Quirky homes top Manhattan’s luxury contracts

Buyers sign deals for seven residences asking $10M or more

464 Greenwich Street, Mickey Drexler (Getty, Corcoran)
464 Greenwich Street, Mickey Drexler (Getty, Corcoran)

Manhattan’s luxury homebuyers last week committed to spending big bucks.

The asking prices for luxury homes — priced at $4 million or more — that went into contract last week totaled $219 million, double the previous week’s sum.

The 24 deals signed were 10 more than the week prior, according to Olshan Realty.

Seven of the properties were seeking $10 million, the largest number of trophy properties to go into contract since the week of May 9. But the homes spent nearly two years on the market, on average, and many had been marked down substantially.

The priciest was a house at 464 Greenwich Street asking $30 million. Formerly owned by fashion mogul Mickey Drexler, who purchased it for $5.5 million in 2008, the property was built in 1892 as a coffee-roasting plant and transformed into a single-family house. Famed French architect Thierry Despont oversaw the renovation.

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The 9,000-square-foot home has five bedrooms, six bathrooms and two powder rooms. It also has a 1,500-square-foot living room, gym, sauna, rooftop terrace and commercial-sized elevator.

The facade of the 24-foot-wide red brick house retains the coffee company’s original sign.

The second priciest home to enter into contact was 113 East 90th Street, asking $27 million. It, too, has an unusual history. A former firehouse, it comes with a landscaped garden and a carriage house in the back.

The four-story, 25-foot-wide main house has more than 5,500 square feet, four bedrooms, four bathrooms and two powder rooms. It also has three fireplaces, a 3,000-bottle wine cellar and double-height ceiling in the entrance. The seller bought the home for almost $10 million in 2011 and renovated it.

The 24 contracts signed included 14 for condos, six for co-ops and four for townhouses.

The units spent an average of 668 days on the market, with an average discount of 9 percent. The median asking price was $6 million.