LOCATION: New York City, NY
PRICE: $6,420,000
SIZE: 2,572 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms
YOUR MAMAS NOTES: We first heard word from Dolly B. Downtown and then Your Mama confirmed with property records that L.A.-based Hollywood hot shot Kevin Huvane plunked down $6,420,000 for a pied-a-terre in an historic and freshly converted building in the art gallery-lined heart of New York City's Chelsea neighborhood.
Your Mama recognizes Mister Huvane isn't a household name to run of the mill celebrity watchers but entertainment industry spectators as well as every single person who operates (and/or hopes to operate) within the insular confines of the Big Business of Show well know he is one of Tinseltown's most puissant talent agents with a long roster of past and current clients that reads, well, like the cover of a tabloid magazine or gossip glossy: Jennifer Aniston, Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep, Sarah Jessica Parker, Julia Roberts, Sandra Bullock, and La Oprah Herself. The Bronx-bred Showbiz power player, an openly homosexual father of one—had and maybe still has, we don't know, some sort of issue with enterprising celebutante Paris Hilton who he's reported to have booted at least one industry-related shindig. Anyhoodles, poodles, as dishy and fun as that all may be...
Mister Huvane's new nest in New York occupies a plum position in an auster and even dour 19th-century building on the grounds of the General Theological Seminary. The low-rise building, faced with hand-laid schist and referred to in online marketing materials as The West Building, was originally built in 1836 and, according to the development's website, "one of the oldest continuously inhabited public buildings in New York City." The structure was recently restored and converted to super-luxe condo residences by the architects at Beyer Blinder Belle with interior work by much lauded and applauded Big Apple-based architect Alan Wanzenberg. A brand new, free-standing structure with brownstone base and red brick upper stories—The Annex Building—was built next door and the old and the new were joined by a discreet and subdued yet still pretty glammy all-glass atrium lobby.
The floor plan shows a long, slender foyer opens links the front door to the 21-plus foot (almost) square living/dining room combination. There are multiple and large windows on two walls, a wood-burning fireplace on a third, custom crown moldings and baseboards, hand-laid herringbone pattern white oak floors, and a vaulted ceiling that soars to more than seventeen feet into the building's rafters. The kitchen next door is—undoubtedly—finished with top quality materials and expensively equipped with preposterously pricey appliances. The floor plan shows a large window over the sink and a two-stool center island snack counter.
Both of the guest/family bedrooms have a walk-in closet and direct access to a private (and windowed) three piece bathroom. An L-shaped hall off the main foyer leads back to the master bedroom comprised of a roomy entry vestibule that appears on the floor plan to do double duty as a dressing room; a decent-sized bedroom with wood burning fireplace; and a spacious bathroom that overlooks The Close and is fitted with two sinks, a soaking tub, and a separate shower. The floor plan also shows a half pooper for guests that's well-placed for privacym three hall closets for coats and storage, and a laundry closet in the corridor just outside the master suite.
Property records suggest Mister Huvane also owns a remarkably more modest New York City apartment, a 750 square foot one bedroom condo in a full-service but otherwise undistinguished pre-war building across the street from the ass end of Carnegie Hall. Property records show he bought the pint-sized apartment way back in 1988 for—are y'all sitting down for this?—$52,000. Lord have mercy, children. Imagine the day when you could snatch up a one bedroom apartment in the middle of Manhattan for just $52,000.
Not surprisingly, Mister Huvane lives well on the West Coast. In 2003 Mister Huvane paid an unknown amount of dough** for a pedigreed fixer upper mansion on a storied street in Beverly Hills where some of his closet neighbors include Tom Cruise and entertainment industry mogul Bryan Allen. The approximately 9,000 square foot 1930s many-gabled and half-timbered mansion was designed by architect Arthur R. Kelly—he's the fella responsible for the Playboy Mansion in Holmby Hills—and built in the 1930s for all-American football player turned beau-hunky silent film actor Johnny Mack Brown.
For reasons not known to Your Mama Mister Huvane did not move into the house and in August 2007 he floated the still un-renovated on unoccupied property on the open market with a sky-high $15,950,000 price tag. The following December (2008) the he took the property off the open market and hired top-tier architects at Shamamian & Ferguson to handle an extensive renovation that included rearranging rooms, some sensitive additions and window enlargements, and at least one alteration of a roof gable. He also engaged the services of internationally renown decorator Michael Smith to do over the interiors in his undeniably tasteful and largely traditional signature style style that Your Mama might describe as "Rich Granny With a Passport and a Minor Thing for Blue Chip Contemporary Art." Mister Huvane (and son) eventually moved into the overhauled property that was featured and fawned over in the high-gloss pages of Architectural Digest (July, 2012).
Property records show Mister Huvane also owns a much more modest but still quite large and certainly luxurious 4,139 square foot house in Beverly Hills. (It's very close, in case anyone cares, to David Geffen's sprawling estate.) In 2010 Mister Huvane sold, for $4,425,000, a cedar-shingled residence in the Beverly Hills Post Office that he picked up in 1994 from Carrie Fisher for just $900,000 and that located practically across the street from the so-called Villa Rosa, the current home of Beverly Hills restaurateur and reality television star Lisa Vanderpump, her husband, Ken Todd, and their brood of pooches.
*Buyers beware: Access to The Close, according to the FAQ section on development's online portal, is "a privilege and can be revoked at any time by The General Theological Seminary."
**Your Mama does not know how much Mister Huvane paid for his Beverly Hills home but our research shows the property was listed for $8,495,000 at the time of his 2003 purchase.
listing photos and floor plan: Corcoran
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