by Kate Kelly

SoHo

DAVID BOWIE, FICKLE LOFT BUYER, SIGNS $4 MILLION DEAL ON LAFAYETTE STREET. Rock star David Bowie has signed a contract to purchase two penthouses under construction at 285 Lafayette Street between Prince and Houston streets for $4 million, according to real estate sources. Meanwhile, Mr. Bowie’s 5,200-square-foot loft at 704 Broadway–purchased just last February for $1.5 million but never lived in–is back on the market for $1.85 million.

The two apartments Mr. Bowie has agreed to buy at 285 Lafayette Street, which total about 5,300 square feet, are part of an Upstairs, Downstairs scenario being created by Allied Partners Inc., the developer who purchased the building’s mortgage in 1994. Allied is constructing 21 new luxury condos atop six stories of artist-in-residence lofts, inhabited by loft law-era tenants. The construction is under way, but the city’s Department of Buildings will not issue a certificate of occupancy until it can inspect the finished work.

"We started with 21 units; we have two left," said Eric Hadar, Allied’s president.
"It’s quite a phenomenon for this developer," said Robert Eychner, a Manhattan developer familiar with the building, "who came along and was able to negotiate with a number of inside tenants who are really old SoHo original artists." The tenants are even pitching in to help pay for refurbishing the lobby and installing new elevators.

To be able to charge millions of dollars per new apartment, Allied Partners has renovated the building’s Lafayette Street entrance, making it the building’s primary address, rather than 271 Mulberry Street, the former address. Allied is installing Rutt custom cabinetry in the kitchens, custom-made French tile, polished nickel vanities and Brazilian hardwood floors, in addition to restoring 1890’s-period details, like exposed wood beams and cast-iron columns.

Mets catcher Mike Piazza passed through Unit 8D, available for $3.5 million, in early November, but decided not to buy–yet.

Diane Villani, a longtime resident of 285 Lafayette, seemed nonplussed by her new celebrity neighbors. "I’m never going to see them," she said. "I mean, how much time is David Bowie going to spend in this building?"

Mr. Bowie’s purchase is supposed to be final in April, when the construction is expected to be finished. A spokesman for Mr. Bowie said, "We usually don’t report on the personal lives of our clients."