Resident “Bowery Penthouses Seek ‘Right’ Owner”
Jerry Rosengarten is willing to part with his Bowery Hotel penthouses, but only to the right suitor.
“I kind of don’t want to give it up,” said the 62-year-old developer, who invited 100 guests to one of the two-bedroom, full-floor lofts with floor-to-ceiling windows and exposed brick details for a celebration of his daughter’s wedding. “Chemistry,” he said, would be a factor in deciding who would get to rent the edgy new hotel’s apartments – through the $30,000-a-month listing price is likely to keep many of of the running. Rosengarten said he’s expecting bids from A-list start and foreign tycoons – and possibly American ones, too, though “the question is, who’s doing well?” he said. Dressed in a black cap, sneakers and zip-up jacket offset by sleek rectangle-shaped glasses, Rosengarten showed off the penthouse’s bells and whistles with a new father’s gentle price. He pointed out the key-access elevator, fireplace, Jacuzzi bathtub, waterfall shower and bidet-inspired toilet – with flush functions that reduce the need for toilet paper – and opened on of the window panes to reveal a waist-high glass panel allowing an unfettered view from the 16th of 17th floor. But since the penthouses have gone public, Rosengarten has been irked by press coverage that harped on his ’70s-era career as a designer of men’s casual wear, since it was his successors in the industry who “made the leisure suit a plastic, sleazy thing.” Perhaps a great annoyance was a report that the asking price had been cut down from $40,000 – which he says is untrue, “although I would accept it.” As he embarks on the search for that special someone, he’s considering offering a leasehold to give renters the prospect of long-term occupancy. Word of the penthouses’ availability is also spreading through back channels, since “the customers we’re looking at don’t look at the Corcoran [Web] site.”
-Cotton Delo
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