Done Deals

UPPER WEST SIDE
1965 Broadway

Two-bedroom condo
Square Footage: 1,180
Asking price: $1.75 million
Selling price: $1.73 million
Time on market: 59 days

¡QUE COMPLICADO! At least the sale of this two-bedroom condo, almost two-dozen stories high above bankrupt Tower Records, started off easy enough after 59 days on the market. But then the closing got thorny (get ready for a geographic bon voyage in print) when the Venezuelan buyer, who spoke little English, wanted to handle the purchase through his Florida company. So he retained a Long Island attorney, who had never handled a real estate deal in New York City, to shepherd the transaction, a Corcoran Group broker, Sarah Lipman, said. When the lawyer's musician wife was found dead in a swimming pool, the run-up to the closing stretched even longer. "It was a mess and that's why it took three months to close," Ms. Lipman said.

Located in the decade-old Grand Millennium between 66th and 67th streets, the apartment sports marble bathrooms, a granite pass-through kitchen, a 24-hour doorman, along with high ceilings capped with floor-to-ceiling windows with views of Central Park. And if occupants crane their heads out the window, they can see the George Washington Bridge. The Venezuelan buyer and his family had planned to treat the Broadway pad as a pied-à-terre (we drop words en français, too!), but after all the fuss with the limited English proficiency, the Florida corporation, the new-to-New-York lawyer, and the wife-in-pool tragedy, the seller has apparently decided to make the condo yet another apartment for rent in Manhattan rather than a foot on the ground, Ms. Lipman said.

GREENWICH VILLAGE
2 Cornelia St.

Two-bedroom condo
Square Footage: 1,400
Asking price: $1.5 million
Selling price: $1.5 million
Time on market: 15 weeks

DRAMATIS PERSONA The luscious Swedish actress, who wanted another condo in 2 Cornelia, had outgrown the unit she had there. Broker John Parsegian of Halstead Property, said she also wanted something new. The million-dollar-plus price, after some haggling, finally dropped within her range, and she decided to buy. The actress, who specializes in dramatic performances (meaning, onstage), will be enjoying granite countertops, new appliances (to whip up her delectable Swedish meatballs, no doubt), a spiral staircase joining upper and lower levels, as well as ultra-bright space through eight-foot-high loft windows.

UPPER WEST SIDE
225 W. 83rd St.

Two-bedroom condo
Square Footage: 1,300
Asking price: $1.88 million
Selling price: $1.99 million
Time on market: 5 months

DRAFT PICK The professional athlete who's moving into this renovated condo (Corcoran Group broker Jean Michael would want to protect Tiger's identity, right?) won't be getting a typical condo. But then again this wasn't a typical sale. Sure, like most city apartments of a certain price, this 20th floor condominium features views — of sunset, of cityscape, of the Hudson River. The windows, which face west and north, sit above built-in maple and birch cabinets for handy storage of Swedish meatball fixings and air conditioning ducts. But the woman who sold the walnut-floored (indeed, a third wood) apartment to the athlete bought it several years ago, never lived in it, and "totally gutted it," the broker said, and remolded it.

Now, retractable doors make the second bedroom convertible into living space; one of the bathrooms is pampered with rare blue South American marble with a Jacuzzi tub, a separate steam shower and a one-way mirror that allows distant views of the cityscape. After the considerable renovation, Ms. Michael said, "it wasn't your cookie-cutter apartment, it wasn't your typical two-bedroom, two-bath condo." How typical.