Location: Manhattan, NY Price: $12,950,000
Architect Annabelle Selldorf helped create this industrial-style home in what was once the basketball court of a YMCA—Sarah Tilton
When looking for a home, Beverly Kerzner ‘wanted a sense of my own space in New York City, a sense of sanctuary, a sense of space that was apart to be able to get away to,‘ she says. She found all of that in this approximately 7,000-square-foot loft in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood. It was once part of the McBurney branch of the YMCA.
When she first saw the space, the trestles were pink and the walls were lime green, she says. ’It didn’t read well, but the space in itself always read phenomenally,’ says Ms. Kerzner. She paid $8.35 million for the home in 2007 through a limited-liability corporation, according to public records. Over the years she has renovated the space twice including adding a marble mosaic designed to look like a runner in the kitchen. Ms. Kerzner likes ‘communal cooking when we all cook and we all eat and celebrate life,’ she says.
The Beaux Arts-style building dates to 1902. Ms. Kerzner remembers taking her daughter to this YMCA for swim lessons. The space that is her two-story loft was once the basketball court and running track, she says.
Ms. Kerzner brought in architect Annabelle Selldorf for the first remodel. Together they painted the trestles white and chose the blue anthracite ceramic tile floors. ‘I wanted one floor to move through this place and not be interrupted,’ says Ms. Kerzner. Ms. Kerzner does not wear shoes in the house and says the floor feels nice on the feet. ‘In the summer [the floor] stays cool and in the winter it’s got radiant heat,’ she says.
‘I didn’t want something that was cookie cutter,’ says Ms. Kerzner. ‘I wanted something unique.’ The running track was once at the top of the stairs, she says. The first remodel took approximately 18 months, she says, and included replacing the windows and the systems throughout the home. She declined to disclose the cost of renovations.
The living room has a wood-burning fireplace. Ms. Kerzner added the stone around the fireplace in the second renovation, which she worked on with Jeffrey Beers about four years ago, to give the apartment more texture. ‘The space moves and flows really beautifully,’ she says.
Ms. Kerzner changed the cement staircase to walnut. She also added the green wall. ‘In that space—being such a vast space—one needed to bring in something to pop,’ she says.
The home has four bedrooms and 3½ baths. There is a wood-burning fireplace in the master bedroom. Ms. Kerzner will miss entertaining in the home, including Christmas and Thanksgiving gatherings.
‘I like an open shower,’ says Ms. Kerzner of the master bath. There is also a bath with a steam shower. The home has a separate laundry room.
‘It feels like a sanctuary,’ says Ms. Kerzner, of the home.
Ms. Kerzner is selling as she has moved to a 100-acre farm in the Hudson Valley, N.Y. ‘I’m 56 and I’ve become a farmer,’ she says. Previously she raised her children and studied yoga and meditation in India. ‘I’m making my new home. I’m designing something at the moment.’
‘No one ever expects to walk up into that. Anytime anyone walks in they are astounded it’s there,’ says Ms. Kerzner. The home has an asking price of $12.95 million. Emily Beare of Core has the listing.