Craig Leavitt, the CEO of Kate Spade & Co., has just sold his Chelsea Mercantile apartment for $2.35 million.
The buyer is Roni Horn, a visual artist and writer, according to city property records.
The one-bedroom, two-bathroom loft is 1,176 square feet. It comes with charming touches, like exposed brick, hardwood floors, 11-foot-high ceilings and oversized windows.
The Chelsea Mercantile, at 252 Seventh Avenue, has quite the history for recent pop culture lore. This is where Katie Holmes famously hid out following her 2012 split with Tom Cruise, which was carried out with military-style precision.
Holmes, photographed with her daughter Suri, who was then 6 years old, would dodge paparazzi and hulking Scientologist thugs by going directly from the apartment building to Whole Foods by way of a secret entrance.
Photographers couldn’t figure out how she made it inside, as they only had photographs of her exiting the Whole Foods, not entering it.
It turns out that there are a series of halls and doors that connected from her apartment building to the Whole Foods via an elevator bank to the basement of her building, a cellar, and a door with an alarm — which means she had special help from the store to sneak in.
Celebrity chef Bobby Flay also famously lived in the building with his then-love Stephanie March of “Law & Order: SVU” before their marriage spiraled downward into ugly divorce proceedings and allegations of adultery.
Horn’s new apartment is currently configured as a one bedroom with a library/den.
The king-sized master bedroom comes with an en-suite, spa-like limestone bath with double sinks, a soaking tub, and a separate shower.
The home comes with remote controlled solar and black out shades — and lots of custom built-ins, according to the listing, from Corcoran brokers Linda Feder and Stuart Moss.