SOHO — A gut-renovated Wooster Street loft with color-changing walls and a private tunnel for cats is on the market for $23 million.
Apartment 5N at 50 Wooster St. was meticulously designed by the artist who owns it, realtor Peggy Zabakolas said.
“It took the owner a few years,” Zabakolas said. “It’s absolutely a piece of art.”
“There’s no art on the walls because the apartment itself is a kind of artwork,” she added.
The apartment was first reported on by the Wall Street Journal.
The three-bedroom loft has European oak floors, a built-in humidifier and the lighting and temperature can be controlled remotely via an iPhone app.
It holds three and a half bathrooms — including a powder-room with color-changing walls — and is being sold with custom-designed furniture.
The owner also designed a short tunnel, accessible via a small opening at the base of a wall by the kitchen, for cats travel through to a litter box in the pantry, the Journal reported.
“I’ve seen thousands of apartments and this is probably my favorite apartment I’ve ever seen,” Zabakolas said. “It’s an awesome, awesome spot.”
The owner “bought it a few years ago with the intention of moving in here and kind of made it her baby,” the realtor explained.
But with the renovations completed just a month ago, she’s never lived in it.
“She hasn’t even slept in it, which I think is crazy,” Zabakolas said. “She wants it to be fresh and clean and never lived in.”
The apartment was originally on the market for rent for $40,000 per month.
“We had some bidding wars,” Zabakolas said. “We finally agree with one person and he wanted to make some alterations.”
The owner balked at that, and decided to list it for sale instead.
“She wants someone who’s going to live in it to love it, and if they want to change it, they have to own it.”
The elevator opens directly into the loft, where a custom-made bookshelf (left) creates a foyer unusual for loft spaces.
Zabakolas says it makes it feel more like a home.
“It’s a SoHo loft, but when you first walk in, it’s not like you’re walking into this huge loft,” she said. “It feels like you’re walking into a home instead of this large apartment.”
She added that the bookcase is “lit tremendously well.”
“It’s a piece of art in itself,” she said.
The living room has a decorative fireplace (not pictured), Italian-made sofas, and a rug made with Mongolian lambs wool.
“The living room space is so grand,” Zabakolas said. “I’ve never seen such a big space.”
The oak dining room table seats 8 people, and is placed in front of huge curved windows that look out onto the city and let in a lot of natural light.
Double doors lead out from the dining area to the 550-square-foot private terrace.
The terrace has custom flooring and lighting and is big enough for a full furniture set, Zabakolas said.
The “entertainment area” has a 75-inch TV with AppleTV, a Blu-Ray player and a subwoofer. The open kitchen is conducive to dinner parties and features some of the best examples of the owners extreme attention to detail, Zabakolas said.
“Even the outlets were hand-painted to match the wood grain,” she said.
The kitchen has floor-to-ceiling storage with custom-made cabinetry and stone countertops, a Miele dishwasher, refrigerator and freezer and a and German-made oven and stove.
Zabakolas said the material used in the kitchen is “a wood, but it feels like rubber.”
One of the bedrooms holds two Tempur-pedic twin mattress on motorized beds that slide together to create a king-size bed.
The master bedroom includes a motorized headboard that can switch the bed’s orientation so it faces the functional EcoSmart fireplace in the winter or the private balcony in the summer.
The master bedroom includes a walk-in closet and dressing area with adjustable floor-to-ceiling shelving, a large mirror and built-in motorized clothing rods.
The master bathroom holds a raw copper bathtub and a shower with two shower heads in an enclosed shower with a seating area that fits two people.
The bathroom has porcelain heated floors, a bidet, and windows that become frosted with the flip of a switch.