A Two-Bedroom Co-op at the Pierre Relisted at Half-Price.

A two-bedroom apartment at the Pierre, with outré interiors designed by King Charles’s cousin and a former Bond girl, is back on the market, asking half of what it originally listed for in 2019. The seller, who once tried for $17 million, chopped the asking price to $8.775 million last March before pulling it off the market in October. (“Best-priced high floor corner facing the park. Priced to sell,” per the listing at the time.) It’s now been relisted for the same price with Sotheby’s Serena Boardman. So why hasn’t this best-priced high floor corner facing the park sold?

The two-bedroom apartment, as shown in listing photos, features a large living room with a wood-burning fireplace, foyer, and separate dining room with custom millwork by King Charles’s cousin David Linley.
Photo: Sothebys International Realty

It might have something to do with the design. As brokers often caution, buyers tend to like a relatively neutral look, someplace they can imagine themselves moving into, and this apartment is anything but. One of the bedrooms is done up with black-and-white-striped wallpaper, black-and-white-striped canopy beds, and black-and-white-striped pillows — all very Beetlejuice. (The other bedroom has a somewhat less intense black-and-white-striped look.) The rest of the apartment features an abundance of “custom designed millwork by David Linley,” according to the listing — that would be King Charles’s first cousin, son of Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon — that includes “parquet floors, closets, bookshelves, doors, paneling, boiserie, and crown molding using ebony that was then polished with added black polish.” The interiors were done by Anouska Hempel, an actress turned designer whose work is notably high-end (one of the categories in her portfolio is yachts) and exceedingly dramatic. It all looks very expensive and very specific. Like the “one-of-a-kind Art Deco black-and-white marbled bathroom with large centered soaking tub” mentioned in the listing.

The dramatic dining room, as shown in listing photos, features a dark color palette selected by designer Anouska Hempel.
Photo: Sothebys International Realty

While it’s refreshing to see a high-end listing that’s not all white marble, creamy paint, and pale wood, it’s hard to see what besides the decor might be stopping the graciously laid-out high-floor apartment from selling. There are two bathrooms, a nice foyer, a separate dining room, plenty of closets, an office, a dressing room, a wood-burning fireplace, Central Park views, and individually controlled air-conditioning and heating for each room. The monthly fees at the Pierre are notoriously steep — this apartment’s run $16,606 — but that comes with the territory in a hotel residence with twice-a-day maid service. Is the moneyed international crowd that favors hotel co-ops really too mild to imagine themselves living amid such boldness?