Photographer Asks Buyers to Smile
And Pay $35 Million for Residence
Fashion and commercial photographer Albert Watson, testing the high end of lower Manhattan's real-estate market, this week listed his longtime home and studio for $35 million.
The price is thought to be the highest ever for a home below 14th Street, local brokers say. On Washington Street in the far western part of Greenwich Village, the four-floor house measures about 25,000 square feet, including large terrace spaces, with about 13,000 square feet for residential use. The Scottish-born, 63-year-old Mr. Watson -- who has photographed Alfred Hitchcock, Kate Moss and Jack Nicholson -- paid $850,000 for the corner office building in 1985, property records show.
Mr. Watson and his wife, Elizabeth, spent years converting the building: About half of the property's first and second floors became a duplex art and photography studio with 22-foot ceilings, a darkroom and offices. The third level has three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a large kitchen and living and family rooms. The top floor includes a master-bedroom suite, library, gym and two large terraces, one with unobstructed views of the Empire State Building.
The property includes a private garage, a screening room and a 28-foot-tall glass atrium. Zoning laws allow a variety of commercial uses including art gallery or restaurant and residence, according to listing agents Peter McCuen and Jim St. Andre of Peter McCuen & Associates.
New Game for Agassi, Graf
Tennis stars Andre Agassi, who lost at Wimbledon last weekend and plans to retire, and Steffi Graf have launched Agassi Graf Development LLC, a real-estate development company focused on luxury home and resort projects.
The first deal of the husband-and-wife firm: developing and operating a luxury property within Tamarack Resort, a mountain vacation area about 90 miles north of Boise, Idaho. The equal equity partner in the project is Bayview Financial, a Miami-based real-estate investment, development and mortgage-finance company.
Mr. Agassi says the couple will be active in most aspects of the development's design, and that they have invested in the project themselves, though he declined to say how much. "We're not just attaching our names to this," Mr. Agassi says. "We're pouring ourselves into this financially and with the work." The project, to be completed in 2009, includes a 225-room condo-hotel at Tamarack's village, with a spa and golf course, and a midmountain group of at least 35 houses with ski in/ski out access.
Costs for the project are forecast at $400 million, says Agassi Graf Development President Gun Ruder, though full costs haven't been determined. Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, which runs Tamarack Resort, will manage the development, with sales to begin in January. Agassi Graf, which so far is operating with a small staff, also is negotiating projects in Asia and Europe, Mr. Ruder says.
Mr. Agassi, 36 years old and one of only five men to have won all four Grand Slam events, plans to leave the game following the U.S. Open later this summer. Ms. Graf retired in 1999 after winning 22 major singles titles.
'Sleeper' House, Awake
A futuristic home featured in Woody Allen's 1973 comedy "Sleeper" sold to Michael Dunahay, founder of Denver-based club Vacation Solutions, for $3.45 million after four years on the market.
Architect Charles Deaton designed the curving, clamshell-shaped five-bedroom 1960s house, which is known as "Sculptured House." The 7,644-square-foot home sits on five acres on Colorado's Genesee Mountain, about 25 miles west of Denver. John Huggins, Denver's director of economic development, bought the house in 1999 for about $1.3 million and says he spent several million dollars on renovations, including tripling the original square footage.
Mr. Huggins says he put the house and its 15 acres on the market in 2002 for $10 million. He sold 10 of the undeveloped acres last year for $1.3 million and cut the price of the house and remaining acreage to $4.85 million last November. Rollie Jordan, of Kentwood Co. Cherry Creek, had the home listing. Mr. Dunahay, whose company offers members access to world-wide resorts, says he plans to preserve the property and use it as his private home.
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