Author Archives: Ashley

Has Alicia Keys lost her “Empire State of Mind?”

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Born and bred Manhattanite Alicia Keys is ditching her swanky SoHo penthouse for new digs, refuting her famed lyric: “[ that in New York] there’s nothing you can’t do”.

The 6167 square foot triplex on Crosby Street features 3000 square feet of picturesque terraces and is listed for $17.950 million, according to Sotheby’s International.

Though it is unclear where Keys is headed next, the pre-war Condo was put on the market just as the IRS reportedly filed a $727,985 tax lien against Keys’ husband, producer Swiss Beatz.

The couple is likely to make a pretty penny off their 5 bedroom, 4 bathroom, 4 powder room apartment with a floating glass staircase after purchasing it from Lenny Kravitz for $12.5 million in 2010.

Bringing new meaning to the term extravagant, there is little the Crosby Street penthouse doesn’t have. It is fully equipped with a massive windowed eat-in kitchen, wine cellar, capacious living room, fireplace, master suite with spa, dressing area and private terrace, and state-of-the-art entertainment and security systems.

When even the dreams of the rich and famous are tied down by practicality, it’s hard not to wonder who would splurge on this luxurious light-filled loft. But not to worry, this is New York. Someone will soon take this SoHo palace off Keys’ hands… Someone in an Empire state of mind.

Housing program combats rising NYC foreclosures

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Since 2008 New York City officials have been working with nonprofits to sell renovated, foreclosed homes at below-market rates and provide mortgages to people who have undergone financial counseling.

If successful, the city can maintain its overall rate of progress, New Yorkers could see the revival of currently stagnant neighborhoods such as Jamaica, Queens and Bed-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, as new buyers move in to the former vacant homes.

However, the program, which seeks to stabilize neighborhoods by raising property values, has sold only three of the 100 homes that have already been revamped according to Joseph De Avila of the Wall Street Journal.

Rising area foreclosure rates still seem to be overshadowing the marginal progress made thus far by city planners. Moreover, these burdensome foreclosure rates seem to be concentrated in certain neighborhoods of Queens and Brooklyn.

This reality makes perfect sense in light of a December 2011 report released by Foreclosure-Response.org in December 2011 which found foreclosure rates to be on the rise in New York City. As highlighted by Crain’s Amanda Fung the report found that the rates have soared to 7.5% last June with a serious delinquency rate of 10.8%.

This data suggests that the path to re-stabilization may still be far off for many New York City neighborhoods.

 

Bank Execs Live Large

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The banking industry has become infamous for its exorbitant executive raises and government bailouts leaving many New Yorkers with a bitter taste in their mouths. And as if you need another reason to envy them, Blockhawk is going to take you on a tour of the homes of a few of Wall Street’s fattest cats. On y va!

1185 Park Ave is where Dimon can get his daily Sinatra fix after a day in the office

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon will be sitting pretty this winter in his double apartment at 1185 Park Avenue, valued at over $10 million. While this Upper East Side residence earned attention from Occupy Wall Street protestors last fall, Dimon never heard a peep. He reportedly soundproofed the apartment so he could blast Frank Sinatra to his heart’s content without troubling his neighbors.

David Viniar, CFO of Goldman Sachs, resides in Ridgewood, NJ in a modest 5000 square foot home. The bridge and tunnel banker’s suburban paradise, where he lives with his wife and 4 children, is equipped a full size swimming pool and worth over $1.7 million according to eppraisal.com.

Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan has been backlashed by 99 percenteres this past year because of the banks housing foreclosures. It’s not hard to imagine why if you consider his five-bedroom, 8500 square foot home in Wellesley Hills, MA with an estimated value of $4.6 million.

The Beresford between 81st and 82nd

Rounding out our list is Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit whose apartment in the Beresford Building on Central Park West is easily the most extravagant of this bunch. According to Bloomberg, Pandit purchased his ten-room apartment for $17.9 million in 2007. The park view palace is decked out with 8 walk-in closets, a private elevator, a fireplace and coffered ceilings.

With these bankers’ massive homes and even larger net worth, we at Blockhawk can only wonder at the extravagance of these luxurious abodes.