Michael Gross

Hoving Into Sight

Michael Gross — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 00:34:11 +0000

Tom Hoving is back on artnet with some (likely unwanted, but quite possibly needed) advice for the committee searching for a new director at the Metropolitan Musuem. My favorite candidate, the British Museum’s Neal MacGregor, turned them down. The smart money says that makes James Cuno of the Art Institute of Chicago the front-runner in the race for the highest paid non-profit post in America. A respectable enough option but not exactly the “lively, experimental and freewheeling” choice that Hoving is hoping for.

Village Under Seige Pt. 3

Michael Gross — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 13:56:13 +0000

Here we go again. Nikos, the best little magazine store in the city, has been forced out of its home at Sixth Avenue and 11th Street. Today’s New York Sun blames rising rent, but isn’t it also turning tides? Nikos sold a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, mind-bending mish-mash of everything from obscure literary journals to magazines so hot and out-of-the-oven fresh they could scald your fingers. But Greenwich Village is morphing into a theme park for lawyers and bankers where “What’s new?” has been replaced by “How much?” and “Was that Mary-Kate?” “Nikos said the new owner will sell water, soda, Lotto tickets, and other things in addition to magazines,” the Sun writes. How much ya wanna bet that Us and Star will still be there when Daedalus and Gargoyleare long gone?
(image appropriated from blognetnews.com/Maryland)

A Speight of Sales

Michael Gross — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 16:57:44 +0000

Here’s the floor plan (above) and listing for Randolph and June Speight’s $35 million 15-room duplex at 740 Park . No photos yet.

Mine’s Bigger Than Yours

Michael Gross — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 14:55:59 +0000

Here’s one for size obsessives. In Sunday’s Big Deal column in the Times, Josh Barbanel reveals that the empty 740 Park C-line apartment long owned by the late Randolph and June Speight is about to come on the market at $35 million, creating an opportunity to combine it with the just-listed-at-$38 million Peter Huang D-line apartment next door, and make a $73 million superstar, the most expensive co-op flat in New York. Barbanel wonders if the co-op board would approve, but in fact, they’ve allowed just such a C&D monster before—slightly smaller, but complete with set-back terraces: Courtney Sale Ross’s double-wide duplex on the 12th and 13th floors of the same building. Those two apartments were bought and combined by her late husband, Time-Warner kingpin Steve Ross, to give his third wife the largest apartment in the building (though she claimed she really wanted something smaller). According to neighbors, Ross’s 32-room spread usually sits empty, as she spends most of her time in East Hampton. Oh, to be her big-house-sitter!
ADDENDA: Vanity Fair’s Paul Goldberger calls 740 “the noblest of all” New York apartment buildings here, in an article about 15 Central Park West. An owner he spoke with “was less than thrilled when she discovered that the walls are made of plasterboard, which was most definitely not the way the walls were made at 740 Park,” Goldberger writes. Too bad that resident didn’t read my interview with architect Robert A.M. Stern in Bergdorf Goodman Magazine back in 2005….I reprised his comments on the relative merits of the two buildings in my review of 15 CPW the New York Observer last summer: “I asked him if the building would be as good in every way—i.e. down to the concrete and pipes—as its roaring 20s forebears. ‘I’m not going to answer that,’ he said. ‘We’re trying to build very well. I would say that aspects of our building are comparable.’”

Shrouded Sale at 740

Michael Gross — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:13:52 +0000

There’s another apartment for sale at 740 Park, currently hidden behind a black shroud (anyone know why? please e-mail me!). Peter Huang, a Chinese-born investment banker whose ex-wife Nancy once shook up the house by inviting the likes of Chic’s Nile Rodgers, Kid Creole and Fab Five Freddie to party there (earning herself a nasty divorce), has listed apartment 4-5D for a whopping $38 million (maintenance is $10,574 a month). Here’s the listing. Or should I say lusting? (Ignore the furniture. Aging I-Banker taste. Feh.) Broker Corcoran’s web site has no floor plan, but it’s almost the same as this one, one floor down. Lust on.

Rupert Rocks

Michael Gross — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 14:28:17 +0000

Say what you will about Rupert Murdoch: There’s something very interesting going on when the Wall Street Journal prominantly features a blistering attack on Wall Street.

Blast From the Past

Michael Gross — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:36:05 +0000

A few days ago, Page Six reported on the legal feud brewing between the heiress Marjorie Gubelmann and the interior decorator and promotional-screening fixture Daniel Benedict (above), who are, or rather, were, BFF and partners in a home scent and accessories firm. Gubelmann, who bankrolled the venture, has sued Benedict for mismanagement. But what caught my eye was the name of the lawyer Benedict has reportedly hired to countersue. Nowadays, Michael Kennedy’s name appears more often in the social pages than in the news pages. But back in the day, he was a big deal litigator involved in big deal cases, as you’ll see in the story that follows. Thanks for the memories, Marjorie. This archival chestnut (presented, with apologies, in pdf form, a page at a time) was a whole lot of fun to report.
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(photo courtesy New York Social Diary)

Summer Rules

Michael Gross — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 12:49:18 +0000

After a few quiet months, it’s back in the news for 740 Park just at the start of the long summer slump. First came Page Six Magazine’s dissection of its co-op board. Today, the New York Observer rumors that Leonard Blavatnick, the 740 Park reject (David Koch lives in the apartment he wanted) has bought Jocelyn “Bride of” Wildenstein’s house, and Page Six prints an hysterical vignette involving the new Cityfile web site and the chauffeur who warned one of its photographers away from the front of 740, “if you know what’s good for you.” Which reminded me of the time a Fortune photographer staked out the front door of 740, trying to snap one of its most mysterious residents, hedge fund fella Israel Englander. They never did get that photo. Is 71st and Park a no-snap zone? A quick search of Google images yields not a single image of Izzy.

Good Company

Michael Gross — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 14:33:31 +0000

Style.com recommends the paperback of 740 Park for summer reading along with books by Marcel Proust, Barbara Walters, and Sheila Weller. Thanks!

Nailed by the Boards

Michael Gross — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 13:58:24 +0000

Page Six Magazine had a great article on co-op boards this weekend.