SELLER: Harrison Ford (and Calista Flockhart)LOCATION: New York City, NY
PRICE: $16,000,000
SIZE: 5,664 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms
YOUR MAMAS NOTES: In June of 2010, after 8 or 9 years of dating and living in sin, Oscar nominated actor Harrison Ford made an honest woman out of his long time ladee-friend, Emmy nominated and Golden Globe winning actress Calista Flockhart. As seems so often the case with the rich and famous having a new baby and/or taking a new spouse–even if it's a spouse you've been schtupping for 8 or 9 years before getting hitched–means buying a new house. For Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart Ford it means selling up their contemporary penthouse pied a terre in New York City's Chelsea neighborhood that just landed on the market with rose tinted price tag of $16,000,000.
Mister Ford, an accomplished carpenter who can pilot his own airplane and helicopter, got his big break in the bizness of show back in the early when he nabbed small parts in in movies like American Graffiti. Since then he's appeared in a number of major movies such as Apocalypse Now, Bladerunner and Witness but his long-standing lead roles in the almost preposterously successful Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark film franchises are unquestionably–and for better or worse–the exceedingly lucrative butter on his professional bread. His whisper thin wife Calista Flockhart got famous playing a soul mate seeking attorney with an over active biological clock on Ally McBeal and she currently whines her way across the small screen each week as a one time Republican party operative on the saccharine and mawkish family drama Brothers & Sisters. Mister Ford has two children by each his first two wives and has admirably taken on parental responsibility for Calista's adopted kid Liam who, it might amuse some to know, is younger than Mister Ford's three grandchildren.
Although Mister Ford didn't officially dee-vorce his second wife screenwriter Melissa Mathison (The Black Stallion, E.T., Kundun) until 2004, he met and hooked up with Calista Flockhart in 2002. Just prior to that, in October of 2001 according to property records, Mister Ford shelled out $5,295,000 for 5,664 square feet of raw loft space on the top floor of the City Prairie building, an "L" shaped building newly converted to condos that sits directly across the street from the old Barney's retail emporium before they moved their retail operations uptown.
Previous reports reveal that Mister Harrison wisely hired 1100 Architect to work over the interiors of his new downtown crib that has exposures on all four sides of the apartment, a very desirable and extreme rarity in Manhattan. The expansive condo offers to die for views including virtually unobstructed vistas north and east towards the iconic Empire State and Chrysler buildings. The result of 1100 Architect's efforts is an extremely carefully considered and beautifully executed open plan layout with 3-4 bedrooms and 4.5 poopers.
Your Mama often heaves and grieves over the high monthly maintenance charges associated with some of the "better" uptown Manhattan buildings but it should be noted that bank account draining monthly charges are not exclusive to über swank residences above 57th Street. Mister Harrison's sprawler, according to listing information, has monthly maintenance and taxes that total a gut wrenching $13,831. Obviously, or at least one would hope, anyone looking to plunk down 15 or 16 million clams on an apartment in New York City has the dough-ray-mee to cough up 13 or 14 grand more each month for maintenance.
There is just one large apartment per floor of the City Prairie building which allows for a private elevator vestibule–off of which the private laundry room is located–that opens into a vast and, well, prairie like living room and dining room that stretches nearly 50 feet long and more than 30 feet wide at one end. Either the apartment has been scrubbed clean of much of Mister and Missus Ford's private things or the day-core was kept very minimal with little more than a trio of black leather sofas clustered around the fireplace in the living area and a simple but glossy Parson's style dining room table surrounded by eight black leather armchairs in the dining area.Just off the living room, a library/office nook can be easily closed off to the main living area by an over-sized pocket door. Floor to ceiling built in book shelves filled with actual books cover the entire back wall, a bank of storage cabinets disguises a door for the a pooper and the cozy room is simply furnished with a table that could do double duty as a desk and a fetching pair of 1950s Hans Wegner Papa Bear Chairs that can easily set a person back nearly ten grand apiece.
The condo's private quarters include a gigantic kitchen with custom anigre wood cabinets, soap stone counter tops, commercial grade appliances all clustered smartly along one wall and a less formal eating area that acts as the hub to the remainder of the apartment. Your Mama is going to look right past that lethal pot rack that hangs directly over the sink where it collects dust and grease and could drop down and brain our dominating house gurl Svetlana as she does up the morning dishes. Just say no to potracks, puppies. Trust Your Mama on this one.
Anyhoo, a small den off the casual eating area has built in cabinetry and sits between two good-sized family bedrooms, each with private pooper. The master suite was well situated for privacy in a long narrow wing that extends off the kitchen and informal dining area. Between the family bedrooms and the master bedroom are a home office with built-in cabinetry and a small home gym where Mister Ford can work on keeping his pectoral muscles looking far more virile than his status as a senior citizen might suggest and where Missus Flockhart Ford can torture her body into super svelte submission. A long and wide dressing room corridor lined with custom fitted closets leads to the modestly sized master b.edroom with windows on three sides and the luxurious if not over-sized master pooper.
Some of the additional and sweeter pieces of architectural and decorative candy in Mister Ford's penthouse pad include poured concrete and anigre wood floors with radiant heat throughout, massive casement style windows with dee-voonly deep sills, a wood burning fireplace in the corner living room, a state of the art security system, UV protected windows so artwork and fabrics don't get ruined by the sun and, natch, central heat and air for the icy winters and humid summers for which New York City is famous.
A discreet staircase near the front entry climbs up to a window wrapped pavilion that opens to 2,300+ square feet of private terrace space the runs all the way from the front of the building to the back. A small wet bar serves the roof terrace, which Your Mama thinks is quite convenient for all us fat asses too damn lazy to climb down the stairs every time we need our gin & tonic refreshed and too terrified of our verbally abusive house gurl Svetlana to ask her to climb up and down stairs just because Your Mama hankers for another nipper of the liquor.
Listen butter balls, our opinion about things matters not a whit and although we're smitten with his penthouse pad we sort think Mister Ford might have a rough real estate road ahead of him given what seems like a particularly porcine sixteen million dollar asking price. It's not that a sixteen million dollar apartment in Manhattan is such a rare and unusual thing but according to the peeps at Property Shark the most recent sales at the City Prairie building were in July of 2008 when the 10th and 11th floors were purchased by the same unknown buyer for $6,928,571 and $7,621,429 respectively. Of course neither of these units have a square inch of outdoor space let alone 2,300 square feet of roof terrace with 360 degree views of New York City but is that roof terrace really work 9 or ten million clams? We'll just have to wait and see won't we, puppies.
The City Prairie building has always attracted its fair share of well to do creative types including accomplished artist Roni Horn, clothing executive Perry Wolfman, and Meryl Streep's sculptor huzband Don Gummer who used to own and use the 5th floor as an art studio. Some recent reports suggest that Janet Jackson owns (or once owned) in the City Prairie building but, honestly kids, Your Mama don't know a thing about that and besides we thought Miss Jackson if Your Nasty has had a place at the Trump International Hotel & Tower since the late 1990s. But we digress...
Mister Ford's primary residence, a fully restored and upgraded bit of Country Colonial bizness designed by noted California architect Gerard Colcord, sits just below the Getty Museum in Los Angeles' upscale Brentwood neighborhood. According to the Los Angeles County Tax Man Mister Ford's house measures in at 7,164 square feet and includes 4 bedrooms and 6 poopers plus a pool side cabana. According to Julie Justwantstotellyou, a gal who has been behind the gates of his abode in Brentwood, Mister Ford's taste is exquisite and he knows more than just a thing or two about architecture and day-core. Miss Justwantstotellyou also told Your Mama that Mister Ford and Missus Flockhart Ford's security and attack dogs, "Are not to be messed with. Period." Okaaay? Did all you people who think it might be cute to cruise by Mister Ford's dwelling in your hoopdies hear that? Lucky for y'all Miss Justwantstotellyou was a gushing fount of celebrity real estate information and also snitched that Mister Ford and Missus Flockhart Ford recently paid $12,500,000 for a second property in the Mandeville Canyon area of Los Angeles. We've yet to verify this juicy tidbit so for now it's just rumor and gossip but for what it's worth the property records for this property do link back to the same office in Santa Monica, CA as Mister Ford's other real estate holdings. Make of that what you will. It's not clear to Your Mama if Mister Ford and Missus Flockhart Ford intend to relocate to their most recent real estate acquisition or stay put in the Colcord crib Mister Ford has owned since 1983 when he bought it for $1,000,000.
Mister Ford (and Missus Flockhart Ford) also maintain a secluded and somewhat remote 800-acre spread outside Jackson Hole, WY that Mister Harrison has owned for more than 20 years. Mister Ford puts on no Hollywood airs in and around his Grand Teton hideaway and it might surprise those of y'all not up to snuff on all things Mister Ford is–or was in the mid naughts–a Teton County deputy sheriff who has flown his own helicopter on several rescue missions to to save folks stranded up in the mountains.
