Harvey Weinstein Started Selling His Real Estate About Six Months Before His Downfall
Harvey Weinstein Started Selling His Real Estate About Six Months Before His Downfall
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Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein began selling off personal real estate about six months before the publication of two articles that enumerated a flood of sexual-misconduct allegations against him, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of property records and people familiar with the transactions.
The purge resulted in the sale of six homes by Mr. Weinstein between October 2017 and April 2018 for an estimated total of $55.9 million. Another one of his homes is for sale. And in April 2019, he sold a commercial office space he owned with his brother and Weinstein Co. co-founder Robert. Robert Weinstein didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Leslie Cohen closed on her purchase of one of Mr. Weinstein’s Connecticut homes just three days before the publication of a New York Times article detailing his alleged sexual misconduct. She said that when she saw the article, she was upset and felt “deceived” that no one involved in the transaction warned her what was about to happen. Agents involved in the deal said they didn’t know about the article.
Mr. Weinstein is scheduled to go on criminal trial in New York on Sept. 9. Prosecutors have accused him of raping a woman at a Manhattan hotel in 2013 and forcibly performing oral sex on another woman in 2006. Mr. Weinstein has pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges and has denied all accusations of nonconsensual sex. His lawyers are negotiating an approximately $45 million settlement that would resolve sexual-misconduct lawsuits against Mr. Weinstein.
The residential sales yielded an estimated $17.8 million more than the purchase prices paid by Mr. Weinstein, according to public records. The commercial office space brought $5 million more than the price the Weinstein brothers paid. The home Ms. Cohen bought in October 2017 sold for almost twice what Mr. Weinstein paid for it. But his Amagansett home, which he listed in April 2017, sold in November 2017 at a $1.65 million loss. Two of Mr. Weinstein’s residential properties and the commercial office condo sold for below market value, according to local agents, but combined, they still garnered a hefty return for Mr. Weinstein.
Such a flurry of sales isn’t unprecedented, especially following a death, divorce or bankruptcy, said Andrew S. Whiteley, an agent at William Raveis. But Mr. Weinstein’s move to sell so many properties is much rarer. “I’ve never seen anyone do that,” said Christoper Riccio, a New York-based real-estate agent.
A spokesman for Mr. Weinstein declined to comment on any of his specific real-estate transactions and said, “This is nothing other than Harvey Weinstein consolidating his property ownership to help make his divorce settlement a smoother matter, and to pay his legal counsel.”
Here is a timeline of the sale of Mr. Weinstein’s properties and of some of his legal and business complications.
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realtor.com
April 2, 2017—LISTED
Property: Hamptons family home
Location: Amagansett, N.Y.
List Price: $12.8 million
Purchased: $11.65 million in 2014 with then-wife Georgina Chapman, co-founder of the fashion label Marchesa. Ms. Chapman didn’t respond to requests for comment.
What: 7 bedrooms, 9,000 square feet, 2 acres, swimming pool, water frontage on Gardiners Bay, movie theater
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Catherine McGann/Getty Images
April 12, 2017—LISTED
Property: Minute Man Hill home
Location: Westport, Conn.
Purchased: $825,000 in 1995. Mr. Weinstein purchased the home for his now-deceased mother, Miriam (pictured above), according to people familiar with the purchase.
List price: $2.25 million
What: 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 3,000 square feet, half an acre, Midcentury Modern
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April 24, 2017—PRICE CUT
Property: Minute Man Hill home
Price: Reduced to $1.995 million from $2.25 million
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realtor.com
July 5, 2017—LISTED
Property: West Hollywood condo
Location: Granville Towers
List Price: $999,000
Purchased: $910,000 in 2015 for daughter Lily, who goes by the name Remy. Ms. Weinstein couldn’t be reached for comment.
What: 2 bedrooms, 1,100 square feet
Note: At the time the property was listed, it was being rented by actress Jennifer Hudson, said Scott Gorelick, of Compass, the eventual buyer’s agent. Ms. Hudson’s representatives didn’t respond to a request for comment.
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July 27, 2017—PRICE CUT
Property: Hamptons family home
Price: Reduced to $12.4 million from $12.8 million
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September 9, 2017—PRICE CUT
Property: Minute Man Hill
Price: Reduced to $1.795 million from $1.995 million
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October 2, 2017—SOLD
Property: Minute Man Hill
List Price: $1.795 million
Sold for: About $1.6 million
Purchased: $825,000 in 1995
Profit (All profit figures are before fees, commissions and profit-sharing with other property owners): $775,000. According to court documents, Mr. Weinstein shared the proceeds of the sale with his first wife, Eve Chilton. Mr. Weinstein and Ms. Chilton, his former assistant, were married from 1987 to 2004 and have three children. Ms. Chilton couldn’t be reached for comment.
Buyer: Leslie Cohen, a Westport designer and developer
“I don’t know if I would have bought it at all,” said Ms. Cohen, who closed on the purchase three days before the New York Times article was published.
Fate of the home: Ms. Cohen sold it in June 2018 for $1.425 million to the next-door neighbors, New York physician Arturo Constantiner and his wife, Caren Constantiner. Dr. Constantiner said their decision to purchase the house wasn’t impacted by Mr. Weinstein’s prior ownership of the property, but he thought Ms. Cohen paid too much for it. According to Westport building permits, the Constantiners demolished the home in the fall of 2018. The lot is vacant.
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October 5, 2017
The New York Times article is published.
The article “came as a surprise to everybody, including us. Everybody took a deep breath and thought, ‘I hope we can move this,’” said Beate V. Moore, Sotheby’s International Realty, one of the listing agents for Mr. Weinstein’s Hamptons family home.
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October 8, 2017
Weinstein Co.’s board of directors fires Mr. Weinstein. He retains his ownership equity.
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October 10, 2017
The New Yorker publishes an article detailing additional allegations against Mr. Weinstein.
The same day, Ms. Chapman announces she is leaving Mr. Weinstein. The couple, who have two children, eventually agreed on a $20 million divorce settlement.
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October 13, 2017
Property: Hamptons family home
Mr. Weinstein takes the home off the market, but Ms. Moore and the Sotheby’s team continue to market it privately, according to Ms. Moore.
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November 15, 2017—SOLD
Property: Hamptons family home
Sold for: $10 million
List price: $12.4 million
Purchased: $11.65 million in 2014
Loss: $1.65 million
Buyer: Taisho Holdings LLC. Ms. Moore declined to identify the buyers behind the entity, but said some potential buyers were worried about being dragged into the headlines. “Some people will just say, ‘I’m walking away from this,’” said Ms. Moore.
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February 2, 2018—SOLD
Property: Westport, Conn., family home
Location: Beachside Avenue
Sold for: $16 million
List price: N/A, off-market sale
Purchased: Two adjoining parcels for $8.25 million in two separate transactions in 1994 and 2000 with Mr. Weinstein’s first wife, Ms. Chilton
Profit: $7.75 million
What: 8 bedrooms in main house, plus two additional homes, 6 acres, main house renovated in mid-1990s for roughly $1.2 million, movie theater.
Mr. Weinstein kept the property in the divorce from Ms. Chilton and married Ms. Chapman there in 2007, with a fireworks display launched from a barge on Long Island Sound. In 2012, the couple held a fundraiser on the property for President Barack Obama’s re-election.
Buyer: Andrew Bentley, who owns at least two other homes on Beachside Avenue. He didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Fate of the home: The terms of the deal allowed Mr. Weinstein to continue living on the property until February 2019, Mr. Weinstein’s lawyers said in court. Mr. Bentley has applied to demolish all three structures on the property. As of late July, the two smaller structures had been torn down, but the main house was still standing. Andrew S. Whiteley, of William Raveis, a local broker who wasn’t involved in the sale, says he has spoken with Mr. Bentley about his plans, which are to resell the lots with either one or two spec houses on them.
“It isn’t what modern buyers are looking for. There is probably some stigma to owning Harvey’s house,” said Mr. Whiteley, on why the homes are being demolished.
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March 19, 2018
Weinstein Co. files for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
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March 19, 2018—SOLD
Property: West Village townhouse
Location: Manhattan
Sold for: $25.6 million
List Price: N/A, off-market sale
Purchased: $14.95 million in 2006
Profit: $10.65 million
What: Single-family townhouse, 5,000 square feet, 5 stories
Buyer: Andrew Marks, son of Howard Marks of Oaktree Capital Management, and his wife, CNN reporter Rachel Crane. The couple declined to comment through a spokesman.
Fate of the home: Under renovation
The scandal “didn’t hurt the price at all. When you have such a prime piece of real estate, someone’s gonna do it,” said Christopher Riccio, a real-estate agent who wasn’t involved in the deal but has sold a number of West Village townhouses. Few, he said, have ever sold for more than $25 million.
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March 30, 2018—SOLD
Property: West Hollywood condo
Sold for: $940,000 to Colton Thorn, a Los Angeles interior designer, who will use it as an office and studio, according to Mr. Gorelick of Compass, the buyer’s agent. Mr. Thorn didn’t respond to requests for comment.
List price: $999,000.
Purchased: $910,000 in 2015
Profit: $30,000. Mr. Gorelick said he and his client didn’t know who the seller was until the deal was already in escrow, at which point Mr. Weinstein asked Mr. Gorelick through an attorney to accept a reduced commission. Mr. Gorelick refused, he said.
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April 3, 2018—SOLD
Property: Los Angeles home
List price: N/A, off-market sale
Sold for: $1.8 million
Purchased: $1.55 million in 2015 for daughter Lily, according to people familiar with the home
Profit: $250,000
What: 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 1,400 square feet, fireplace, stenciled beams, 1920s Tudor
Buyer: Jessica Natali, an attorney at Live Nation Entertainment . Ms. Natali declined to comment.
“From 2015 to 2018, [Los Angeles] had tremendous appreciation, and I’m not sure he got all of it,”said Mauricio Umansky, a broker with the Agency in Los Angeles, who wasn’t involved in the sale.
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May 25, 2018
Mr. Weinstein is arrested in New York, charged with rape, and released on a $1 million cash bail. The judge allows him to continue living at the Westport estate and travel between there and New York, providing he surrender his passport and wear an ankle bracelet. Mr. Weinstein pleaded not guilty.
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July 13, 2018
Weinstein Co. ceases business operations.
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August 2018—LISTED
Property: Commercial condo
Location: Greenwich Street, Tribeca, Manhattan
List price: $10 million
Purchased: $1.1 million in 1989 by Mr. Weinstein and his brother Robert
What: 6,000 square feet, third floor of red brick loft building which had been used as Mr. Weinstein’s office. It was also named as the site of an alleged 2004 assault in a criminal complaint filed against Mr. Weinstein. His lawyers denied the allegation at the time, and the charge related to the 2004 allegation was later dropped.
The building is home of Robert DeNiro’s Tribeca Grill and the office of the Tribeca Film Festival.
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April 10, 2019—SOLD
Property: Commercial condo
Sold for: $6.1 million. The purchase price was about $710 a square foot, lower than the average commercial condo price in Tribeca of around $1,000, according to Michael Rudder, agent for Cape Advisors, the buyers.
List price: $7.9 million
Purchased: $1.1 million in 1989
Profit: $5 million
Buyer: Cape Advisors, a New York-based development and investment firm
Fate of the property: Cape Advisors is renovating it to use as its headquarters.
“People are turned off by anything to do with [Mr. Weinstein],” said Mr. Rudder. The buyer “almost didn’t want to do the deal because of this.”
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May 8, 2019—LISTED
Property: Beverly Grove home
Location: Los Angeles
List price: $2.3 million
Purchased: $1.76 million in 2014
What: 2,600 square feet, 3 bedrooms, built in the 1920s.
Fate of the property: The price was cut to $2.2 million.
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May 14, 2019
Weinstein Co. converts its bankruptcy filing from chapter 11 to chapter 7 liquidation.
Total profit before fees, commissions and profit-sharing with other property owners: $22.8 Million
—Additional reporting from Corinne Ramey and Jonathan Randles.
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