Billionaires’ Row isn’t where you think it is.
For years, a growing number of rich and famous names have been quietly trading Park Avenue co-ops and 57th Street skypads for spacious spreads in the perennially chic West Village.
Last year, the pandemic spurred sales in the historic ’hood, as billionaires sought isolation in self-contained townhouses.
Now, the race for resplendent downtown real estate has reached its apogee with the combined townhouse-megamansion.
Who doesn’t have one?
Tech billionaire Sean Parker does.
He was an early adopter of the trend when he scored a Landmarks greenlight to combine three separate townhouses — at 26, 38 and 40 W. 10th St. — in 2017. The homes themselves cost $58.5 million but “he’s in it for over $100 million,” a source said.
The same year, the city began issuing construction permits for townhouses at 273 and 275 W. 11th St.
Those brick-front beauties are owned by neighborhood staples Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick.
They paid $34.5 million for the pair in 2016 and the massive construction project that followed transformed the pretty block into a disaster zone for their neighbors.
But even more are rising.
Zillionaire Mets owner Steve Cohen is currently building a fortress in the neighborhood: a 30,000-square-foot, four-level “house” with a cellar, landscaped roof deck, curving staircase, fireplaces, elevator and rear garden.
To make it happen he bought 145 Perry St., on the corner of Washington, for $28.8 million in 2012. He also bought 703 Washington St. for $38.8 million the same year. When combined into the new address of 703-711 Washington St., it will be the most ostentatious new mansion in the neighborhood.
Landmarks also gave this ground-up project the thumbs up back in 2017.
“We pushed back. It’s our hope that this isn’t the future,” said Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation.
But Shangri-La wasn’t built in a day. Even billionaires must wait.
Chipotle founder Steve Ells just plunked down $30 million to buy a townhouse crash pad at 27 E. 11th St. while he awaits the completion of his long-delayed megamansion four blocks away, as The Post reported exclusively last week.
The burrito baron bought the corner homes on 11th and West 4th streets for $32.5 million in 2014 and 2015 and got to work. But it’s still not ready thanks to heavy rains that damaged the structure.
“Rich people problems,” a source said. “It’s a bummer, since he just sold his penthouse thinking he’d be moving in soon.”
Ells bought his temporary East 11th Street digs from Josh Fink, the son of billionaire BlackRock CEO Larry Fink.
He also lives in the neighborhood on E. 10th St., The Post can now exclusively report. In 2015, he was the secret $32 million buyer of a home that had previously been in contract with Parker and Broderick.
The 25-foot-wide home has 8,500 square feet, with 11 marble fireplaces and a garden.
“Larry paid a crazy price for it. Then he gutted it and put millions more into it. He’s probably in for $50 million in addition to the purchase price at this point,” a source said.
Over at 44 and 46 Horatio St., yet another megamansion is forming. This time hotelier Sean MacPherson — known for the Bowery, Jane, Maritime, Ludlow and Chelsea hotels — and his wife Rachelle Hruska are behind the project, which started out with an investment of $6.25 million and $8.75 million for the two homes in 2015.
“You’re seeing double-wides and people investigating in triple-wides,” said Douglas Elliman’s Christopher Riccio. “They don’t always come to fruition, but I’ve seen people buy one house and then the homes on either side. It’s becoming more prevalent around here.”
Better restaurants are one draw. The arts and cultural scene is another.
“Billionaires are benefactors of the [nearby] art galleries,” Riccio added.
Mansions in the West Village offer more “individuality, privacy and perhaps convenience than the sky-high condos on Billionaires’ Row,” added John Walkup, cofounder of UrbanDigs, a real estate analytics company. “While they may not have all encompassing views, they offer exclusive spaces like roof terraces, pools and garages, as well as easy access to the restaurants, shops and sights that are driving the demand for downtown.”
Other uber wealthy West Village residents joining the circus are Softbank CEO Marcelo Claure — who snapped up a $28 million townhouse at 269 W. 11th St. (next door to SJP and Broderick) in 2017 — and Resy founder Ben Leventhal, who bought Liv Tyler’s gorgeous 19th-century townhouse that she had spent years restoring, at 255 W. 11th St., for $17.45 million in 2019. (Tyler bought it for $2.53 million in 2001.)
There’s also biotech hedge fund billionaire Felix Baker, who bought 27 Christopher for $45 million in 2014, Page Six reported. The building housed the children’s charity New York Foundling, which Baker transformed into a single-family, 15,000-square-foot, mansion with six bedrooms, an elevator, a 50-foot lap pool and 4,000 square feet of outdoor space. Construction only recently completed and sources say that he’s also in it for about $100 million.
But of course, local millionaires are balking at this billionaires’ ball, which is turning their quiet neighborhood into a status symbol akin to Belgravia or Beverly Hills.
The megamansions “definitely take away the charm of the West Village,” TV house flipper and interior designer Robert Novogratz told The Post. But that isn’t stopping him from getting in on the townhouse feeding frenzy.
Novogratz, together with his wife Cortney, are currently renovating the famed pink house at 114 Waverly Place, which they bought in 2019 for $8.5 million.
“We hope to live in it before we sell it, but the market is so hot, you never know,” Novogratz said, adding that the superrich love townhouses because they want to use luxury amenities without the indignity of having to swim or take the elevator with “Mr. Jones from 20B.”
Another reason why the West Village is suddenly so hot?
“It’s the only place left in the city where you can still see the sky,” said broker Jenny Lenz, who sold 27 Christopher St.
