Pain Perdu 9: Le Fin Du Monde

Friday, December 3, 2004, by Lockhart

Thanks to all our correspondents, past and present, for letting us phone it in even more obviously than usual today. Before we go, let's turn over the final word to you, the readers who make Curbed, and indeed this entire glowing metropolis, a truly joyful place to obsess about real estate:

Regarding 13 Leroy, the reputed Will Smith residence pictured here...
1) "Will Smith did in fact own a place at 13 Leroy, but never moved in. Kind of like P-Diddy's place in Tribeca."
2) "Will Smith has never owned that apartment, so the reader's friend is definitely full of shit. As far as I'm aware, the only owner of the property in its current state (and, in fact, is the one who commissioned it) is Andrew Rasiej, an internet entrepreneur of some sort. It's a little odd that he's selling the place already, given that the NYT spread on it was like, only early this year (January or February, I think)--at the time, Mr. Rasiej had just moved in."
3) "this place actually belongs to andrew raciej. he used to or still does own irving plaza and perhaps some online music related business. this apt has been well documented in the ny times re section."
4) "My friend was one of the architects on this residence. Will Smith never owned it, but it was rumored that he and Jada bought the place next door."

Meantime, what about that big empty building in Park Slope?
1) "There is, in fact, a 'crazy' lady who owns the building and refuses to sell. I never see her around the slope anymore though. Back in the mid 80's...when I went to P.S. 321 with someone who I assume is her daughter, it was actually a bar. The place was filthy and filled with old toys. I rarely saw a customer in there. She used to sit outside the place every single day, reading, knitting, smoking. She had this huge, Slash-esque main of dark curly hair."
2) "Come on you can do better than that. A simple search of the NYC records would tell you that the building is owned by 501 2nd St LLC - which is one Dorothy Nash whose last listed (real) address was 441 2nd Street, she recorded a $1 million loan on the property (which must mean something is going on there because she's not collecting any rent) and the mortgage was handled by one Rachel Nash, Esq of 14 East 28th St NY, NY who you can bet is her daughter."
3) "As for East Williamsburg, one of my favorite Mexican restaurants is just off the Grand St. subway stop. Best tortas...mmmm"

And as for the bar opening in the old Torch space...
1) BL at SLNY hooks us up with the official word: it's gonna be a three-level Irish bar, called Libation, that also plans to serve "American tapas." The press release is so good, we're saving it for Monday. See you then.

Filed under Real Estate Miscellany,

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