Olivier Sarkozy Lists Manhattan Town House for $11.5 Million

Clearly, Olivier Sarkozy knows the pain of renovating. The banker and ex-husband of Mary-Kate Olsen has just listed his Manhattan town house for $11.5 million after purchasing it in 2014 for $13.5 million and spending the years in between gutting the place, The New York Times reports.

The 8,700-square-foot home was originally built in 1860, followed by renovations in the ’20s by heiress Charlotte Hunnewell Sorchan who purchased 21 homes on the street and collaborated with architects Edward Dean & William Bottomley on their design. The home contains six bedrooms and four bathrooms, among many art studios, seating areas, and a library. Because of Sarkozy’s partial renovation, it needs new flooring and additional improvements before it will be livable.

Sarkozy, half-brother of former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, purchased the home shortly before he and Olsen were married and the couple worked on the renovation together up until their divorce in early 2020. They even called in Montalba Architects, the firm Olsen and her sister previously hired to design the flagship location for their fashion label, The Row.

Sarkozy did remove some of the original details of the space, but beautiful millwork, arched walls and windows, and coffered ceilings accent many of the rooms. The more modern upstairs space features clean white walls and skylights, indeed very suitable for an artist’s studio. Hunnewell Sorchan’s crown jewel of the town houses, though, was the garden that spread across shared backyards. Those yards remain much the same today, thanks to a set of rules that prohibits owners from building high walls or fences or storing trash cans in the backyard, among other stipulations. Michael Bolla of Sotheby’s International Realty East Side Manhattan Brokerage has the listing.

Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest