Celebrity chef Bobby Flay has had a condo on the New York market for sale or rent for two years now. Originally listed by the gourmand restauranteur for $7.95 million in October of 2015, the property has sustained a series of price cuts that brought the asking down to $7 million. Flay rented it short-term beginning last fall, reduced the price during the winter, and now has raised the asking to $7.25 million in the latest in a series of strategic efforts to see the place into the hands of a new owner at a reasonable profit.

The unit is a combination of two original units on adjacent floors; Flay purchased them both for a total of $2.3 million in sales recorded in 2000 and 2005. The unit is located in the Mercantile building in Chelsea; it dates to 1910, and was originally a textile manufacturing facility.

The renovation, and transformation into a single duplex residence, has left the apartment a tasteful blend of modern design and historical charm. The added staircase is a contemporary touch, pressed tin ceilings hint at the building’s past, and some rooms retain the original narrow-plank hardwood.

The open-concept loft common living area now features floor-to-ceiling built-ins, a deco-inspired wet bar, and a kitchen with an attached, oversized pantry. The kitchen was specially designed to be both extremely accessible and open, and discreetly located just out of the line of vision of much of the rest of the living space.

Bedrooms seem to remain true to the layouts of their original apartments; a one bedroom with bath downstairs, and a second guest room and master suite on the upper level. Baths have been renovated with a blend of marble and tile.

Flay’s restaurant interests include the chain ‘Bobby’s Burger Palace’, a business which extends to eleven states. A lover of the gourmand, and especially of barbeque, his last book was ‘Bobby Flay’s Barbeque Addiction’; published in 2013, it remains topical summer reading for the grill-devoted Epicurean.