Last May (2013), Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson, a bushy bearded winner of three Academy Awards, put a pair of side-by-side but uncombined duplex penthouses atop a boutique building in the heart of TriBeCa on the open market with an combined asking price of $21,500,000.* In November the price dropped to $19,950,000 and in mid-December each of the penthouses was also listed separately, the smaller one for $5.1 million and the substantially larger one for $14,850,000.
A convenient dumb waiter ferries food and other (smallish) items like, say, a baby(?), that residents may be too weak or lazy to carry up the stairs to the second floor where, in addition to two small bedrooms and a shared hall bathroom, the floor plan shows a small study leads into the spacious master suite. A 25+ foot long entrance hall lined with 10 or more closets and wardrobes leads back to a separate dressing room, a bedroom with fireplace, and good-sized but hardly over-sized windowed bathroom with two sinks and separate tub and shower.
There are two terraces on the upper floor that together encompass, as pre the floor plan measurements, more than 2,100 square feet. The smaller, north facing terrace is private to the master suite and the much larger, wrap around one on the south end also has views to the east and west.
Here are where things begin to get interesting (and circumstantial). In early February the upper end property gossip peeps at Luxury Listings NYC reported that a mystery buyer put both of Mister Jackson's penthouses in contract for an unknown amount.
Rabid gossip glossy readers know that over the last several months the fantastically rich 24-year old crossover pop-country queen whose stock in trade is catchy and vindictive ditties about her former boyfriends was spotted touring expensive properties in downtown Manhattan. In January (2013) she reportedly peeped a 2,900 square foot townhouse on Charlton Street listed for $6.25 million as well as a 4,400 square foot townhouse on on Leroy Street listed for $12 million and once owned by West Side Story writer Arthur Laurents.
Six days ago she was spotted shopping for arts and crafts supplies in SoHo—good grief—and three days ago Your Mama received a covert communique from a gal we'll call Juanita Juanstoknow who wanted to know what we knew about Taylor Swift's new digs in downtown New York. We responded with a resounding, "Whatchu talkin' 'bout Mister Willis?"
It wasn't long before at least one celebrity gossip site reported that that Miss Taylor had purchased an apartment in TriBiCa and then, late last night, Juanita Juanstoknow sent us the address of a chi-chi boutique building in the heart of TriBeCa. This morning, just after the cock crowed, Your Mama got on our battered and bedraggled princess phone and queried a man we call Mirakle Mike who has an uncanny knack for knowing the whereabouts of famous people. Mike told us that he's 100% certain than Miss Swift has been hold up in the same boutique building in TriBeCa that was first fingered by Juanita and happens to be the same building where Mister Peter Jackson's pair of penthouses were recently put into escrow with a mysterious buyer for an unknown amount.
Of course, this is all just some silly celebrity real estate rumor and gossip, and possibly a whole bunch of hooey. Although Your Mama wouldn't bet our long-bodied bitches, it's entirely possible that there's absolutely no connection between Miss Swift and the Peter Jackson penthouses. What we know for sure is that over the last week or two Miss Pop Country Superstar has been repeatedly photographed entering and exiting the boutique building and we also know it's the same boutique building on top of which Mister Jackson's the penthouses sit. Could be she's renting one (or both) of the penthouses. Could be she's renting or bought one of the nine or ten other luxury loft-style apartments in the building. Could be.
And, while it proves nada zip zilch, let's not forget that Miss Swift kinda has a thing for buying (and sometimes selling) multi-million dollar properties. Her property portfolio currently includes a (crazily decorated) duplex penthouse in Nashville, a charming micro-compound in Beverly Hills, and an historic and humongous bluff top mansion in Rhode Island that she bought last year for $17,750,000. So why not also a pair of penthouse in one of the most expensive zip codes in this U-nited States of America? Exactly. Why not.
In case any of y'all might be worried sick that Miss Swift's real estate britches are too pricey for her designer pocketbook, you can just stop that nonsense before you embarrass yourself. Billboard pegged her 2013 income at (the oddly exact) $39,699,575,60 and Forbes estimated her 2013 income may have ballooned to as much as $55 million. Furthermore, in 2012 Billboard reported her income at $35.7 million and Forbes put her 2011 income at $57 million. So, heifers and hodads, whether you like Miss Swift and/or her particular brand of globally revered and bought musical stylings or not, this beotch is rich so—you can trust Your Mama—the young lady can comfortably afford all her fancy houses and these penthouses, too. She can! Don't hate, haters. Okay, you can hate a little because, really, let's get real... Really?
*Mister Jackson reportedly paid around $17 million for the two penthouses in 2007 and had plans drawn up to combine the units into a single, macdaddy loft with more than 8,000 square feet of interior space and 3,000 square feet of roof terrace.
listing photos and floor plan: Corcoran via StreetEasy
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