For the photographer Robert J. Stern, one of the best things about his late-19th-century home in the West Village is that “nobody really notices it.”
The four-story, brick-and-stucco structure at 54 Seventh Avenue South, a few blocks from Washington Square Park, “is kind of a secret,” Mr. Stern said. “It’s a trapezoidal building, almost free standing, in the middle of the block. You walk into a parking lot to get to it.”
But the building, between Morton and Commerce Streets, has had some fame of late. The commercial tenant on the ground floor is Markarian, the fashion brand that designed Jill Biden’s Inauguration Day ensemble, a striking teal blue dress and matching coat.
Women’s Coffeehouse, is too big for just him — his wife, Yuka, and their adult son, Ren, are currently living in Japan. She had relocated there, he said, to help with a family business, the Ms. Reiko fashion brand. “It’s ridiculous living in a three-bedroom apartment when it’s just me and the dog,” he said. “It’s too big for us.”
The building, which is being marketed as a townhouse, had been up for sale in 2019. “Even though we like to think everything was rosy before the pandemic, 2019 was difficult for high-end real estate,” Mr. Hettinger said. “Many properties didn’t sell that year.”
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