Having sold their twin Cabo San Lucas villas in April, tequila entrepreneurs and best buds George Clooney and Rande Gerber are moving to a luxury tower in midtown Manhattan.
Clooney and Gerber—or ‘Gooney,’ as they’re known—have purchased, Page Six reported, identical condos at One Hundred East Fifty Third Street, a luxury, 711-foot-tall, 63-storey white tower set for completion in spring 2017.
The closer-than-close business partners will be neighbors once again in two of the building’s 94 minimalist units (the Gerbers allegedly purchased a loft directly above the Clooneys, ostensibly so Gooney can play games of “telephone” before bedtime).
No word yet on what they’ll name their new living situation, but we can expect it to be every bit as chummy as their “Casamigos” Mexican compound.
Designed by architect Norman Foster of Foster + Partners, One Hundred East Fifty Third Street is the latest pet project of German-born real estate magnate Aby Rosen, founder and head of RFR Holding Hines, whose best-known masterpieces include refurbishing the Lever House on Park Avenue in 1998 and transforming the Seagram Building in 2000 into a bronze monolith.
Seagram is adjacent to One Hundred East Fifty Third Street, where Gooney and their wives, Amal Clooney and Cindy Crawford, will have access to a Michelin-rated chef (Joël Robuchon will run the Gourmet food court on the building’s ground floor and a restaurant above it); a 60-foot swimming pool; a wellness facility with a steam room, sauna, yoga studio, pilates-and-ballet studio, cardio gym and separate room for weight-lifting; and a William Georgis-designed residential library complete with a “highly curated collection” and “smoky black granite flooring,” according to a tip sheet.
In an email to The Daily Beast, a press representative said neither Rosen nor anyone else on the team behind One Hundred East Fifty Third Street would comment on “celebrity items” due to “strict policies around discussing any buyers or potential buyers.”
But a source told Page Six that the Clooneys “opted for a high-floor residence” in the building rather than the penthouse, and that the Gerbers are moving in directly above them.
We can assume, then, Gooney will be living in two of the 3,385 square feet three-bedroom units or 6,700 square feet four-bedroom units, both of which are considered to be among the buildings “more traditional apartment” on the upper floors.
There are also one- and two-bedroom spaces and alcove lofts, the latter of which will reportedly take up floors five through nine.
Most units are priced between $5 and $14 million, as reported in the New York Times, though the penthouse is listed for $65 million.
Given Rosen’s extensive contemporary art collection—worth an estimated $40 million—it’s hardly surprising that the lobby will feature an installation by artist Rachel Feinstein, best known for her whimsical, Rococo-esque sculptures.
Together with his wife, psychiatrist Dr. Samantha Boardman, Rosen hosts notoriously lavish, hot-ticket parties at Art Basel in Miami every year (Peter Marino, Tommy Hilfiger, Larry Gagosian, Vito Schnabel, Katie Holmes, and Julian Lennon all attended last year).
Boardman has her own “science-based” wellness business, Positive Prescription, and is also a contributing voice on Ivanka Trump’s website (her most recent post was 5 Body Language Tips For Your Next Job Interview, on September 11, 2016).
One Hundred East Fifty Third Street’s apartments are not “pitched toward full-time residents,” Georgis, who designed the interiors, told Centurion magazine in 2015 (PDF). “The idea was not New York family living. It’s about prospective residents coming from somewhere else” and seeking “convenience and proximity” to the city’s offerings.
Georgis’ touches on the apartments include soaring ceilings, exposed concrete columns and concrete walls, white oak flooring and powder rooms with “Agora Black Turkish marble” countertops and sinks, according to press materials.
One Hundred East Fifty Third Street may well be the modernist equivalent of the Dakota in the 1960s and later years, where John Lennon and Yoko Ono lived (Lennon was famously shot in the building’s archway) with a host of other celebrities including Lauren Bacall, Leonard Bernstein, Judy Garland, and Rudolph Nureyev.
Stars are more scattered around Manhattan today, though Stephen Spielberg, Steve Martin, and Donna Karan all live in The San Remo, built in 1930 on Central Park West.
Demi Moore put her triplex south tower penthouse on the market for $75 million last year, (Bono lives in the north tower penthouse), and Dustin Hoffman sold his 8,000 square foot apartment in the building for $21 million in 2014.
The building has also been home to Diane Keaton and Steve Jobs, though its co-op famously rejected Madonna in the ‘80s.
Amanda Seyfried and Alec Baldwin both have homes in Greenwich Village’s Devonshire House, though Baldwin reportedly has his eye on a $16.5 million penthouse in Chelsea near the High Line.
Meryl Streep was longtime neighbors with Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin in the two-building River Lofts complex in Tribeca before they consciously uncoupled. The two put the apartment on the market for $14.25 in March, and even advertised it on GOOP.
If Midtown seems an odd location for luxury residential buildings catering to celebrities and the uber-rich, Rosen told Centurion that “there’s a revolution going on” in the neighborhood. It’s still seriously lacking in the food department, which is one of the reasons why he’s putting a swanky restaurant in his One Hundred East Fifty Third Street tower. “Young people don’t get good tables. We need new people there. We need women.”
Gooney and their high-profile wives are a good place to start.