The rapper Kendrick Lamar is the latest celebrity to descend on Brooklyn, with his purchase of a sprawling duplex penthouse near the waterfront in Brooklyn Heights.
His new pied-à-terre, which comes with stunning East River views, is at Pierhouse at Brooklyn Bridge Park, a 106-unit condominium built in 2015 at 90 Furman Street. He paid $8.6 million, using the limited liability company Dogg Pound Buildings. The unit, which closed in mid-November, had been listed for $8.99 million.
Mr. Lamar, who also owns homes in California, joins a long list of boldface names who have bought property in the borough in recent years, among them the actors Zendaya, Amy Schumer, Matt Damon, and Emily Blunt and John Krasinski, along with the Danish architect Bjarke Ingels.
In Manhattan, Susan Weber, a historian and a former wife of the billionaire George Soros, found a buyer for her Upper West Side penthouse, though it took her 11 years and several price cuts to do so. The apartment at the Majestic, at 115 Central Park West, closed at $20.5 million, well below the $50 million initial asking price in 2012 and the $25 million she had paid for it in 2006. Still, the sale was among the top closings in New York City in November.
The biggest (in a late-breaking closing): an 88th-floor penthouse at the vitreous skyscraper at 157 West 57th Street that sold for $31.5 million to the limited liability company 157W57/88. The original sale price in 2015 was $47.3 million.
On the Upper East Side, apartments were sold by the businessman Ali al-Fayed, an uncle of Dodi al-Fayed, who died alongside Princess Diana in a Paris car crash; Jill Rhodes, the ex-wife of the Fox News political commentator Sean Hannity; and the estate of Anne Eisenhower, an interior designer and a granddaughter of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who died last year.
In Greenwich Village, Jay Newman, a hedge fund manager turned novelist, and his wife, Dr. Elissa Kramer, a retired radiologist, sold their brownstone.
Mr. Lamar’s Brooklyn duplex, which closed at $8.6 million, extends 3,140 square feet and contains four bedrooms, three and a half bathrooms, an open kitchen and dining area, and a living room with soaring 18-foot ceilings.
There are floor-to-ceiling windows throughout the home that provide amazing views of Brooklyn Bridge Park and the bridge, Lower Manhattan and the East River. But that’s not even the best part — there’s nearly 2,000 square feet of outdoor space featuring a terrace off a sitting room on the second level, and a landscaped rooftop terrace suitable for some serious parties.
Mr. Lamar, whose full name is Kendrick Lamar Duckworth, has accumulated numerous awards over his career as a rapper, singer and songwriter, including several Grammys and a rare Pulitzer Prize for music for his album “DAMN.”
The Central Park West penthouse that was sold by Ms. Weber for $20.5 million has 6,000 square feet of interior space and 900 square feet of terraces with impressive park views.
The renovated apartment contains five bedrooms, five bathrooms and two powder rooms, along with a paneled library, media room, formal dining room with a wet bar, and an extra-large living room with a fireplace. There’s also a laundry room near the staff quarters.
The primary bedroom suite takes up most of the southern wing and features a sitting room, two oversize dressing rooms, an office and a private 30-by-6-foot terrace. Two other bedrooms, along with the living room and dining room, also open to a terrace.
Ms. Weber is the founder and director of the Bard Graduate Center, a research institute for studies in the decorative arts, design history and culture. She bought the penthouse at Central Park West and West 72nd Street a year after divorcing Mr. Soros, an investor and philanthropist. The two had been married for 22 years.
The new owner used the LRH Trust in the transaction.
Mr. al-Fayed sold his rambling co-op at the Pierre hotel, at 795 Fifth Avenue and East 61st Street, for $9.8 million, below the most recent asking price of nearly $10.3 million in February.
The fully renovated home, made up of two side-by-side apartments that were combined, features three large bedrooms — two of them suites — three full marble bathrooms, an updated kitchen with high-end appliances, and a living room with a decorative fireplace.
The primary suite, in its own wing, has a dressing room the size of a large bedroom, and an extra-large bathroom. At the opposite end is the guest suite, also with an en suite bathroom, as well as a separate sitting room that could easily be turned into yet another bedroom or nursery. There are 10-feet ceilings throughout the unit and treetop views of nearby Central Park.
The buyer was listed as CPV 5a St. International Investments Limited.
Mr. al-Fayed, who has a home in Greenwich, Conn., is an owner of the British clothier Turnbull & Asser. His brother was the billionaire businessman and former Harrods chairman Mohamed al-Fayed, the father of Dodi al-Fayed.
Nearby, Ms. Rhodes, a writer and journalist who was married to Mr. Hannity for 26 years, made a quick profit on the sale of her condo at 188 East 64th Street, at Third Avenue. She had closed on the unit in January, paying $2.6 million, and sold it for $2.9 million.
The buyers were Edward Allen III, an investment adviser, and his wife, Chinhui Juhn, an economics professor.
The nearly 1,500-square-foot apartment has two bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms. It features a wraparound balcony off the living room, kitchen and spacious primary bedroom suite, which has an en suite marble bathroom and dressing area.
The estate of Ms. Eisenhower got $5.6 million for her co-op at the Rosario Candela-designed 775 Park Avenue, between East 72nd and 73rd Streets.
Ms. Eisenhower bought the apartment for $3 million in 2001 in an estate sale. It needed lots of work at the time, but also had some good bones, something a professional interior designer like Ms. Eisenhower could happily work with. This included well proportioned rooms, 10-foot ceilings, 18 windows and two wood-burning fireplaces.
The apartment also has four bedrooms and three full bathrooms, as well as a spacious entry gallery, a formal dining room, and a large eat-in kitchen with a breakfast room. And if that wasn’t enough room, a separate storage unit was thrown in the deal.
John P. Gourary, a partner in a law firm, and his wife, Jennifer Gourary, a philanthropist, were the buyers.
The Village brownstone, at 24 West 10th Street, between Fifth Avenue and the Avenue of the Americas, was sold by Mr. Newman and Dr. Kramer for $18.5 million, after more than two years on the market and an initial $29.5 million price tag. The couple bought the home in 1999 for around $2.7 million.
The refurbished structure — six stories high and around 22 feet wide — was built in 1856 and designed by James Renwick Jr., the architect of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. It has around 9,000 square feet of meticulously renovated space that includes seven bedrooms, six full bathrooms, three powder rooms, an eat-in kitchen, two kitchenettes and a recreation area/bonus room on the top floor that has a skylight. (And, yes, there is an elevator, along with a grand central staircase.)
The primary bedroom suite takes up most of the third floor and features a large bathroom, plenty of closet space and a sitting area anchored by a wood-burning fireplace with an original marble mantel, one of six in the home.
Outdoor space is just as plentiful and includes a balcony off the formal living room on the parlor floor and a landscaped rear garden and rooftop terrace.
Mr. Newman had a long career in finance, which included work as a hedge fund portfolio manager, before focusing on writing. Last year, he published his debut novel “Undermoney,” about money and global politics, and he has more stories in the works.
