury Contracts

Two West Village townhouses each seeking more than $26 million have found buyers, bringing the number of deals for luxury single-family homes in the borough this year closer to a record.

Some 146 luxury townhouse contracts, defined as properties asking $4 million or more, have been signed this year. That includes a record nine last week, the most in that period since Olshan Realty’s weekly report began tracking the market in 2006. Just eight more would match 2014’s record of 153 contracts. The total haul of luxury contracts last week was 27.

The most expensive townhouse contract was 30 Grove Street, a five-story, 21-foot wide townhouse in the West Village. With five bedrooms across 5,864 square feet, the home is outfitted with two fireplaces, an elevator, a rooftop greenhouse, a landscaped garden and wine cellar. It was last asking $28 million.

If the final price matches the ask, it would be among the most expensive transactions in the neighborhood, surpassing Rupert Murdoch’s home at 278 West 11th Street, which sold for $27.5 million in 2016. The priciest deal in the neighborhood belongs to Melissa Schiff, the ex-wife of Robert Soros, who sold her townhouse at 263 West 11th Street last year for $31.5 million.

In the second-priciest townhouse deal last week, a buyer signed a contract for 79 Horatio Street when the property was asking $26.4 million. It’s a five-story, 23-foot wide home with more than 2,000 square feet of outdoor space spread between a backyard garden and rooftop terrace. Inside, the home measures 7,900 square feet with five bedrooms and an elevator.

A decade ago, the home was part of the estate of prolific real estate investor William Gottlieb, which was estimated to include more than 100 buildings in lower Manhattan. The 79 Horatio Street property was sold to Greystone for less than $10.45 million in 2012. The developer renovated the property and flipped it for $21 million in 2014. Now that buyer is selling,