How My Former School Gymnasium Became An $18 Million Penthouse

*It is our top priority to get this listing sold!

Ben Lieblein, graduated from the school’s whose gymnasium was transformed into this stunning penthouse.  We feel it is a fantastic way to pay tribute to the school, St. Agnes, where Ben built lifelong memories. Other units at different prices are also available.

Contact us now! Let’s get this sold! wendy@jacksonlieblein.com 917-679-1211

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It’s been dubbed the “Solarium Penthouse” with its 19 foot arched ceiling in the main living room, but it could bring back a few memories for alumni of the Catholic St. Agnes Boys High School. Developer Cary Tamarkin purchased the Upper West Side school from the Archdiocese of New York for $50 million in 2014 and turned these former halls of learning into 13 boutique condos that went on the market late last fall.

The grandest of them all is the $18 million 3-bed, 3.5-bath penthouseinside the school’s former gym which comes with an entire wall of windows, skylight, and many other clerestory style windows in the three bedrooms. The metallic ridged ceiling in the great room is painted a bright white to lessen the industrial feeling the room used to have and touches such as the window seat and white oak plank floors make it feel more like a home than a basketball court. It’s also rare to find a penthouse on the ground floor, but when you do it comes with a 500-square-foot walkout terrace with low border wall to define the space. (Apologies: the unit is not on the ground floor, it just appears to be in the image above). 

Kitchen | HAYES DAVIDSON

Behind the massive window is the kitchen space with cabinetry handcrafted from white fumed oak by artisan Christopher Peacock and a few luxury touches such as a refrigerator drawer, under counter wine storage, a dual-fuel range by Wolf, two dishwashers and Lefroy Brooks fixtures. A walk-in pantry behind where the action takes place is part of the design but it makes you wonder if this is where they kept all the gym equipment. Developers kept things almost Shaker-level sparse, which makes sense when you have such large rooms to design around. Adding ornate details to a big room means you have to add a lot of them for consistency’s sake and it can quickly take on a cluttered look.

Here’s a glimpse of the master bedroom with all those arched windows and its ceiling halfway between a coffered and trey design.

Master Bedroom | HAYES DAVIDSON 

The master bathroom comes with a shower and digitally-controlled steam room, Calacatta Gold marble, radiant-heat floors and Toto Neorest smart toilet in private water closet.

Bathroom | HAYES DAVIDSON

The monthly fees are $5,744 which include the building’s workout center, 24-hour doorman, private storage (both climate-controlled and not), bike room, stroller valet and a community party room with a wet bar, pool table, dartboard, lounge chairs & large-screen TV.

Workout room | HAYES DAVIDSON

For more information on the penthouse at 555 West End Avenue, check out the page on Stribling who has co-listed the unit with their agent Alexa Lambert and the Sotheby’s International Realty brokerage. Or go to the project’s website where this condo and other available units are listed for sale.

Looking for more impressive transformations? There’s a former factory that is being turned into a massive single family home measuring 18,000 square feet and it will still have one of the largest backyards in the West Village. See how they are making it happen over here.

Source: Amy Dobson, Forbes Magazine

Filed under: Headlines by Alec Reimon
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