If Roman Roy was an actual person, he would not be living on the Upper West Side.
That’s what an actual estate agent said recently. However, Roman’s apartment in season 4 of HBO’s hit series Success, about three extremely wealthy siblings vying for control of their father’s media empire, is definitely a penthouse at 200 Amsterdam Avenue with panoramic views of the town. Fans of the show were there with Roman (Kieran Culkin) through the final episode as he solemnly brushed his teeth the morning after a devastating twist.
It is a duplex with 4 bedrooms in the marketplace for $38 million. Daniella G. Schlisser, the true agent of Brown Harris Stevens and the agent coping with the sale of the apartment, said that if Roman was an actual person, she would have redirected him south, possibly to TriBeCa, where he could have received a warm welcome. Given his endearing personality, she advised him, “Nobody’s going to talk over with you here – you are not going to make any friends” in her Upper West Side hometown.
Two other “succession” locations are also available in the marketplace – Roman’s Chelsea townhouse from Season 2, listed for $22.5 million (down from $24.995 million) and his brother Kendall Roy’s Upper East Side apartment from season 4, listed for $29 million (down from USD 33 million). The brokers of all three listings are counting on the show’s addictive love-hate viewership to try to steer buyers to grab trophies in a sluggish housing market.
“Someone called me and offered me an excellent number because they saw the show,” said Lila Nejad, a Douglas Elliman salesman and listing agent for Roman’s Season 2 townhouse on West seventeenth Street. But it’s still in the marketplace, and is now rented to a $100,000-a-month tenant for an apartment on six luxurious floors, with a house theater, private garage, and an indoor resistance pool.
To increase traffic to 200 AmsterdamMs. Schlisser worked with the sales team on the penthouse at 180 East 88th Street – where viewers this season saw Kendall (Jeremy Strong) collapse in despair on the ground of her Brutalist style bedroom – to arrange a two-headed house open to brokers on May 9, giving real estate community a taste of where Roy’s heir (or higher yet, their real client) might live.
“People want what everyone else thinks is great,” said Mrs. Schlisser, standing within the lounge of Apartment 200 Amsterdam, admiring the view of North Manhattan and the Bronx. “And that is what they selected.”
Succession’s location manager Paul Eskenazi also doesn’t see Roman Roy as an Upper West Side resident – something he considered when selecting options for Jesse Armstrong, the show’s creator.
“It’s really balancing,” Mr. Eskenazi said. But if Roman lived in the world, he would probably select 200 Amsterdam. At 668 feet, the constructing is the tallest in the world and was at the middle of a protracted legal dispute with community organizations that fought an ultimately unsuccessful battle to chop off the highest 20 floors.
To give the space a Roman feel, the dressers rearranged the main bedroom, adding an oversized print of nude female breasts above the bed. Other details of Romulus included a vape pen thrown on a desk and a bedside table crammed with books, including “Bad Sex” by Nona Willis-Aronowitz.
The room was crammed with cologne to set the mood. “It was really musky, like a nasty smell,” said Matthew R. Breeden, vice chairman of SJP Properties, the constructing’s developer, who participated within the photo shoot last summer.
If Kendall Roy lived north of 59th Street, Mr. Eskenazi suspects he can be in a constructing like 180 East 88th Streetwhich he described as more downtown than the Upper East Side. “It’s sexy, it’s cool,” he said. “That feeling of being on top of the world, sitting somewhere within the sky looking down on everyone else.”
The creators of the Kendall Penthouse – a three-level apartment with a spiral staircase, a 28-meter ceiling within the dining room and dramatic arched windows – don’t take advantage of this magnificent space. In the newest episode, the constructing’s resident lounge doubled as Shiv Roy’s (Sarah Snook) office, and the wine cellar made a transient appearance with Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård) within the show’s trailer. The morning a reporter visited, Fendi took over the five-bedroom space to host a personal party. Racks of furs filled the lounge.
“Every time you collaborate with someone, you would like to ensure that the collaboration suits your brand,” said Joseph A. McMillan, Jr., founder and CEO of DDG, a constructing developer, describing his brand as “high-end luxury, exquisite and aspirational.”
But is there anything mistaken with associating real estate with probably the most disgusting thing in America – even when it’s fictional? Maybe some billionaire will find the mixture repulsive? Mrs. Schlisser is just not concerned. “You mean a distinct type of super-rich?” she asked. “What kind is it? One who by accident became very wealthy, but is definitely modest?
