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Leibovitz’s $40 Million Astor Barns, Townhouses Might Ease Debt

By Katya Kazakina

Aug. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz’s New York real estate, used to back a $24 million loan from Art Capital Group and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., could be valued at more than four times her purchase price, or as much as $40 million, according to property brokers.
Whether the appreciation of the real estate, in Manhattan and upstate New York, will offer the photographer a path out of her financial troubles is unclear.

Leibovitz, 59, has to repay her creditors by Sept. 8, according to a suit Art Capital filed in New York State Supreme Court on July 29.

The New York-based firm, which provides loans with art as collateral, claims in the suit that Leibovitz breached an agreement that allows the company to sell her real estate and catalog of photographs, also used as collateral, before Sept. 8. The lender has valued the catalog at more than $50 million.

Such sales would bring Art Capital commissions on the sums realized, while Leibovitz would get the balance and still have to pay off the loan plus $2.9 million interest and other fees.

Art Capital would get a 10 percent commission from the sale of Leibovitz’s real estate and 15 percent from the sale of her artworks, according to Montieth Illingworth, the company’s spokesman. If she defaults on the loan, Art Capital is entitled to a 25 percent commission, including as much as 13 percent for fees.

“Annie is continuing to work to resolve the situation, so any comment would be inappropriate at this time,” said Leibovitz’s spokesman, Matthew Hiltzik.
Astor Estate

In 1996, Leibovitz paid $2.3 million for 220 acres in the Hudson Valley hamlet of Rhinebeck, said appraiser Pete Hubbell, president of Hubbell Realty Services Inc. It was once part of the Astor family’s 3,500-acre estate, called Ferncliff. In 2002, Leibovitz paid $635,000 for an adjacent 7.8-acre parcel, the Dutchess County records show.

The property includes a pond, a mix of meadows and woodlands, stone barns and a former creamery. Others with homes in the area include financier George Soros, hotelier Andre Balazs, and Rolling Stone magazine’s publisher, Jann Wenner, Hubbell said.

“It’s a sleepy little town and no one pays attention to celebrities,” said Steve Mann, former president of the Museum of Rhinebeck History. “That’s why they like to come to Rhinebeck.”

Hubbell, who has appraised the Leibovitz property, said it could be worth $4 to $6 million in today’s market. Rhinebeck’s official appraiser pegged the value at $5 million, according to a 2009 Dutchess county tax report.
“I can see it getting $10 million,” said Harry Hill, a local resident and principal broker of H.H. Hill Realty Services. “She did a first-class restoration. The barns are unbelievably beautiful.”

Stone Barn

Leibovitz restored a stone barn complex designed in 1918 by architect Harrie T. Lindeberg, according to “Rhinebeck: Portrait of a Town,” by Sari Brewster Tietjen.

The Astor provenance also adds value, said Hill. The barns used to be a winter refuge for 375 Angus bulls, according to Brooke Astor’s autobiography “Footprints.” Her husband Vincent Astor bred and sold them for as much as $300,000 each. He proposed to Brooke in Ferncliff and wooed her with a cattle-call horn and a ride on his miniature railway.

Leibovitz’s houses in Manhattan’s West Village are also historic. Built in the 1830s, they are designated as landmarks. The estimated value of the three Greek Revival brownstones could be $30 million, said brokers who specialize in the area.

“In today’s real-estate market, newly renovated townhouses in the West Village have recently traded at approximately $2,000 per square foot,” said Peter McCuen of Peter McCuen and Associates Inc., a real-estate firm that is currently selling condos in artist Julian Schnabel’s Palazzo Chupi, down the street from the photographer.

Unique Features

Given the Leibovitz compound’s unique features, including one corner building, a courtyard and about 60 feet facing Greenwich Street, “a value of approximately $2,500 per square foot is plausible,” McCuen added.
With about 12,000 square feet among the three buildings, according to city records, the property could fetch from $24 million to $30 million.

“It’s not going to sell in a week,” said Jill Bane, who specializes in West Village townhouses at Leslie J. Garfield & Co. “There are only a couple of hundred people I can call. Actually, maybe only a hundred.”

Leibovitz bought 755-757 Greenwich Street for $4.15 million in 2002 and embarked on extensive renovations, including plans to combine the houses into a single 9,000-square-foot living- and-work space, according to documents filed with the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Sparking Opposition

The renovations dragged on for years, igniting opposition by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation and a $15 million lawsuit against Leibovitz by her next-door neighbor. In September 2003, Leibovitz settled the suit by buying the neighbor’s building for $1.87 million.

Actress Julianne Moore, who lives a few doors down from Leibovitz, has her historic, renovated brownstone on the market for almost $12 million, or about $2,445 a square foot.

While it’s possible to rebuild the combined houses into individual structures, they may be more valuable as whole, Bane said.

“You can buy 20-foot townhouses all over the place,” she said. “Where else will you get a historic building 60 feet wide in the West Village? Nowhere.”

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