What a wedding gift!
Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Romer and professor/author Caroline Weber, who married last year, are the new owners of a 19th-century East Village row house that was once owned by Mary-Kate Olsen and her then-boyfriend (now husband) banker Olivier Sarkozy.
The home, at 123 E. 10th St., was built in 1854 and designed by starchitect James Renwick Jr. It was last asking $7.69 million and closed for $7.35 million. Sarkozy bought 123 E. 10th St. in 2012 for $6.25 million.
But the house needed so much work that Sarkozy and Olsen ended up renting 125 E. 10th St. next door, which served as their love nest from 2012 to 2013. Ultimately, Olsen reportedly said the home wasn’t private enough for her, and in 2014 they bought a $13.5 million Turtle Bay mansion.
The same year, Sarkozy sold 123 E. 10th St. for $6.4 million to French cognac heiress Laure Heriard Dubreuil and artist Aaron Young, who helm luxury retail mini-chain The Webster.
Initially, 123 E. 10th St. was listed in conjunction with 125 E. 10th St., which was repped by Haber and last asking $7.8 million.
Both homes feature original 19th-century details: original fireplaces, mantels, stairwells, skylights and moldings — along with modern updates.
We hear that Weber — who teaches French and comparative literature at Barnard and is the author of “Queen of Fashion: What Marie-Antoinette Wore to the Revolution” — and NYU professor Romer were also interested in buying an adjacent townhouse at 125 E. 10th St. That property was once rented by Sarkozy and Olsen, but it is now in contract to a different buyer.
The homes share a garden.
The couple was repped by Warburg’s Jason Haber; Sotheby’s Mark Amadei and Jonathan Hettinger had the listing. All three brokers declined comment.