Actor Neil Patrick Harris sets new record after finally finding a buyer for five-storey Harlem home
‘How I Met Your Mother’ star Neil Patrick Harris has found a buyer for his historic Harlem five-storey home, setting a new neighbourhood record in the deal.
‘How I Met Your Mother’ star Neil Patrick Harris has found a buyer for his historic Harlem five-storey home, setting a new record for the area.
The brownstone property first listed last August for $10.2m (US$7.3m), but was pulled off the market following a storm that caused water damage.
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While the furniture was being redone, brokers and buyers kept circling — with multiple offers.
The buyer — a local New Yorker in love with ‘the house and the ‘hood’, is under offer for around $9.9 million (US$7.1m), The Post reports.
It’s a record sale price for the neighbourhood and yet another example of the boom the Harlem property market is having in New York.
Harris and partner and David Burtka bought the five-bedroom, 6.1m-wide home nine years ago for close to $5.1m (US$3.6m).
The massive five-level abode sprawls across 745 sqm. Built in 1908, the character home retains all its original details — like mouldings, millwork, dark wood, a restored wood staircase and high ceilings, according to Realtor.
Quirky new details include a top-floor office hidden behind a trick door that opens when you press the eye of a magician on a vintage poster.
And like Jimmy Fallon’s nearby Gramercy Park penthouse, this home also comes with a vintage bar, sourced from an old hotel and restored with new appliances, plumbing and electrical, including two built-in taps.
There’s also a formal dining room, library, music room, wine cellar, three fireplaces and a playroom.
The outdoor space includes a furnished, irrigated and landscaped roof deck with an outdoor grill, and a dining table for eight under a wooden pergola, as well as a private hot tub.
Altogether, the outdoor space totals more than 185 sqm of terraces, gardens and decks.
The home — especially the chef’s kitchen — is also recognisable to readers of Mr Burtka’s cookbook, “Life is a Party,” says Compass co-listing broker Vickey Barron.
“They have so many great memories here and there are great images of the house in the book. It represents what the house meant for both of them — raising their family and entertaining here,” Ms Barron said.
The couple and their twins, Gideon and Harper — along with their dogs, Gidget, Spike and Ella — are spending more of their time in their Hamptons home.
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That four-bedroom home in East Hampton sits on 13.5 acres and is adjacent to another 10-acre reserve. They bought it for $5.5 million in 2017.
“They simply don’t need two large homes,” Vickey Barron said.
Neil Patrick Harris got his first starring role as a teen-prodigy doctor on Doogie Howser M.D. His numerous credits include film, television, and Broadway, as well as hosting both the Tonys (for which he won an Emmy) and the Oscars.
On the set of the popular sitcom How I Met Your Mother, in which he played the womanising Barney Stinson, Harris fell in love with guest star, David Burtka, prompting the star to come out openly as gay in a People magazine interview in 2006.
Five years later, following the passage of New York’s Marriage Equality Act, the pair wed in an intimate ceremony in Italy capped by a performance by their good friend Elton John.
The couple remained in Los Angeles until How I Met Your Mother concluded, moving with their twin sons, Harper and Gideon, to the Harlem brownstone house in 2013.