Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly On the Move Again

SELLERS: Jennifer Connelly and Paul Bettany
LOCATION: New York City, NY
PRICE: $8,495,000
SIZE: 4,096 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: It was only about 3.5 years ago that English-born movie actor Paul Bettany (A Beautiful Mind, The Da Vinci Code, A Knight's Tale) and Brooklyn-bred Academy Award winner Jennifer Connelly (A Beautiful Mind, Requiem For A Dream, Blood Diamond) paid $6,920,000 for a full floor loft-type penthouse apartment on the edge of New York City's star-stocked TriBeCa neighborhood.

At that time multi-lingual Miz Connelly was rearing one child from a previous relationship, a boy then about 10 and now about 15, as well as a second child she produced with Mister Bettany, another boy then a toddler now about five. In May last year the couple sired a second child together—the third for her—this time a baby girl now not even a year old.

Perhaps (or perhaps not) due to their slow growing family, blond Mister Bettany and brunette Miz Connelly have recently, as first discussed by the kids at Curbed, put their expansive TriBeCa penthouse pad back on the market with an asking price of $8,495,000. Although the penthouse measures in, as per listing information, at a roomy 4,096 square feet, its current configuration only encompasses three bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms, a count that requires the couple to double up two of their three children in a single bedroom. And who, let's be honest chickens, wants to pay seven million bucks to have their children share a damn bedroom?

Anyhoo, current listing information shows a key-locked elevator slides open to a private vestibule that in turn gives way to a 20-foot long foyer that connects the 45-foot long Hudson River view living room to the 34-foot long open plan kitchen/dining room area that features a sizable center work island, white subway tile back splashes, a black marble farm sink, a full coterie of stainless steel appliances, and two pantry closets.

In between the living room, which has a massive sky light plus a total of 9 windows on three sides, and the kitchen/dining room there are a huge walk-in coat closet, an unusually generous laundry room, and a windowless powder pooper.

Beyond the kitchen/dining room, at the extreme ass end of the apartment, a nearly square 400-ish square foot library/family room has a full wall of custom built maple bookshelves, a vintage wood burning stove that balances the crisp modernity of the loft's imposed architecture, and a spiral staircase that winds tightly up to a small, glass-enclosed sun room and 1,380 square foot roof terrace.

Two of the loft's three bedrooms share a bedroom-sized walk-in closet—a somewhat unusual clothing storage set up to be sure—and window-free, L-shaped bathroom with an awkward column smack in the middle. The master suite, accessible from the living room or from the bedroom corridor, offers a surprisingly petite bedroom with one north facing window, a commodious closet/dressing room, and a surprisingly spacious windowed bathroom with poured concrete floors and double sinks, a free-standing soaking tub, and separate open shower.

The 8-story red brick building, built in 1980 and converted to a co-op in 1984, fronts the very busy, extremely loud, and sometimes wind whipped West Side Highway which will certainly turn off any number of the children, particularly those who don't have an affinity for (often noisy) New York City living. However, the panoramic views up and down the Hudson River and across to Jersey City are most certainly the stuff from which downtown New York City real estate dreams are made.

Before settling in TriBeCa, the Bettany-Connelly clan owned and occupied a spectacular 18-room single family limestone mansion in Brooklyn's baby buggy filled Park Slope neighborhood (above). Property records and previous reports indicate they bought the 5,243 square foot house—or 5,276 or 7,054 square feet depending on which online resource one peeps—in August 2003 for $3,700,000. They listed their former Prospect Park-fronting mansion with its 9 bedrooms, 6 fireplaces and 3.5 bathrooms in the spring of 2008 with an $8,500,000 price tag. It quickly sold it to a computer genius in late 2008 for $8,450,000.

Your Mama, like the industrious kids at Curbed, can't help but wonder if Mister Bettany and Miz Connelly wish they'd never sold their big ol' mansion in Park Slope and will head back over the Brooklyn Bridge or if they're simply seeking larger quarters in Manhattan that will more suitably fit their family of five.

listing photos and floor plan (TriBeCa): Prudential Douglas Elliman
listing photo (Park Slope): Sotheby's International Realty via StreetEasy