In the late 1990s, the co-op board at the Ardsley apartment house on Central Park West famously rejected Mariah Carey’s roughly $8 million cash offer to buy Barbra Streisand’s penthouse duplex—reportedly due to concerns over her flamboyant celebrity image and fears she would disrupt the Upper West Side building’s quiet, family-oriented atmosphere. The pop superstar turned her sights downtown, where she began fashioning her very own three-tiered aerie at Tribeca’s 17-story Franklin Tower.
The All I Want For Christmas singer went on to dole out roughly $9 million for a duplex penthouse on the 17th and 18th floors and the full-floor unit directly below. She then brought in the late designer Mario Buatta, the Prince of Chintz, to transform the unfinished space into a sumptuous art deco-inspired sanctuary, complete with plenty of eye-catching butterfly decor. It was later featured in Architectural Digest and on MTV Cribs.
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“There are butterfly handles on the cabinets in the bedroom, and butterflies are woven into the bed hangings,” Buatta told AD. “They’re even on the soap in the bath and on the tiles in the kitchen. There are so many butterflies in this apartment, you don’t even notice them. But Mariah does.”
90 Franklin Penthouse Mariah Carey NYC Living Area Views
Almost three decades later, the flashy abode is now hitting the market for the first time. Per the listing, held by Emily Beare and Lexi Alper of CORE Real Estate, the triplex could be reimagined by a developer or used as a single residence.
On the top three floors of a onetime bank building dating to the early 1900s, the palatial pad has eight bedrooms, seven full bathrooms, and a powder room in roughly 12,700 square feet adorned with silver-leaf doors, bronze-inlaid limestone floors, hand-painted ceilings, and peach lacquer walls. Four exposures blanket the home with light, while a rooftop terrace off a semi-circular sunroom with a wet bar offers views over the Manhattan skyline and Hudson River.
90 Franklin Penthouse Mariah Carey NYC
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“I wanted to create a backdrop for Mariah’s own glamour,” Mario Buatta once said. “Most clients don’t understand glitter. Mariah does.” Standout spaces include a sprawling, window-lined great room housing Marilyn Monroe’s childhood white baby grand piano—purchased by Carey at a Christie’s auction for more than $600,000; a brick-accented kitchen with cream cabinetry, a black granite-topped island, and a breakfast banquette; and an underwater-themed media room complete with murals and an aquarium.
The primary suite is expansive, with a corner bedroom, a 38-foot-long bath, an oversized steam room, and a boutique-style dressing room for her shoe collection, along with several additional closets. The lower floor includes a guest bedroom and another living room, plus a series of interconnected spaces that floor plans show include a large wardrobe storage closet, a hair-and-makeup room, and a recording studio. A secondary kitchen is also on this floor.
The sale comes amid the singer-songwriter-producer’s “well-documented borrowing against the asset,” according to the New York Post. The property—which was part of a Booking.com holiday promotion in 2022 and was listed for rent last year at $32,500 per month—carries roughly $18.6 million in outstanding loans, along with a capital assessment of $1,353.76 and monthly HOA dues of about $17,000.
Click here for more photos of the Manhattan residence.
90 Franklin Penthouse Mariah Carey NYC
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