Top New York properties for star-struck buyers

Homes with history: the Big Apple’s latest celebrity pads up for sale

Investing in New York but want something a little different? Try a slice of celebrity with an A-List star’s former abode

Alessandra and Allegra Gucci

Style-conscious investors with US$35m to spare can buy the Italian fashion family’s duplex penthouse on Fifth Avenue. Enjoy 9,450 sq ft of extravagant living space with eight bedrooms, a wood-panelled library and a shower overlooking the Empire State Building. For décor, think sleek, shiny and modern with pops of colourful accents.

Miles Davis

While not exactly palatial, the Upper West Side apartment in which Miles Davis once lived is on the market. For about 25 years the jazz legend resided in a townhouse (eventually divided into apartments), one of which is priced at a modest US$495,000. This is where Davis penned hits for albums including Kind of Blue while also entertaining Herbie Hancock and Dizzy Gillespie. With features including exposed brick walls and high ceilings, this is the place to get your groove on.

Uma Thurman

Selling her exclusive apartment at 1 Lexicon Avenue, the Pulp Fiction actress described it as “a very special building”. Special is right: the renovated property retains many original 1910 architectural flourishes and comes with a Turkish bath, a coveted key to the private Gramercy Park, just opposite, and even a few photographs of the star and her children.

Halston House

Designed by famed architect Paul Rudolph, 101 East 63rd Street was the epicentre of New York’s 1970s celebrity culture. Now on the market for a cool US$28m, the property was formerly the residence of Halston, designer to the stars, with guests including Liza Minelli, Bianca Jagger and Andy Warhol. The foyer is lined with iconic photographs, many taken by Warhol himself.

Joan Rivers

The late comedienne was known for her extravagant personality, and her longtime abode on Upper East Side was certainly an extension of that. While the opulent penthouse itself has already been sold, more than 200 of Rivers’ personal effects were auctioned at Christie’s on June 22. Items included a Louis XVI-style chair circa 1780, an oil painting by Edouard Vuillard and a rare, gold-mounted floral leaf-study, by Fabergé.

For more information on property investments in New York, please call Oryx World Portfolio on +971 4 446 2000.