Bob and Cortney Novogratz are moving to a modern penthouse in “Dimes Square,” Manhattan’s ever-trendy micro-nabe between the Lower East Side and Chinatown, Gimme Shelter can reveal.
The husband-and-wife design and development duo — whose glam projects have run from downtown Manhattan to LA’s Bird Streets — bought the Grand Dairy Building for $3.9 million last month, according to property records. It was an all-cash deal.
The couple told Gimme Shelter they are building a six-story boutique condo on the spot of the three-story building, which dates to 1910 — and they plan to keep that penthouse for themselves.
The corner building, at 341 Grand St., will be marketed as 58 Ludlow for the residences, with a first-floor retail space keeping the Grand Street address. The architect is Norbert Figueroa of Studio Afar Architecture.
“We are empty nesters now,” said Bob, 63, who together with Cortney, 54, raised seven kids — now aged 17 to 28 — as seen on their reality shows, Bravo’s “9 by Design” in 2010 and HGTV’s “Home by Novogratz” in 2011 to 2012. This year, they also became grandparents and have a 2-month-old grandchild.
Last year, the couple renovated and sold a famed pink house in the West Village, 114 Waverly Place, for $20.8 million as chronicled by Gimme Shelter. In 2023, they sold a renovated 1931 Spanish villa in LA’s Bird Streets for around $12 million.
Since then, the couple have been renting in Union Square and looking for their next project.
“After we sold [Waverly Place], we were were itching to buy something,” Bob said. “An opportunity like this doesn’t come around that often. It’s a unique place.”
It was also just right for their vision. “It’s too small for big developers, and too big for small guys to find financing. But it is exactly right for us,” Novogratz said.
The couple first discovered the neighborhood around two decades ago.
“It has such a rich history. I almost bought a bunch of buildings here around 18 years ago. I knew it would happen, like Soho,” said Bob, adding that at the time there was just one restaurant, Zucco, now known as Le French Diner.
“This area has something very unique,” he added. “I loved the openness and the light. It was very authentic. It reminded me of [the now-shuttered] Café Noir in Soho and the square itself was like the Meatpacking District with the light, so I had this epiphany.”
The building’s seller was an “old school, Lower East Side guy. People said he would never sell. We told him we’d call it the Grand Dairy Building,” Bob said.
The Grand Dairy Restaurant, which was on the ground floor, was one of the neighborhood’s last kosher dairy lunch counters serving the Lower East Side’s Jewish community. It opened in the 1940s, and closed in the 1990s. The building has been vacant for around two decades.
“We want to save the building but it doesn’t look salvageable,” Novogratz said.
If all goes according to plan, the residences should be move-in ready in 20 months.
The plan is to build five full-floor residences, with high ceilings and private elevator landings.
The building’s style will be modern industrial: a classic red brick building with black steel curved windows — staying authentic to the original edifice and the neighborhood.
“We already have a lot of interest,” he said, adding that they will also be curating who lives there.
“We really want to make it a boutique hotel-style experience. It’s fun to be able to do something this small and create a community,” he said, adding that inspiration came from projects including 220 E. Ninth St., which will be a new luxury red brick boutique condo built on the site of a former parking garage, and the Crosby Street Hotel.
As for the penthouse, he said: “This is the one we’ll never sell.”
