Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times Once labeled a “no-style structure,†12 East 76th Street was completely redesigned in 2008 and just sold for $27 million in a whisper sale.An Upper East Side town house that in 1981 received the dreaded thumbs-down designation of being “a no-style structure†from the Landmarks Preservation Commission because of an unloved mid-20th-century revamping, sold for $27 million after undergoing a 21st-century rejuvenation, in the most expensive sale of the week, according to city records.
The five-story town house at 12 East 76th Street, built in 1882, attracted such intense interest from buyers seeking a state-of-the-art residence with a classical exterior â€" in the course of a gut renovation that began in 2008, red brick was replaced with Italian limestone â€" that it was never formally listed on the market. It traded after just three viewings, in a whisper sale.
When the fashion mogul Luca Orlandi, founder of the Italian Luca Luca brand, and his wife, Oluchi Onweagba, the Nigerian-born supermodel, bought the town house for $12.35 million in 2008, it was not exactly an eyesore, but it lacked the grace of its historic neighbors on this prime block just off Fifth Avenue. Around 1946, the 18-foot-wide town house had been shorn of its period embellishments, and since 1954 it had been multitasking as a two-family home with a medical office on the street level.
Over the objections of preservationists and Community Board 8, Mr. Orlandi received permission from the city’s landmarks commission in 2010 essentially to demolish the structure and rebuild it using a design from the architect Umberto Squarcia. The front facade is limestone with ample cornices; the rear is brick with stone lintels similar to the original design.
The result is an elegant but decidedly new town house with an elevated entry, five bedrooms, six marble baths, two powder rooms, two wood-burning fireplaces, and a suite for a staff. An elevator connects the basement to the rooftop garden, and the ceilings in the parlor, which has three French windows facing the street, are 14 feet high. The master suite occupies the entire top floor.
Sami Hassoumi of Brown Harris Stevens was the listing broker on behalf of Orlandi Realty; the buyer acquired the property under the shield of a limited-liability company, Mou.
Six blocks to the south, a nine-room co-op in a Rosario Candela-designed building at 2 East 70th Street sold for $13.25 million, the week’s runner-up. This three-bedroom, three-bath residence, No. 4A, was listed at $13.5 million and had belonged for decades to the hostess and philanthropist Elizabeth R. Fondaras, who died last summer at age 96. The apartment’s west-facing corner living room has a fireplace and full Central Park view; its master suite overlooks the gardens of the Frick Museum. The maintenance is $10,250, and the sale included a separate maid’s room on the third floor.
Daniela Kunen of Douglas Elliman was the listing broker for the estate; the buyers were David and Martha Hamamoto, who in December sold their sprawling floor-through residence at 944 Fifth Avenue for the full asking price of $50 million. Mr. Hamamoto, the chairman of the NorthStar Realty Finance Corporation, had indicated that empty nest syndrome was motivating their desire to scale back a bit.
For voyeurs of the residential gymnastics of the celebrity set, the penthouse at 30 Crosby Street previously owned by Lenny Kravitz, who paid $7.1 million in 2000, and owned since 2010 by Alicia Keys, who paid $12.75 million, sold last week for $12.375 million. The titanium-sided triplex, PHB, has 3,000 square feet devoted to terraces and close to 6,000 square feet of interior space, including a master suite with a spa, a dressing room and a terrace, all accessible via a floating glass staircase.
Ms. Keys and her husband, Swizz Beatz, the hip-hop entrepreneur, recently bought Eddie Murphy’s New Jersey estate, whose significant trophy enticement was its home recording studio. The Crosby Street penthouse hit the market in March 2012 at $17.95 million. The carrying charges are $11,564.
It was sold through the Honeycomb Trust, a Los Angeles-based company; the listing broker was Eric Malley of Sotheby’s International Realty. The anonymous buyer used a limited-liability company, TessAnnieK. Could Courtney Love be moving back in?
Big Ticket includes closed sales from the previous week, ending Wednesday.
