In their words...
The month’s funniest and most insightful comments on NYC real estate “Back in the day, if you were broke, you could still get by in New York. [And if] you had a million dollars — that was some money. Not today, man. You got a million dollars, that’s just the down payment.” Director Spike Lee (New York Magazine)
“The property is all about the animals who live here. We have raccoons, geese, deer, a family of otters — and a muskrat, who has a winter nest under the house, a spring and fall condo on the island and a summer home near the waterfall.” “It begins at Penn Station. You grab a little breakfast and then you start boozing. I don’t want to get out there completely sober and everybody is already crunked up at the pool.” Wynn Mazey, a commercial broker at ABS Partners Real Estate, on taking an early Saturday morning train to the Hamptons. (New York Times)
Sandra Lee, in an Elle Décor feature on the Westchester home she shares with Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
“Obviously, this is not a Mount Vernon or a Monticello.” Zak Kneider, one of the Citi Habitats brokers listing the walk-up apartment at 142 West 109th Street where President Barack Obama once lived. (Wall Street Journal)
“I want to build something that is environmentally forwardthinking. I’m not building a satellite dish so I can watch the Knicks game.” Actor Alec Baldwin on his plans to erect a 120-foot-tall wind turbine on his Amagansett property. (Wall Street Journal)
24 August 2012 www.TheRealDeal.com
“There is one similarity between cooking Swedish meatballs and making it in New York City: You need a lot of balls.” Prudential Douglas Elliman broker (and native Swede) Fredrik Eklund (Twitter)
“It sounds callous, but once the check clears, I don’t care what they do. I would be upset if it were the Francis Xavier massage parlor, but otherwise I am much more interested in what we can do to serve the blind community than what happens to this building.” Father John Sheehan, chairman of the board of the Xavier Society for the Blind, which is selling its building at 154 East 23rd Street. (Wall Street Journal)
“It’s costing the city $40 million to clean up the mess it made with Times Square’s butt-ugly pedestrian plazas.” New York Post columnist Steve Cuozzo, in a piece about Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s proposal to turn Vanderbilt Avenue into a pedestrian mall.
“Overheard at [Jonathan Adler headquarters]: ‘You guys, I am having an emergency. What color am I going to paint my kitchen?’ ” Designer Jonathan Adler (Twitter)
www.TheRealDeal.com August 2006 00