US singer Mariah Carey is selling her Tribeca penthouse. Picture: Alexander Nemenov/AFP
Mariah Carey is shopping one of her most prized Manhattan possessions.
The “Queen of Christmas” has listed her Tribeca penthouse at 90 Franklin St for a cool $AU38 million ($US27m) — the first time the property has been available since she cobbled it together for roughly $AU12.7 million ($US9m) back in 1999, The New York Post has learned.
The move raises eyebrows given the singer’s well-documented borrowing against the asset, with public records revealing some $AU26 million ($US18.6m) in outstanding loans tied to the property.
Spanning three floors, the 1182 sqm residence, which stretches across the 16th, 17th and 18th levels of the former Corn Exchange Bank building, commands 360-degree views sweeping from the Hudson River to the Manhattan skyline, along with 102 sqm of private outdoor space.
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If it fetches anywhere near its asking price, Carey stands to pocket a substantial windfall on her original investment.
The listing describes the property as “a one-of-a-kind opportunity in the heart of Tribeca,” noting its “scale, light and flexibility” and touting the option to use the floors independently — either as a single grand residence or reimagined by a developer.
The listing also says it’s her “former” residence, though records show the property has not changed hands since the time of Carey’s purchases.
If Mariah Carey sells her New York penthouse at the asking price, she will pocket a substantial windfall. Picture: Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images
A message seeking comment from the brokers, a team led by Emily Beare of Core, was not immediately returned. A rep for Carey did not immediately return a message seeking comment on the listing.
What’s more, listing images showing decor, such as an ornately painted ceiling and seemingly Moroccan-inspired dressings on the terrace’s arches, remain.
The penthouse has been a cornerstone of Carey’s New York life for more than two decades. She assembled it the old-fashioned way: by buying two separate units and knocking them together.
After getting famously rejected by the co-op board at the Ardsley on Central Park West, where she had bid nearly $AU11.3 million ($US8m) on Barbra Streisand’s former penthouse, Carey pivoted downtown and signed contracts in June 1999 for a $AU7.8 million ($US5.5m) duplex penthouse and the $AU5 million ($US3.5m) full-floor unit directly below it at Franklin Tower.
She then hired legendary interior decorator Mario Buatta to transform the raw space into something befitting her brand of maximalist glamour.
The result was an art deco-inspired fantasy loaded with butterfly motifs at every turn.
“We put them wherever we could,” Buatta previously told Architectural Digest.
“There are butterfly handles on the cabinets in the bedroom, and butterflies are woven into the bed hangings. They’re even on the soap in the bath and on the tiles in the kitchen. There are so many butterflies in this apartment, you don’t even notice them. But Mariah does.”
Buatta pulled out all the stops — silver leaf doors, limestone floors inlaid with bronze, lacquered peach walls, a 11.5m primary bathroom, and a media room featuring an aquarium and murals designed to evoke the feeling of an underwater cinema.
Mariah Carey has built an impressive property portfolio. Picture: Noam Galai/Getty Images
Marilyn Monroe’s white baby grand piano once held court in the main living area.
“I wanted to create a background for Mariah’s own glamour,” Buatta said.
On the matter of one particularly dazzling design choice, he added: “Most clients don’t understand glitter. Mariah does.”
The apartment earned its cultural stripes beyond the design world, too, appearing in a memorable 2002 episode of MTV’s Cribs in which Carey declared every single room her favourite.
More recently, in November 2022, she opened her home for a holiday promotion with Booking.com, inviting fans for a Christmas card photo-shoot and cocktail experience at what she called her “hometown”.
“It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, and yours truly is beyond excited and here for the moments!” Carey said at the time.
“What better way to celebrate the most wonderful time of the year than with an all-out holiday experience in my hometown, New York City!”
Behind the glittering facade, the financial ledger tells a more complicated story.
Public records show Carey, who holds the property through a company called Franklin Views LLC, has taken out a series of progressively larger loans against the penthouse over the years.
She borrowed $AU11.3 million ($US8m) from JPMorgan Chase in 2009, then added $AU3.7 million ($US2.6m) from City National Bank in 2015. In August 2016, she refinanced the JPMorgan loan up to $AU25 million ($US17.6m), pocketing roughly $AU14 million ($US9.6m) in cash.
By April 2018, that figure had been bumped again to $AU26 million ($US18.6m). The City National loan has since been retired, but the JPMorgan balance remains.
The Tribeca listing isn’t the first sign Carey has been reshuffling her real estate holdings. In May 2023, she unloaded a nine-bedroom Atlanta mansion for $AU5.5 million ($US3.92m) — a loss of roughly $AU2.5 million ($US1.73m) on a property she had purchased for $AU8 million ($US5.65m) less than two years earlier.
Rumours have long circulated about the scale of Carey’s personal spending. Figures as high as $AU1.4 million ($US1m) a month have been cited, with her ex Nick Cannon claiming in 2022 that “Mariah don’t step out of the house, it cost her $US150,000, $US200,000 just to walk out of the house”.
* Parts of this story first appeared in the New York Post and was republished with permission.
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