Rihanna’s former $50K/month rental in Manhattan has hit the market for sale once again. The duplex penthouse unit had been initially offered about six months ago, with an asking price of close to $19 million; this week, the residence resurfaced with a listing price of $16.95 million.
At nearly 4,700 square feet, the penthouse isn’t lacking for size. The Lafayette Street location puts it in Chinatown, but the building’s spirit is right-now SoHo; loft-influenced, with an undercurrent of industrial that hints at the gritty SoHo of forty years ago, but is overwhelmed by a very well-engineered luxury concept.
Floors are polished concrete, and structural pillars remain from the building’s past as an industrial ink press, but it’s impossible to confuse the carefully composed interiors as anything but contemporary, executive-class metatext. But the loft sensibilities are there, and the unit is very well designed as a worry-free version of arts-district eccentric, taken to the penthouse level.
The unit’s four bedrooms are all located on the residence’s first floor, with the master occupying a spacious corner. The second floor is devoted to the common living area, and gives way to a large private outdoor terrace. The common area, or great room, is a wide-open L-shaped expanse that extends to fifty-eight feet in length; it features a fireplace, a nifty kitchen, and a delirious sense of expanse.
Rihanna’s singing career led to a concurrent long-term gig in fashion. Her newest line is Fenty Beauty, a series of cosmetics which is proving to be wildly successful—$72 million in sales during its first month on the shelves.