Her nickname now’s “The Queen of New York Actual Property,” however Barbara Corcoran was nonetheless on a pauper’s price range the day she noticed the penthouse that might turn out to be her residence.
It was 1992, and Ms. Corcoran, the founding father of Corcoran Realty, was pinching pennies. To make ends meet, she had picked up a facet hustle delivering letters for a messenger service. On one errand, she took an envelope to the highest ground of a constructing at Fifth Avenue and 97th Avenue. Stepping off the elevator into the condo, she glimpsed previous a pair of French doorways to see a lush terrace with sweeping views of Central Park.
“I believed, my god, I’ve by no means seen something as lovely in my life,” mentioned Ms. Corcoran, 76.
In a narrative she’s now retold sufficient to make it actual property lore (together with in The New York Occasions), Ms. Corcoran handed the envelope to the house’s proprietor and requested her to please name her ought to she ever put the house in the marketplace.
Greater than 20 years later, her telephone rang.
In 2015, Ms. Corcoran, a star investor on the truth TV present “Shark Tank” and now in a way more comfy monetary place, paid $10 million for the unit. It was a worth she was joyful to pay, she mentioned in an interview, due to its two greatest options: its location and its views.
“Any home I ever purchased, I purchased the spot, not the house,” she mentioned. “You may management the house, however you’ll be able to’t management the spot.”
For the interiors, she had a brand new imaginative and prescient, and instantly set about gutting the unit all the way down to its studs. Eighteen months and at the least $2 million extra later, Ms. Corcoran had flipped the upstairs and downstairs ground plans, turned a greenhouse into a panoramic indoor/outside eating room and added a full chef’s kitchen adjoining to the terrace. All through the renovation, Ms. Corcoran and her daughter, Kate, who was 10 on the time, typically slept in sleeping luggage on the terrace below the celebrities.
All that continues to be of the unique duplex’s interiors is its curved staircase, which Ms. Corcoran mentioned has turn out to be troublesome for her husband, Invoice Higgins, 80, a retired Navy captain, to climb.
“And I’m not working these stairs anymore, both,” she mentioned.
Having come to phrases with the truth that she and her husband could be extra comfy in a one-story residence, Ms. Corcoran is bidding farewell to the dream spot.
It’s a sentimental goodbye. The penthouse has been the positioning of well-attended soirees below the twinkling lights of her rooftop solarium — pajama events, October Day of the Useless themed fetes, and even a milestone birthday celebration the place she deliberate a mock funeral for herself and sprung up out of a coffin.
Guests to the 4,600-square-foot condo step out of the elevator right into a grand lobby. The unit has 5 bedrooms, 5 full baths and two half baths, plus a library with a wood-burning fire, a butler’s pantry, and that off-the-terrace kitchen, with a French basin sink, customized white cabinetry and an ILVE vary.
“She’s an actual property genius and the way in which she has designed this residence represents her genius,” mentioned Scott Stewart, a dealer with Corcoran who’s co-listing Ms. Corcoran’s condo with fellow Corcoran dealer Carrie Chiang. “The condo is laid out like a multilevel jewel field.”
The asking worth is $12 million. Month-to-month upkeep is round $11,000.
Although Ms. Corcoran is transferring on, she is staying within the neighborhood. It’s been a brief search.
In December, Ms. Corcoran learn in The New York Occasions that Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward’s longtime pied-à-terre — just some blocks away and with its personal knock-the-wind-from-your-lungs views of the park — was on the market for $9.95 million. She favored the value and the placement. And she or he actually favored that the unit was just one ground. She put in a proposal, however was outbid.
“It’s at all times about cash, honey,” she instructed me.
In January, she obtained extra dangerous information: Her treasured Pacific Palisades cellular residence burned to the bottom in January within the wildfires, a loss she described as gutting. However shortly after, Ms. Chiang, the Corcoran dealer, known as her with excellent news: She had discovered a brand new one-story Manhattan penthouse that she was positive Ms. Corcoran would love, one that might additionally permit her to remain within the neighborhood of Carnegie Hill. She made a proposal on the spot, which was accepted.
As for the penthouse’s $12 million price ticket, she is aware of that she is asking for lower than she spent shopping for and renovating it. However she mentioned she believes that the value is truthful and consumers will bid up if the market bears it.
“I by no means thought I’d ever go away,” Ms. Corcoran admitted. “It’s simple to spend cash while you’re constructing a lifelong dream. For me, actual property is emotional.”
