Joan Rivers Apartment Sold for $28 Million to Middle East "Royalty"

KAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACCCCCCCHHHHHHHHHHHHIIIIINNNNGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'd have sold it. It didn't have a great layout but had 2 spectacular rooms.

More foreigners who will barely spend much time in the city buying up tons of New York real estate and inflating the demand for expensive housing.

Didn't Joan complain about the apartment being haunted? Maybe Melissa didn't want to live in a haunted home.

Yada yada yada. Old news the rich and NYC.

New York City sold out to the rich starting when I lived there as a young man in the 80's. I was priced out of neighbourhood after neighbourhood.

There are other great cities where you don't have to apologise or suffer for being middle class. And be miserable if you are poor and not a local in rent control.

I wish there was some way NYC real estate, over $500,000, could only be sold to those who are citizens of the US and have lived in NYC for at least 10 years (this would include all immediate family including brothers and sisters) and sign a contract that they will live in NYC for at least another 25 years.

You'd see how quickly prices would come down. Nothing over 2 million would sell.

Her apartment was haunted by old widow Ms. Spencer, who was related to J.P. Morgan, and who used to own the whole building. Her ghost made life hell for everyone who lived in the building. Joan brought in a voodoo priestess from New Orleans to cleanse it.

Once Joan and the priestess did the cleansing, Ms. Spencer became a friendly ghost. She still appears in the apartment, but in a loving and protective way. Joan said that she'd wake up every night at 3am and Ms. Spencer would be sitting in a chair at the foot of the bed. Joan said she liked it because the spirit gave her company.

The apartment was a gaudy horror. Plus, Melissa lives in LA. Why would she hold on to it?

The best thing Melissa could do for herself is to get rid of her mother's things and make a life for herself. She's spent her whole life in her mother's shadow, and I don't know if that was her idea or Joan's, but if she's ever going to be happy and well-adjusted she needs to stop living a life that's all about Joan Rivers.

Incidentally, that would also be the best thing for "Fashion Police".

Melissa has always been a west coast girl-born and raised there. It was NYC native Joan who wanted to live in NYC and only go to LA for work and seeing Melissa. There's no reason for Melissa to keep the place.

Melissa is a young hip cali girl of 48. Why would she want to live in that faberge egg in nyc? Sell it to the Arabs by all means. NYC too. You know how Anne Frank's family were discovered? Arnold Schwarzenegger looked so hot marching down the street with the Nazis that Anne waved and said yoohoo, I'm up here. Joan was a generous person and quite sentimental. But she was no fool. She knew her apartment had to go before people caught on that Marie Antoinette shouldn't live in a studio apt but you make the best of it and try not to lose your head. Some terrorist will be willing to pay the price for prime location. Those were Joan's last words btw.

Maybe she can't afford it. Keeping this place isn’t cheap — “maintenance, common charges and taxes add up to a considerable $20,000 per month,” which means it takes a quarter-million dollars a year to keep it going.

Also, its a co-op., thus requiring board approval of the buyer. So Melissa may have inherited it, that does not t mean she can live there. The board would still have to approve the title transfer. The board might not *want* Melissa.

Or maybe she simply does not meet the boards financial requirements. Requiremtns of Iquid assests 4 or 5 times the sales price are common. Even a 1X requirment might be too much for Melissa.

Or maybe just getting while the getting is good.

28 million is a lot of money. why would ANYONE keep such a shrine to a dead mother and her tastes:

She doesn't want to pay the crazy taxes on the place

That apartment is gorgeous and we all know it. Joan was very elaborate (which I appreciate to a degree), a little redecorating and it will be fine. And a new kitchen.

I never understood why anyone wants to keep an apartment in New York and then live elsewhere most of the time. It's much more economical to use a hotel. You could even hold a hotel room for the year and it would be cheaper than maintaining a home and paying taxes for something you visit four or five times a year.

Good for Mel for selling it.

I wonder what happens to the contents? Will there be an auction? Were Joan's antiques real? She wanted to live like Marjorie Merriweather Post but MMP had a 54 room triplex on 5th Avenue.

All of the furnishings are original. Joanie didn't fuck around.

Would you rather have Joan's apartment or Lauren Bacall's Dakota apartment?

I'll take Joan's, the Dakota is just weird.

I think Joan had some good reproductions. I didn't see any Riesener commodes, Roentgen desks, Beauvais Tapestries or Faberge Imperial Eggs.

It would be fun to buy a piece from Joan's. Will there be an auction?

R12 it's a condo building actually. Condo boards are a joke no matter what anyone says. DL fave Geoffrey Bradfield used to live there.

A Dakota board would be far tougher. And the "bones" of such an apartment would be far better.

You can still buy one of Joan's fabulous Russian Style Faberge Eggs for $179 at the Shopping Channel or 7.99 at Goodwill.

That's no ghost, that's a demon. Joan was plagued by demons, so to speak.

LMAO!

The apartment is terribly dated and over-decorated. It looks like something Donald Trump would have lived in during the 80s. Any top designer would be appalled at how tacky it is.

It's not tacky, heavily decorated? Yes.

[quote]I never understood why anyone wants to keep an apartment in New York and then live elsewhere most of the time. It's much more economical to use a hotel. You could even hold a hotel room for the year and it would be cheaper than maintaining a home and paying taxes for something you visit four or five times a year.

You don't understand the very wealthy. It isn't about saving money, it is about proving you have a lot of money. Of course you have a place in NYC (and London, they are going through the same thing of foreigners buying tons of real estate). These people aren't trying to have to stay in a hotel (even a nice one) with the commoners.

For all its size, the place had only one bathroom and a very small, un-modern kitchen. Plus it was on a low floor, so no sunlight, and no southern exposure. Melissa made out like a bandit with this sale.

There's no way Melissa Rivers has THAT kind of money, R30. I mean, she's wealthy, she'll never have to work again if she doesn't want to, but there's no way Joan left her enough money to buy a fuck-you apartment in all the major cities.

Those are the sort of people she wanted to sell to.

I would have sold it with the furniture, because that stuff is great in a museum, but awful to live with.

If you notice Joan had very comfortable looking contemporary California style sofas.

But Joan's DNA is there. Her skin cells! Her spirit may be willing itself there! You know Joan would not like foreigners in there. But then Joan told Melissa "don't be beholden to my things." So maybe Joan's ghost will not haunt the place. Most likely her ghost is willing herself to her grandson in L.A. Yeah, that might be it. Well you can never tell about the spirits and what they do with their time in the spirit world. They can will themselves to Pluto and walk around there even. Maybe even going to other planets far out in space that are like Earth with people similar to us. When you're a spirit you could do anything without a body!

Joan had a heart of gold.

R24 Thanks for the info. I didnt look that close. Once I saw 20K a month carrying charges, I thought I was a co-op.

Joan told Melissa to take what she wanted and sell the rest.

It's also about parking money in safe places. London is full of huge empty houses owned by Russians and Arabs. There was an interesting piece in the Guardian last year about all the empty mansions on one particularly famous road, not far from where I live in north London.

Not all people from the Middle East are Arab.

Although, I doubt most of you who misuse the terms care about the distinction.

No, R40, but the ones buying up NYC and London certainly are.

The price was so high because it was sold with all those Joan's Original Old Skin throw rugs.

You kinda buried the lede there, OP. it says that Fashion Police is starting up again and Melissa is going to lead it.

Gay men won't watch Melissa; there goes the key demographic.

The decoration is surprisingly stodgy and WASPy IMO. I thought Joan would be more fun.

Perfect decor for a rich Arab/American/Russian.