Or maybe a rich person (money buys fame, right?). The duplex penthouse (rendered below) in Moinian’s W Downtown New York Residences at 123 Washington St is on the market for $42M, and the rich and famous have indeed been looking.
Mitch tells us the first penthouse tour was for one of NYC's greatest athletes, who's interested. That person would be in good company, considering we hear a few supermodels and a big-deal musician own units in the building. And Liev Schreiber and Naomi Watts were lunching in the property's BLT Bar & Grill while we were there. (They politely left us alone.)
We snapped The Marketing Directors’ Carolyn Sebba and Moinian’s Mitch Moinian in the resident lobby before they showed us around the building, which sold its first unit in 2010. Sales started speeding up once Carolyn's firm came on board in September, Mitch says. (The Marketing Directors also handled sales for Moinian’s previous condo project, The Atelier, and it's marketing Downtown's 50 West and 22 Thames for other developers). Carolyn says her company has advanced to selling the W's the higher floors and has one- and two-bedroom units available in addition to the penthouse. Mitch adds that Adrian Brody is a huge fan of the property and is interested in buying when he returns from a film shoot in Hungary this month.
On the southern side of the building (the north is across the street from the WTC) is a back entrance that Mitch describes as handy for celebrity residents to duck in and out. It’s on Gwathmey Plaza (in tribute to Charles Gwathmey, whose firm Gwathmey Siegel designed the building and who died when it was half built), including 75 patio seats for BLT guests in warmer months.
The residential portion (we snapped Carolyn in one of the corner units) starts on the 31st floor with amenities that are for residents only. Mitch tells us this 57-story building is the only W Hotel with residences in NYC but has separate residential and hotel amenities, lobbies, and entrances. Combining them would have been a deal breaker for Moinian, he says. Residents can access hotel amenities (like the fifth-floor bar and 24-hour room service from BLT), but hotel guests don't get the residents' perks.
Carolyn tells us north-facing units are the hotter ticket, from which residents can watch the WTC site come together and witness Manhattan's morphing skyline.
Mitch, though, doesn’t discount the calmer, south-facing views of Lady Liberty and summer yacht traffic (we snapped this from the roof). In fact, celebs are starting to see in FiDi the same quality that attracts them to Tribeca—a sleepier, quieter way of life, Mitch says, adding that privacy is residents' biggest feedback talking point. (Lady Liberty now welcomes tired, poor, huddled masses, and those who don't want to brag, but, you know, hey, they did well enough for themselves in the stock market to grab a penthouse apartment.)
