Ron Howard Asks $12.5 Million for Manhattan Aerie
SELLERS: Ron and Cheryl Howard
LOCATION: New York City, NY
PRICE: $12,500,000
SIZE: (approx.) 3,000 square feet, 2-3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms
YOUR MAMA’S NOTES: Digital marketing materials make no secret that Hollywood hypenate Ron Howard is the owner of a meticulously renovated and pristinely maintained 2-3 bedroom and 2.5 bathroom co-operative apartment high in the north tower of the prestigious, twin towered Eldorado building along New York City’s Central Park West that’s come up for sale with a $12.5 million price tag. The “Andy Griffith Show” child star turned two-time Oscar-winning producer/director of the 2001 bio-drama “A Beautiful Mind” acquired the roughly 3,000-square-foot bedroom 26th-floor aerie in 2004 for $5.575 according to tax records.
A private elevator landing with decoratively trendy textured tile wall treatment opens to a smooth-paneled foyer reminiscent of a sumptuous ocean liner from the 1930s. The spacious but sparely furnished corner living room, with TV-surmounted minimalist fireplace and muted geometric pattern silk rug, benefits from unobstructed views through multi-paned casement windows that sweep over Central Park and the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir to the Fifth Avenue skyline. A park-view library/office, where Mister Howard displays at least one of his two Emmys — “From the Earth to the Moon” in 1998 and “Arrested Development” in 2004, is custom fitted with crisply rendered floor-to-ceiling bookshelves as is a cozily compact den that opens off the foyer. Either room could, in a pinch, be pressed into use as a third bedroom.
A swinging door with porthole window in the formal dining room leads to a butler’s pantry that passes through to a sunny, south- and west-facing eat-in kitchen appointed with cork flooring, sleek two-toned cabinetry, stainless steel countertops, premium-grade appliances, and a casual dining area with built-in banquette seating. A convenient laundry room with loads of built-in storage and an unexpected city view was installed in what was originally designed as a microscopic staff room. The apartment’s only dedicated guest bedroom has open views of the Hudson River and a lavishly tiled en suite bathroom while the corner master suite, with panoramic park and skyline views, includes three closets and an also extensively tiled compartmentalized bathroom that is also directly accessible from the library/office.
The technologically up-to-date apartment has a state-of-the-art central heating and cooling system with humidification along with comprehensive home automation and security systems and residents of the Emery Roth designed Art Deco apartment house pay extraordinarily high monthly common charges — Mister Howard’s unit carries hefty fees of $8,663 per month — to be pampered with round-the-clock doorman and concierge services, a fully equipped fitness center, a bike storage room and a mini basketball court.
The Eldorado, an elegant Art Deco edifice designed by acclaimed architect Emery Roth and completed in 1931, has long attracted its fair share of entertainment industry luminaries including Faye Dunaway, Michael J. Fox, uni-named electronic musician Moby, Alec Baldwin, and action-flick stalwart Bruce Willis who acquired a three-bedroom and 3.5-bathroom unit on the fourth floor in March 2013 for $8.85 million from U2 bassist Adam Clayton that he renovated and sold almost exactly two years later for $12.75 million.
Mister Howard and his wife of 40-plus years, Cheryl, who over the summer of 2014 sold a sprawling, almost 33-acre lakefront country estate near Greenwich, CT, for $27.5 million, reportedly plan to decamp the Upper Westside for downtown although it seems unlikely they’ll shack up in the 770-square-foot West Village apartment property records indicate they scooped up in May 2002 for $712,500. Unsurprisingly for an entertainment industry mover and shaker like Mister Howard, in addition to his East Coast holdings he keeps a real estate foot hold in Los Angeles were our research indicates he owns a 2,474-square-foot, ocean view condominium with three bedrooms and three bathrooms on the fourth floor of a landmarked apartment house in Santa Monica that was acquired in 2006 for $2.75 million.
exterior image: Christopher Bride for Property Shark ; listing photos and floor plan: Douglas Elliman
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