Brad Grey Checks Into NYC's Carlyle Hotel

With his purchase of a $15.5 million residence in Manhattan's Carlyle Hotel, Paramount CEO Brad Grey is joining a select group that calls the old-school property home. The 35-story tower at 35 E. 76th St., which includes 180 hotel rooms and 69 co-op apartment units, counts IAC chairman Barry Diller, Allen & Co. CEO Herb Allen Jr. and Tod's CEO Diego Della Valle as residents. Built in 1930, The Carlyle is cloaked in a mystique that comes in part from John F. Kennedy having had a residence there; legend has it that Marilyn Monroe would use tunnels beneath the property to secretly visit the president. Its cafe is known for hosting Woody Allen, who regularly plays clarinet there, while the iconic Bemelmans Bar is replete with murals by former Carlyle resident and Madeline writer-illustrator Ludwig Bemelmans. "It is low-key, old-world New York. In the restaurant there, the old ladies still wear white gloves," says Charles Russell, a high-end New York real estate broker. Grey, who purchased the residence with wife Cassandra Grey, is paying top dollar for the Central Park views, round-the-clock hospitality and hotel amenities including maid and turndown service. The maintenance fee for his four-bedroom unit, which was renovated by the previous owner and encompasses the 26th floor, is $37,946 per month. Properties that buyers cross-shop include The Pierre, another landmark apartment-hotel hybrid; 15 Central Park West; and Time Warner Center. Grey's Nov. 17 off-market transaction with Peter Schoenfeld, an asset manager who bought the 3,000-square-foot apartment in 2007 for about $6.5 million, breaks down to roughly $5,167 per square foot. That's about five times the price at which most luxury condominiums in L.A. trade. "The upper end is not slowing down at all," says Patricia Cliff of The Corcoran Group, who represented the seller in Schoenfeld's deal. Grey, whose primary residence is in Bel-Air, has been busy on the real estate front: In September, he listed the Holmby Hills estate he purchased in November 2010 that was once owned by Frank Sinatra. Grey bought the seven-bedroom house for $18.5 million and listed it for $23.5 million.