Robert Magda: It's Fun to List at the YMCA (for $14.5M)

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

It's Fun to List at the YMCA (for $14.5M)

Young man, there’s a place you can go where the ceilings are 29 feet high and you’ll barely know you’re in town.

It’s the former YMCA in Chelsea, and it’s featured in one of the most uplifting videos ever made: The Village People performing their “Y.M.C.A.” earworm.

After nearly a century as a men’s club, the building was sold in 2002 and turned into a boutique condo space. Now, a $14.5-million duplex loft listed in that building “delivers the same level of freedom and relief you have when you step outside, but you’re indoors,” said Leonard Steinberg, the president of Compass who is co-listing the space with three of his colleagues.

Before the Village People memorialized it as a symbol of 1970s joy in New York, this YMCA was known as the place where Charles Merrill met stockbroker Edmund Lynch, The New York Times reported. Andy Warhol, Edward Albee and Al Pacino also were members.

The property for sale, Loft 7/8N, used to house the gymnasium with a running track around the top. Its 7,000 square feet make it exceptionally large, especially by Manhattan standards.

“In New York City, we are so accustomed to tighter spaces because of the cost of real estate, and then you walk in here and there’s luxury not just in square footage but in cubic footage,” Steinberg said. “Because of the volume and quality of the light, you feel almost like you don't have a roof over your head.”

The upstairs kitchen, which boasts a 25-foot-long marble counter offer a stunning view of the open space, including exposed steel rafters, a living room with a wood-burning fireplace, and a two-story atrium flooded with light by a dozen extra-tall windows.

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The 4 bedrooms and 3.5 baths include a master suite with a dressing room and an en-suite bathroom that boasts a large walk-in shower, a soaking tub, and twin sinks with teak counters.

It may not be the Y any more, but it still looks like a fun place to stay.