A fully-restored Greenwich Village townhouse at 80 Washington Place, which has been on the market since June 2012 asking $29 million, is now also available as a rental, asking $80,000 a month.
The home, owned by William Rainero, head of Metropolitan Realty & Development Group, was once home to composer and conductor John Philip Sousa. It has been in the same family for 40 years.
Listing broker Clayton Orrigo of Town Residential told The Real Deal that the owners had chosen to capitalize on interest they’d received in the property as a rental while waiting for the right buyer to come along.
“We get calls all the time for rentals,” Orrigo said of the home, which is located between Washington Square West and Sixth Avenue. “With the Superbowl and Fashion Week and all these other things, about half the calls we get now are for luxury rentals, both short term and long term. If we can capitalize on that, that’s great.”
The 8,700-square-foot property has been leased for non-residential purposes in recent months. It was snapped up for a six-figure sum by a consumer electronics company in September for a private product launch, it was previously reported. It has also served as a backdrop for fashion shoots, hosting models like Chrissy Teigen and Jessica Stam.
It is now available for lease for any period up to about two years, according to the broker.
Meanwhile, Orrigo said he has received several “reasonable” offers to buy the home already but none have quite met the owner’s expectations. The owner invested a large amount of money in transforming the property, formerly a multi-family building, into a single-family home prior to putting it on the market last year, he said, and is holding out for the right price. The property is currently asking $28.9 million.
“The family’s attached to the property and they have a certain number in their minds,” he said.
The house features a glass and white oak stairwell, a Zen garden and a water feature that runs down the property’s former coal chute, according to the listing. It also has a billiard room, a wine cellar and a media room.
Sousa, who owned the property in the early 1900s, was a composer of the late Romantic era, known particularly for his American military and patriotic marches such as “Semper Fidelis,” the official march of the United States Marine Corps, and “The Stars and Stripes Forever,” which is the national march of the United States of America.