Joan Rivers Gets Back on the Manhattan Real Estate Merry-Go-Round

SELLER: Joan Rivers
LOCATION: East 62nd Street, New York, NY
PRICE: $29,500,000
SIZE: 5,190 square feet, 3-4 bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Back in May 2009 trash-talking octogenarian comedienne Joan Rivers heaved her mansion-sized New York City triplex penthouse apartment on the market with a hefty hefty hefty asking price of $25,000,000.

At some point, we're not sure exactly when, Miz Rivers took her posh penthouse pad off the (open) market. Howevuh, the sassy senior recently pushed the terraced 5,190 square foot spread, perched grandly atop a limestone-clad 42-foot wide Horace Trumbauer-designed townhouse building in East 62nd Street, back on the market with an notably higher asking price of $29,500,000 and this time, hunties, the listing includes a floor plan (above) for all us floor plan addicts to drool over.

By Your Mama's count, which may or may not be an accurate assessment, the three floor penthouse has 3-4 bedrooms (the top floor office is serviceable as a fourth bedroom), 4.5 bathrooms, 2 staircases, 2 mezzanine balconies, more than 20 closets including a cedar walk-in and another just for the china, 5 fireplaces, 2 itty-bitty but windowed kitchens, a couple of planted terraces with oblique Central Park views, a voluminous double height entrance hall far larger than most Manhattan studio apartments, an 800-plus square foot formal living room with soaring 23-foot ceiling, and a comparatively tiny—let's call it intimately scaled—formal dining room.

Since this is our last day in New York City before we wing our way back west and we're starting to run short on time, we're going to refrain from commentary about the unquestionably wonky and awkward spatial moments—i.e. access to the lowest level is via a narrow stairway in the laundry room off the mid-level kitchen—and instead let the children duke it out over the layout, decadent day-core and (higher) price.

Because the penthouse is a condominium as opposed to a co-operative, the buyer need not court a persnickety co-op board and the building rather surprisingly, as per listing information, allows a minimum 10% down payment. Maintenance, common charges and taxes add up to a considerable $20,100 per month which means it takes a quarter million a year for Miz Rivers just to pay the monthlies. Beehawtcha may still be working her much nipped and tucked tail off in the Business of Show, but with those sorts of expenses, no wonder she wants to sell this place.

Current online listings includes only a couple juicy photos of the decidedly opulent and heavily gilded penthouse but marketing materials from 2009 included a few more that can be seen here.

floor plan: Prudential Douglas Elliman