Lenny Kravitz Must Be Outta His Mind

SELLER: Lenny Kravitz
LOCATION: Crosby Street, New York, NY
PRICE: $19,500,000
SIZE: 5,818 square feet, 5 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms
DESCRIPTION: This spectacular duplex PH loft with 6000 SF of interior space and 3000 SF of outdoor space has been newly redesigned and renovated with no expense spared to create the most luxurious and important property downtown...A suspended glass staircase leads to the 2nd level which features the Mstr BR w/ a sitting area, a huge Mstr Bth and 3 addtl. BRs each with their own bath. Another glass staircase leads to an enormous roof deck w/ a built in barbecue.

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: If anyone would like to buy a little slice of Lenny Kravitz real estate crazy, it's back on the market for $19,500,000. And once again the SoHo duplex penthouse is causing quite a stir among the celebrity real estate gossips in New York City just as it did when it first hit the market back in 2002. According to the property records we accessed, the much pierced and tattooed Mister Kravitz purchased the apartment in April of 2001 for $2,036,000, which seems like a low and quite possibly inaccurate number AND it's been reported he paid around $8,000,000, and also that he paid $7,100,000. Not sure what give with that discrepancy. Anyhoo, the singer-songwriter quickly put it back on the market for $17,000,000, or $13,500,000 depending on who you ask. (The listing agent, in a New York Times article, says the $17M number was some sort of an error based on an inaccurate press report.)

Whatever the case, the palatial penthouse found no buyers and eventually the price dipped to $12,500,000. However, listing agents for the property claim that the nearly 6,000 square foot building topper could not be shown much during that period because it was leased first to Oscar winning Aussie actress Nicole Kidman (who was reportedly engaged to Mister Kravitz at the time) and later to Oscar winning actor Denzel Washington. Guess Mister Kravitz travels in the lauded and award winning circles.

According to an recent article in the New York Times, and a subsequent report on Curbed, after Mister Kravitz's celebrity tenants vacated the premises, the colossal condominium was taken off the market and given a full scale make over to the tune of $1,000,000. Instead of the glass grand piano, ostrich feather pendant lights, and scads of orange molded plastic chairs on the roof terrace that filled up the space previously, Mister Kravitz and his design team of nine turned the place into an African fantasy penthouse meets a Las Vegas high roller suite with acres of shag carpeting, fur couches, zebra skin chairs and all sorts of phallic and faux elephant tusks.

Oh, and it was also given a new price tag of $19,500,000

The penthouse sits atop the very same Crosby Street building where messy rocker Courtney Love infamously lived and reportedly harassed Miz NicoleKidman in the elevator, tossed bottles from the windows of her 4,200 square foot unit which got her hauled off to Bellevue, reportedly trashed lobby of the building, and occasionally forgot to make her mortgage payments. Along with all the hoopla that has surrounded Miz Love's occupation of the building and the trials and tribulations of trying to sell of Mister Kravitz's penthouse, there has been quite a brouhaha regarding the the singer/songwriters backed up terlits. Apparently the plumbing backed up, and several tenants on lower floors have attempted to sue the leather pants off Mister Kravitz for damage done to their luxe lofts below. We presume that for $19,500,000, this terlit issue has been cleaned up.

Your Mama does not know if this place just has bad juju left over from the always dirty looking Mister Kravitz, who sorta scares Your Mama, or if it's because the place always looks decked out like some kind of night club. Or maybe it's more simple than either of those notions, and the place is simply priced way to high. Whatever the case, Mister Kravitz has had a devil of a time unloading the place. According to the New York Times article, a Britsh businessman did come close to signing on the dotted line, but alas, the deal fell through.

Lenny either does not need the money from the sale of this apartment or he thinks his celebrity status makes actual market value for the place irrelevant or he's just outta of ever lovin' mind. Did anyone tell him that the gorgeous duplex penthouse directly next door, in the very same building, very similar size and layout with a big roof terrace sold in April of 2007 for just $12,500,000? Hmm. So it's really unlikely that some doofus, even Wall Street doofus swimming in bonus cash, is going to come along and pay an extra $7,000,000 for Mister Kravitz's shag carpet and animal skin emporium.

Just our humble and meaningless opinion. None the less Your Mama wishes Mister Kravitz and his team of crack real estate agents, who we have no doubt are bending over backwards to sell this white elephant, all the luck in the world. It would seem they're going to need it.