Puffed up
Whitney Didier, the Douglas Elliman agent who sold Sean “Diddy” Combs’ apartment at the Park Imperial in March, has revealed how she managed to unload the seemingly immovable unit.
It took nearly five years, a series of price cuts and a massively long lineup of brokers to sell the pad, which Combs nabbed for $3.82 million in 2005. By the time he hired Didier last year, the hip-hop star was understandably glum about the pad’s prospects, his broker said.
“At that point, he wanted to get it done,” she explained. “He wanted realistic expectations about how long it would take to get sold.”
So how did Didier find a buyer willing to pay $5.7 million when all the others had failed? First off, she targeted the source of the trouble: The apartment was a three-bedroom that had been converted to a one-bedroom, narrowing the number of potential buyers.
“It was a bachelor pad, with a bar in the middle of the apartment,” she said. “It had one large master suite, and the rest of the apartment was really for entertainment.”
Didier knew she had to go after a buyer who could live with just one bedroom, but she also turned a corner of the living room into an ad hoc second bedroom, to show buyers what could be done with a little work.
The buyer ultimately came from Israel.
“I made an initial deal with him over the phone and flew him in to see the unit and close,” she said. “This gentleman travels to New York several times a year. He has several children but doesn’t bring them often.”
Didier said she dealt directly with Combs, who had an entourage to help him with boring paperwork but wanted to handle the offers personally.
“There was some frustration because we had a fully negotiated offer fall through,” she said. “But he was a pleasure to deal with.”
The San Remo
Demi’s slow-moving digs
Speaking of apartments that took ages to sell, Demi Moore finally unloaded her penthouse at the San Remo last month after having it on the market for several years.
She had to take a major price cut to do it. The buyer paid just $45 million, well below the $75 million she asked when listing the apartment in 2015.
Listing broker Adam Modlin refused to divulge the buyer, who hid his or her identity under the corporate entity M2 Trust and was represented by Roger Erickson of Douglas Elliman.
Erickson, who used to work as an executive at CBS Records, has represented celebs such as Bono and Madonna. In more recent years, he’s worked with the likes of Himmel + Meringoff Properties principal Stephen Meringoff.
He also repped American pop singer Jennifer Rush, who penned the saccharine ballad “The Power of Love” when she sold her San Remo co-op for more than $5 million in 2012.
Erickson, who was on the sales team at 432 Park, also no doubt connected with some well-heeled international buyers there. Those buyers will remain a mystery, since the broker didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Moore acquired the San Remo property in 1990 — the same year her movie “Ghost” came out — with her former hubby Bruce Willis.
“We looked at everything on the park, Fifth Avenue, Central Park South and Central Park West, and there was just nothing like it,” she told the New York Times in 2015. “The location, architecture and history of the San Remo were on a completely different level.”
70 Vestry
Brady’s superstitions
It’s just a number, Tom.
Tom Brady has reportedly asked to switch floors at 70 Vestry Street, Related Companies’ new development, where he’s said to be buying a $20 million apartment. He and wife, supermodel Gisele Bündchen, asked Related if they could move up to the 12th floor, to match Brady’s number 12 Patriots jersey.
It might seem nutty, but sources told The Real Deal that Brady’s number anxiety is not uncommon in the real estate world.
“I once had a buyer who felt strongly that living on a floor with the number 8 in it, because they thought it would bring them luck,” said Michael Graves of Douglas Elliman. “I’ve seen so many strange things, like people who don’t want to be part of a listing that’s hyphenated. Strange little things can throw people.”
Sports stars are also known for being particularly superstitious, especially when it comes to the game.
Michael Jordan reportedly wore his University of North Carolina shorts under his uniform in every game to bring him luck, and Swedish tennis legend Björn Borg would always grow a beard before a big tournament.