The Michael Graves Team

Former Victoria’s Secret CEO Lists New York City Penthouse for $18.5 Million

By E.B. Solomont
Oct. 25, 2021 3:22 pm ET

Sharen Jester Turney, a former president and CEO of Victoria’s Secret, and her husband, Charles Turney, are listing their New York City penthouse for $18.5 million.

Located on Park Avenue South in the Flatiron district, the condo is roughly 4,000 square feet with three bedrooms, floor-to-ceiling windows and intricate plaster moldings on the ceiling, said listing agent Michael Graves of Compass. The unit also has views of the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building and Gramercy Park, he said.

Mrs. Turney, 65, grew up on a farm in Oklahoma. She was chief executive of Victoria’s Secret from 2006 to 2016, and previously spent roughly a decade at Neiman Marcus, where she was CEO of Neiman Marcus Direct, the retailer’s print catalog and online business.

The Turneys bought the Manhattan condo for $16 million in an off-market deal in 2014, records show. The seller was real-estate developer Adam Rose, who retired as vice chairman of Rose Associates in 2020.

At the time, Mrs. Turney said the couple was splitting their time between New York and Ohio, where Victoria’s Secret is based. After Mrs. Turney left the lingerie maker in 2016, she founded an advisory business and the New York City apartment continued to be a hub for family gatherings, board meetings and fundraising events, she said.

Accessible via a keyed elevator, the apartment has large entertaining rooms, a butler’s pantry and a separate entrance that leads to the primary bedroom suite. The eat-in kitchen has three sinks, and the upper cabinets are electronically operated.

Mrs. Turney said she was drawn to the unit’s 12-foot ceilings and views. She said the home’s expansive walls became a canvas for the couple’s art collection, including pieces by George Condo and Roy Lichtenstein. The floor-to-ceiling windows have tinted glass treated for UV protection and designed to maximize privacy. “From the street, if you look up you can’t see straight into the apartment,” Mrs. Turney said.

She said she made small changes to the penthouse over the years, including adding cashmere wall coverings in the media room to give it a homey feel. The apartment already had an office, she said, which came in handy when Covid hit. “Boy, we didn’t realize how desperately we’d need home offices,” she said. After spending the first few months of the pandemic in New York, the Turneys have mostly stayed in their Ohio home since mid-2020.

Recently, the Turneys decided to consolidate their real estate. They sold their house in Ohio and bought a roughly 4-acre property in Dallas, where their adult son lives and where the couple lived for 12 years when Mrs. Turney worked at Neiman Marcus. “We said, ‘You know what? Let’s go back,’” she said.

New York City’s housing market is rebounding, with more than 4,500 Manhattan condo and co-op sales from July to September, the most in that time period in more than 30 years, according to a report from appraisal and consulting firm Miller Samuel. Luxury sales more than tripled during the third-quarter, compared with the prior year period.

ELLIMAN’S MICHAEL GRAVES LEAPS TO COMPASS

New dev specialist has $327M in listings

By E.B. Solomont 

Douglas Elliman’s Michael Graves — a new development and luxury broker with more than $326 million in listings — is moving to Compass.

Graves, who joined Elliman in 2013 and once appeared on HGTV’s “Selling New York,” has sold more than $1 billion worth of real estate to date, according to the venture-backed firm.

Graves, who resigned from Elliman on Tuesday, said his decision was rooted in the rapid changes taking place in the real estate industry — including disruption by new technology and an infusion of cash from investors.

“Compass is the most forward-thinking, tech-savvy company in the industry right now,” he said, adding that he was extremely grateful for his time at Elliman.

Graves is a Minnesota native and classical guitarist who became a broker in 2009. Before Elliman, he was a top agent at CORE. In addition to his brokerage chops, Graves appeared on HGTV’s “Selling New York.” Before brokerage, he worked for his family’s hotel company, Graves Hospitality Corp., in Minneapolis.

According to Compass, Graves currently represents $326.5 million worth of listings, including $129.5 million in-contract deals.

His active listings include a condo at One Madison that’s asking $13.75 million and a townhouse at 68 East 91st Street, asking $11.825 million. Graves is also on the team that’s marketing the Chetrit Group and Clipper Equity’s Gramercy Square condominium makeover of the old Cabrini Medical Center on East 20th Street. The 223-unit project has a total projected sellout of $817.5 million.

It’s unclear how many of those listings Graves will be able to bring to Compass.

The seven-year old firm, headed by Robert Reffkin and Ori Allon, has ramped up hiring again in New York after closing a $400 million round from SoftBank and Qatar Investment Authority in September. That round valued the firm at a staggering $4.4 billion.

Compass now claims to be the third-largest residential brokerage in the U.S., with 238 offices (up from 62 in 2017). In New York City, the firm now has 12 offices and 1,440 agents.

New York Life Insurance President Lists His Manhattan Condo for $11.95 Million

John Kim, who retires at the end of the year, is listing his unit in New York’s One Madison condo tower.
By Katherine Clarke

John Kim, the outgoing president of New York Life Insurance, is planning to list his three-bedroom apartment at New York’s One Madison condo tower for $11.95 million.

The decision to sell comes as Mr. Kim and his wife Diane make plans to relocate to their home in Naples, Fla., he said, following his scheduled retirement from the insurance giant at the end of the year. Mr. Kim, 57, joined the company in 2008, and was named president in 2015.

The 2,723-square-foot apartment, which is located in the Flatiron District overlooking Madison Square Park, spans the 24th floor of the building and has a wraparound terrace with views of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. clock tower. The home has 11-foot ceilings, oak plank floors and an open plan kitchen. Residents of the building also have access to a screening room, a fitness center, a yoga room, an indoor swimming pool and a spa.

Mr. Kim said he had lived in the Flatiron District for more than a decade, and had his eye on One Madison for a long time. “I always had in my head that I would love to live there,” he said. “It represented for me everything that is New York City, with a perfect view of the Empire State Building.” He added that he enjoys kicking back with a glass of wine and watching the tail lights as cars stream up Madison Avenue at night.

Mr. Kim paid $10.25 million for the home in 2015, he said. Real-estate agent Michael Graves of Compass is representing Mr. Kim in the sale of his property.

The building has also been home to celebrities such as athlete Tom Brady and his wife, model Gisele Bündchen. The couple recently made a deal to sell their unit, which had been asking almost $14 million, according to people familiar with the deal.