Architect Gene Kaufman, known as one of the city’s most active hotel builders, is on the prowl for new digs.
One place he eyed was a Soho loft owned by Winston Churchill’s granddaughter, artist Edwina Sandys. “Gene loved it and even started drawing up floor plans,” our spy said. Sandys bought the 6,500-square-foot, four-bedroom unit at 565 Broadway with her late husband, architect Richard Kaplan, for $950,000 in 1995.
It first went on the market for $10.95 million in 2013 and is now price-chopped to $6.8 million, down from a $7.5 million asking price earlier this year.
The classic loft is best known as the home base and filming location for the “The Real World” when MTV launched the iconic reality show in 1992. Starchitect Philip Johnson once called it the most beautiful loft in Soho.
Originally built in 1859 by architect John Kellum, the cast iron-and-marble building received a four-story addition in 1893.
Sandys’ unit has original details like dramatic Corinthian cast-iron columns, a 1,500-square-foot mezzanine level, a working radiator from 1874 and 18-foot-tall barrel-vaulted ceilings.
The listing broker is Gabrielle Frank, of Stephen P. Wald Real Estate.