Supermodel turned entrepreneurial businesswoman, fashion designer and reality television mogul Heidi Klum decided to set down some roots in the busy heart of New York City’s Soho ‘hood with the $5.1 million purchase of a fixer upper penthouse loft atop a handsome, six-story Queen Anne style building that dates to the late 1800s.

Used for decades as an artist’s studio and marketed by listing agent Edward Hickey at Compass as requiring a “Total Renovation,” the 4,772-square-foot space stretches 125-feet from end to end with ten exposed support columns lined up down the middle of the 40-foot wide space. There are airy high ceilings, honey-toned hardwood floors laid at a 45-degree angle to the rectangular space and gigantic sash windows with southern, eastern and southwestern exposures that provide an over the rooftops view of the gleaming World Trade Center and the quirky Herzog de Meuron-designed tower at 56 Leonard Street that is often referred to as Jenga Tower due to its distinctive and seemingly random crown of cantilevered balconies. Marketing materials, which include virtual photo renderings of the loft as it could look after a renovation, indicate the co-operative-style unit, which carries heavy-duty monthly maintenance charges of $7,231, transferred with 120-square-feet of deeded skylight rights and roof rights for the addition of a private terrace were available for purchase by separate agreement through the building’s co-op board.

Heidi Klum

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