Friday, April 3, 2009

Model Milla Jovovich Wants to Unload Some Real Estate


SELLER: Milla Jovovich
LOCATION: Greenwich Avenue, New York, NY
PRICE: $7,000,000
SIZE: 4 bedrooms, 2 full and 2 half bathrooms
DESCRIPTION: ...Stunning Greek Revival 4 bedroom residential townhouse give you easy access to Greenwich Village's charming shops and transportation. Entering the foyer, you find yourself in a lovely restored home...

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Your Mama's first memory of supermodel/actress Milla Jovovich is from the mid 1980s when she was snapped by famous photographer Richard Avedon for the pages of Interview Magazine. She was undeniably striking, but she was also just twelve years old and tarted up like one of those little girls that get dressed up in satins and sequins and paraded around by their usually hefty and homely mommies at child beauty pageants. (Sorry babies, we don't mean to be mean, but those practically pornographic child pageants get our blood up.)

Anyhoo, Miss Jovovich is one of the few moving mannequins who successfully made the transition from the catwalk to the sound stage. Although we don't think we've ever seen Miss Jovovich on celluloid, she's got a resume of gun-toting hottie roles about as long as Your Mama's arm.

Miss Jovovich, whose fiancee and baby daddy is director Paul W.S. Anderson (not to be confused with Paul Thomas Anderson, thank you very much), shuttles back and forth between New York City and Los Angeles where she has recently listed two of her homes for sale.

In Los Angeles, she shacks up in a desperately in need of a redo John Woolf designed house in the Beverly Hills Post Office that is currently listed with an asking price of $3,299,000. Okay, we confess, Your Mama does not really know if Miss Jovovich occupies the Woolf house when she's in L.A. because property records show that she owns another house up in the much maligned Mount Olympus neighborhood and her baby daddy owns a house on Alto Cedro Drive, also in the Bev Hills Post Office so it's not like she lacks for a place to lay her pretty head at night.

The informative Streeteasy website shows that Miss Jovovich purchased her Manhattan townhouse in February of 2005 for $6,375,000. Miss Jovovich first listed her downtown digs in May of 2008 with an asking price of $8,750,000. Since then, the asking price has been hacked to $7,000,000 and just a couple of weeks ago she also floated the house out as a rental with a monthly lease price of $20,000.

Listing information indicates the four floor and four bedroom house has 3.5 bathrooms, but Your Mama's boozy and beady little eyes count 2 full and 2 half bathrooms on the floor plan. Whatever the case, there are four terlits, one per floor.

The front door opens to a small foyer that leads to a petite parlor and a guest terlit. Your Mama is quite fond of this set up because it keeps the Chinese food delivery man from being able to peek inside your private quarters.

French doors swing open to a larger living room at the back of the house which is, balcony like, open to the floor below where the dining room and gore-may kitchen are located. The two floors are connected by a staircase with intricate wrought iron balustrades and mahogany banisters and the kitchen/dining room have stone floors warmed with radiant heat, a feature every one's tootsies appreciate in the freezing winter months.

The third floors is devoted entirely to Miss Jovovich's private boo-dwar and includes a large dressing area with a cedar lined walk in closet, a bedroom with a wood burning fireplace and French doors that open to a small terrace with antique cement balustrades, another walk in closet lined with mirrored French doors, a small atrium, a large bathroom (with a bee-day the children will note) and a laundry room.

The fourth floor consists of two smallish bedrooms overlooking the rear gardens, a large bedroom at the front with a fireplace and a single pooper for all three rooms. Since the kitchen is three lung busting flights down, someone has thoughtfully installed a handy dandy and much appreciated kitchenette on this floor. According to the floor plan, the roof top deck appears to have an outdoor shower, but don't nobody quote Your Mama on that because we're not certain of that.

Given that Miss Jovovich and Mister W.S. Anderson recently had a child they named Ever, it's not so surprising to Your Mama that she's selling off a couple of her houses. Birthing a baby is one of the many reasons real estate fickle famous folks sell and buy property. Our admittedly unscientific research shows other reasons include (but are not limited to) breaking up with a boyfriend, completing a multi-million dollar renovation, getting a big paycheck, and having a bad hair day.

39 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Your Mama is quite fond of this set up because it keeps the Chinese food delivery man from being able to peek inside your private quarters."

I have to agree, by the standards of the homes here I live in a rather modest loft style home high in the sky and grow tired of delivery people gawking into my home when delivering food.

While I appreciate that you are impressed by my home I could go without the colorful language you use to describe it and your attempts to wedge yourself in a better position outside my partially ajar door to get a better view while I am trying to sign a ticket and keep my dog inside my home.

StPaulSnowman said...

thanks for the photos and the floorplans Mama. It makes me pine for the old Conolly/Bettany house you featured some months ago.......... for me, there is absolutely no comparison. Mama, would you, in an emergency, allow the Chinese food guy to use that handy downstairs terlit?

Anonymous said...

I was loving the house until i noticed the kitchen floor and the cabinets, some FUGLY finishes.

Hey Mama, do you ever miss COLD SESAME NOODLES? I have only found them one place in LA.

pch said...

My favorite of Milla's roles is in Zoolander. Accusing Christine Taylor's character of wearing clothes from the Jaclyn Smith collection. Funny.

Nice place, generally speaking. Not sure if I love the open-to-below aspect of the living and dining rooms. Seems to me like something you'd see in a 1980s sitcom set.

Anonymous said...

My God, all of these people are really broke.

Eddie in PDX said...

PCH - You of all people would make the 80's sitcom referrence.

I'm interested to hear what Bentley has to say, since he actually lives in the City.


If I have 7 big ones, and lived on the East coast I could see myself living here. It has a home feel, which you only get in a few parts of NYC.

Anonymous said...

This house is on Greenwich Ave, not Greenwich St. Neither are prime West Village streets on which to have a town house, though the latter is primer. Here's the deal. Greenwich Ave. is a diagonal street that cuts from Sixth to Eighth Avenues and is busy with two-way traffic. Also on all but the most northern portion, where this house probably is, primarily commercial at street level, restaurants and small shops, some of which are quite interesting and unique. Unique is significant because one-off shops are almost non-existent here at this point, although given what's going on with the economy there may well be a resurgence. That would be great.

luke220 said...

Horrible floorplan. It should be gutted and totally reworked (with added elevator).

Anonymous said...

One report, prepared by two brokerage firms, Brown Harris Stevens and Halstead Property, showed the number of closings of condos and co-ops down by 58 percent in the first quarter of 2009, compared with the same period a year earlier, as buyers were scared off by worries over the economy, portfolio losses and fears that apartment prices would continue to fall in the months ahead.

It's not looking so good for The Big Apple these days.

Anonymous said...

Not a bad plan at all. Like the full floor master suite. The living room looks unused as is. Kitchen opening onto the dining/ family area and garden is of course an informal arrangement, but it works for a lot of people.

Anonymous said...

The luxury market, which BHS/Halstead puts at apartments priced north of $10 million, saw an 87% drop in sales.

Anonymous said...

PCH, funny and true!

The market is just dead here in NYC, so it's hard to know what this is really "worth" or what it will sell for. No one is buying.

It was only a few years ago that $7M would get you a much bigger place on a more residential street.

But this is a nice place, perfect for someone youngish, rich, no kids, or a couple with no kids. not too much excess space, but enough room to spread out and with some nice outdoor space. Indulgent master (although the actual bedroom is a bit tight considering the overall space), plus guest space and an office or gym on the top floor. Kitchen floor needs to go though.

Anonymous said...

uh, my only issue with letting the chinese (or ecuadorean, or senagalese) delivery man see into my apartment is the uneasy feeling that comes from understanding my good luck of being born here and hence my cushy, privileged early evening deal as opposed to there often hellish situation. . .

pch said...

Bentley, point taken on the merits of opening the floor. It's the somewhat narrow chasm that bugs me...looks to my eye like an oddly-placed stairwell. Pull the second floor back a bit, commit to a double-height space, and I probably wouldn't object.

pch said...

Which is, of course, an impractical suggestion given this house's dimensions. Which is why I'd just close it up.

:{} avg joe said...

Nicolas Cage Sells One, Many More To Go, Estate of the Day

It looks like Mr. Cage is dumping all of his estates for fire sale prices

:{} avg joe

so_chic_darling said...

I stand in the hall with the door shut so they can't see into my apartment and to keep my dog from jumping on them.
As for Greenwich Ave, it is just about the most unsuitable street in the West Village to live on. No New Yorker would ever consider living there, she'll have to sell it to some sucker from out of town who's heard that the West Village is hot. It is but Greenwich Ave is NOT!

luke220 said...

The master bedroom is tiny, has to be entered through the dressing room, one of the bedrooms has no closet (so not a bedroom), inefficient staircases taking too much space from living areas, stripped of all architectural detail, bad location, no elevator.

Anonymous said...

The majority of old houses in the West Village don't have elevators unless they were bought by hedge funders and essentially gutted from top to bottom. Elevators are much more common uptown and sometimes in the fancy and bigger houses off lower Fifth. The problems on the master floor could be easily resolved. This layout was obviously geared to a girl with a lot of clothes. No one is not going to buy a house because one of the bedrooms doesn't have a closet. Figure out a way to build one, if needed.

Anonymous said...

I have my maid go pick up the Chinese food. I don't need those "delivery" people seeing where I live, how I live. Some of them are probably not even delivery people at all, they're spies for Realestalker.

Anonymous said...

cook's night off, i presume.

Anonymous said...

tragic. very difficult to replace a good cook.

Anonymous said...

someone who has learned your tastes and dietary needs. it takes a huge amount of time to get them there and then they're gone!

Anonymous said...

thank you. so few people today have any sympathy for the wealthy. They just don't understand.

Anonymous said...

we have feeling, even more than the underprivileged.

Anonymous said...

you can say that again. running houses and managing staff is a full-time job, and i've got other things i'd rather be doing. my art, for one. but every time i've tried to hand it off to some one else, there is inevitably a big problem and my husband flips out. sure you know all about that.

Captain Marvel said...

this is not worth 7. Sorry. Try 5 as a starting point, even that's high in this market from hell.

Anonymous said...

Thanks 6:02. But my husband passed away. I'm trying to sell this monstrous Holiday Inn Las Vegas replica I got stuck with. But life is hell. My daughter's a little witch. And I really thought that when Madame Alex died my secret would be safe, but no..........................

Anonymous said...

Alex only took the cleverest girls. You'll figure a way out. I am sure of that!

lil' gay boy said...

Not the greatest nabe, or, if my eyes don't deceive me, even the best end of the block.

But such is the price one pays in NYC for a gen-yoo-ine Greek Revival townhouse.

Captain Marvel said...

baby that's the price one PAID before the great bust!

Anonymous said...

Isn't this street really loud, near all the trashy bars like Fiddlesticks? Am I thinking of the right street?

:{} avg joe said...

I guess that no one cares that Mr. Cage is doing fire sales on his estates, they are taking all offers

Anonymous said...

What is that installed on the ceiling above the dining table? Looks like a rug ??

lil' gay boy said...

Anon 10:16, I believe it's a cutout to expose the original (read: 12" or larger hand-hewn) floor joists to "define" the area, an all-too-common architectural trick better left to loft residences in Manhattan, where they're more effective & less obvious...

Anonymous said...

Greenwich Ave, even at that end, is no where near worth 7 mill anymore, for that kind of money you can buy a renovated town house on Charles street in a totally glam and totally redidential area, even a giantic renovated firehouse with a huge gallery space/ store for 7.9 mill. Good luck model girl.

Descada said...

Agreeing with people above, Greenwich Ave is busy, commercial, and kind of charmless. I StreetViewed the house a few weeks ago-didn't know it was Milla's- and it kind of confirmed this. The house was probably once carved into separate apartments after WW2, then recombined, I suspect. Overpriced.

My verification word is "fectis". Yuck.

del mar real estate said...

What should be the Ideal Strategies in real estate?

john beck said...

this is a nice place, perfect for someone youngish, rich, no kids, or a couple with no kids. not too much excess space, but enough room to spread out and with some nice outdoor space. Indulgent master (although the actual bedroom is a bit tight considering the overall space), plus guest space and an office or gym on the top floor. Kitchen floor needs to go though.outstanding pictures