Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Casino King Steve Wynn Lists Fifth Avenue Spread


SELLER: Steve and Elaine Wynn
LOCATION: Fifth Avenue, New York, NY
PRICE: $25,000,000
SIZE: 3,500 square feet (approx.), 2 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms
DESCRIPTION: ...It is literally 3500+/- sq ft of immaculate renovation designed for ultimate comfort. Originally built in 1925 as a 13 room, 4 bedroom plus library apartment, it has recently been transformed into one of the most glamorous homes on Fifth Avenue with a master suite and bath created from 3 bedrooms...The original living room, formal dining room and library were combined into a living space which wows you as you enter this full floor apartment. There is a new formal dining room, a large guest bedroom with bath, an exquisite powder room an an electronics system second to none...

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: A few days ago, The New York Observer's real estate gossip boy wonder Max Abelson let the cat out of the bag about Las Vegas-based casino king Steve Wynn and his soon to be ex-wife Elaine listing their full floor Fifth Avenue pied a terre with an impressive asking price of $25,000,000. At the time, no listing was available online but one has since surfaced and Your Mama thought the children might like a look-see because hunnies it is a doozy.

Among other gambling facilities, the legally blind billionaire built and owned the Mirage and the art-filled Bellagio before selling it off to entertainment juggernaut MGM. Mister Wynn currently owns two hyperactively dee-luxe casino hotels on The Strip in Las Vegas, the eponymous Wynn Las Vegas and the newly opened Encore Las Vegas which reportedly cost an mind-altering $2.3 billion to build and is where he currently displays the 231-carat Wynn Diamond. I case y'all didn't know the Wynn Diamond is a "prune sized" and pear shaped bauble set by Cartier about which Missus Wynn once said, "It's the biggest ol’ diamond that we know about and that we can get our hands on that is not in some institution." She more recently told the LA Times, '"Nobody would pay any attention to the person wearing that stone," she says. "It's almost like a blinking light. It's meant to be a thing of nature."' Although it's probably vulgar to even think about owning such a brazenly ostentateous piece of jewelry, Your Mama is starting to like this Elaine ladee and her down home spin on her little sparkler. Wonder who's getting that in the dee-vorce.

Anyhoo, all records and reports indicate Mister Wynn and the soon to be ex-Missus Wynn scooped up their seventh floor spread in 2001 for about $7,000,000. Listing information indicates the unit measures 3,500+/- square feet while Mister Abelson's report states it's 3,900 square feet. Let's assume it's somewher in between. In 2004, according to multiple reports, a water pipe in ceiling busted, the apartment flooded and like all good Americans with money to burn the Wynns later sued the building, their neighbors and a number of inspectors and construction people over the matter.

We don't know (or care) how the legal brouhaha turned out but we do know that the Wynn crib was subjected to a radical reconfiguration in the subsequent renovation that transformed the 13-room and four bedroom Pre-War dowager into a sterile, oddly configured high roller hotel-suite sort of place with just 6 rooms including 2 bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms.

According to the listing agent who spoke openly with Mister Abelson in that somewhat bloated, effusive and funny manner unique to real estate agents, the elevator opens to a private vestibule with "very discreet leather" lined walls which is nice because we'd really hate to have leather walls that screamed for attention. The front door opens directly into the commodious main living and entertaining space inexplicably and unfortunately fashioned out of what was once the living room, library and dining room. There are three large windows that are just high enough to peer over the treetops and into Central Park.

Tucked back into the corner of what was once the dining room is, as Mister Abelson rather humorously called it, an "eat-in media center" where a substantially sized section sofa sits opposite a large built in flat screen tee-vee. According to the listing agent, this room '"has no table, but what would you call those things that sit in front of a couch? A little lower than a table? You can eat there; you can watch TV."' That would be a tee-vee tray Mister real estate agent. 'Nuff said.

A powder pooper and itty bitty coat closet barely big enough for even one of those bulky full length sable coat things rich ladees in New York like so much is tucked around the corner and down the hall from the living room. The corridor leads to the well equipped but deeply unispired kitchen and the oddly located beige and mauve colored dining room which appears to have been carved out of what Your Mama imagines was once the staff suite. A concealed door in the dining room open into a large laundry and utility room. It's nice the door is concealed and it's wonderful to have an actual laundry room in a New York City apartment so that Svetlana would not have to have hissy fits about dragging the dirty clothes to a laundromat, but we can't get over the complete lack of sense it makes to tuck a dining room way back in the back of the apartment. Although not much better, it might make more sense to move the dining room back up into its original location and make that dining room into a "media center." This fix, however, does not take into account the bizarre combination of three bedrooms into one giant and ill-configured master suite.

Floor plan information provided with the listing indicates that the master bedroom is the one located at the front of the apartment facing Fifth Avenue and Central Park. This certainly makes sense given that this is the bedroom that offer direct access into the his and her bedroom sized bathrooms where, we regret to inform, the closets are also located. However, the listing photo of that bedroom appears to be outfitted with only a twin sized bed. We'll leave the children to speculate about that. The rear bedroom includes three closets, a small pooper and a bed that will comfortably fit more than one person.

It remains to be seen if the wildly rich Wynns can get anywhere near twenty-five million clams particularly given that the last apartment in the building to sell, according to StreetEasy, was a full floor number on the sixth floor that sold in April of 2005 for $8,600,000. Records reveal that 3,450 square foot residence was sold by still sexy actor Richard Gere and purchased by Edmond and Marielle Safra. Mister Safra is, of course the nephew of deceased financier Edmond J. Safra and his formidable widow Lily who–all the children surely recall–owns the legendary Villa Leopolda.

Previous reports reveal that in July of 2005 Mister and Missus Wynn sold their 12,162 square foot manse located on 4.6 acres smack in the center of the unnaturally verdant Shadow Creek Golf Course for around $15,500,000 and decamped for a private villa at the Wynn Las Vegas. Now that the Wynns have gone splitsville and are are likely headed for one of the most expensive dee-vorces ever, it's unclear where each of them is living. However, there are six private villas at the Wynn Las Vegas not available to the public and recent reports indicate one is undergoing a renovation and it is whispered among people who care about these things that it is being prepared for Mister Wynn and his new and younger ladee-friend who has been identified as a late forties British born dee-vorcee named Andrea Hissom.

In addition to whatever other real estate he may own and like all good moguls, Mister Wynn also owns a boat called Allegro that measures in at a whopping 183-feet long.

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