Chupi-cabra! AHHHHH!

So you think you've seen the scariest the NYC real estate market has to offer? Then you ain't seen Chupi-cabra of the West Village! Why so scary? Let's just say it isn't blood from a goat that it's sucking...

Something about the duplex and triplex luxury apartments in the Palazzo Chupi, the big pink unit artist/director-turned-architect Julian Schnabel erected on West 11th Street, has potential celebrity buyers such as Bono and Madonna fleeing as if for their very lives (and their children's).

Maybe they feared being bled dry by the Chupi’s thirst for $32 for the triplex apartment on the top floor. Or maybe they anticipated that the building’s lifestyle would eventually cause the pink skin to fade, blister and peel as it recently has. But even after Schnabel hacked the sticker price—twice—to its present $24 million and sought cosmetic treatment for its unsightly skin thing, celebrity buyers still prefer to keep oceans of holy water and antibiotics between themselves and the Chupi.

All but Richard Gere, that is, who paid $12 million for the four-bedroom duplex earlier this year, could see the writing on the scabby walls. But now even Gere is hoping to escape—having listed his apartment for just under $18 million—before he becomes the butt of yet another urban myth.

Curiosity seekers and NYC real estate ghouls, however, are in luck! Curbed.com reports that the doorman of the Chupi is giving tours to anyone off the street who [cue spooky music] dares to enter upon the cursed monstrosity that was once an intended haven for the stars. Very Crypt-Keeper!


Chupi in Crisis [Curbed]
Chupi Goes To Market [NYMag]
Venice On The Hudson [VF]
Image: Chupa Cabre [Wiki]

NYC Real Estate Boom: Damn, That's One Good Looking Corpse!

On October 1, the New York Times effectively pronounced the NYC real estate market boom dead—dead, dead, dead. The exact time of death will certainly be contested as some industry insiders will continue to slam their fists against the market’s bruised chest shouting, “Live, damn you!” whereas others delivered their eulogies months ago. Nevertheless, everyone is hoping the postmortem will reveal answers to more pressing questions, such as:

1. How long will the downturn last?
2. How low will NYC property values fall?
3. What will be the long-term effects on the NYC real estate market?
4. Could a few simple lifestyle changes—including diet and exercise—have prevented this terrible loss?
5. Why did Mary-Kate Olsen's personal bodyguards arrive on the scene before the paramedics?

Of course some of the answers will be revealed with the passage of time, other answers will forever remain in the dead boom’s vacant, glass and steel grave.

Still, if a boom must end, there are some advantages to a demise so spectacular. Like any superstar knocked off its pedestal by the Grim Reaper far too soon, the dead NYC real estate market boom still looks better than the real estate market in most US cities, so there’s the good-looking corpse to be thankful for. Also, the only real difference between a superstar’s life before their death and their life after death is that everyone is much nicer to them afterward, giving them Oscar nods and such, so many industry insiders suspect that the allure of New York City will soon breathe life back into the real estate market, if not wake the dead boom.