New York newspapers recently reported several luxury purchases and sales.  The NY Post reported that Kelsey Grammer purchased a $6 Million home in the Jean Nouvel designed 100 11th Avenue.  The building on the West Side Highway and 19th St is directly opposite the Frank Gehry designed milky white glass office headquarters for Barry Diller’s Interactive Corp.  

CitiGroup exec Michael Guidice has paid $5.5 Million for two Penthouse apartments at 36 Gramercy Park East, a gorgeous pre-war gothic building on Gramercy Park.  It  is converting from rental to condo and has severalsales recently. 

Music-industry super agent Peter Mensch, has just bought an unlisted townhouse on West 11th Street for $7.25 Million.  $7 Million plus Greenwich Village and West Village townhouses have been on the move since August despite a slower start to the year saw for properties priced above $6 Million.  Another West Village home went into contract last week with a last asking price of $15 Million.

Compared to late 2008 and early 2009 when most contracts signed above $6 Million were for units within two blocks of Central Park, this upswing in the overall luxury market is a very positive note, especially for Downtown owners who faced an especially tough Spring and Summer in 2009. 

To top off the busy week of sales, Houston Rockets owner Leslie Alexander flipped his unfinished Penthouse for a cool $31 Million after a bidding war. Located at Related’s The Superior Ink, the apartment originally sold for $24.5 Million and he relisted it for $39,5 Million.  The new buyer plans to use the apartment as a pied-a-terre according to the Wall Street Journal and will count Hillary Swank and Marc Jacobs as neighbors.