Facebook Founder Rents to Buy Manhattan Townhouse

• March 25th 2011

by UrbanTurf Staff

In this week’s departure from all things DC real estate, we look at how the other half lives. The other half in this case refers to Napster founder and former Facebook executive Sean Parker.

Just over a year ago, we reported that Parker, who was portrayed by Justin Timberlake in the movie The Social Network, was renting a six-bedroom, seven-bath mansion in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village for a mere $45,000 a month. New York magazine now reports that the young entrepreneur decided to put those monthly rental payments toward a mortgage at the end of 2010 and purchase the home now known as the Bacchus House for a cool $20 million.

The 19th-century mansion has most everything a young entrepreneur could want: an elevator, a gym, a private garage, numerous private outdoor terraces, and apparently even a safe room/panic room for the truly paranoid. There is also a 40-foot landscaped interior atrium as well as various other entertaining spaces that Mr. Parker, who is known for hosting lavish soirees and fundraisers that have attracted the likes of Val Kilmer, Oliver Stone, and Hugh Grant, has taken advantage of.

As New York reports, these activities fit in well with the colorful history of 40 West 10th Street, a former two-story stable that was built in 1833. For example, here is what New York wrote about the most recent owner Enrico Marone Cinzano, who bought the home in 1991:

Cinzano named the place Bacchus House and renovated again, keeping only the cubic configuration of [the home]. He added a rooftop bedroom, a swimming pool, spa, and staff rooms in the basement. He’d eventually fill the atrium with bamboo and throw all-night parties there filled with drag queens and muscle boys. “He was a playboy swinging partier,” says Dan Chernoble, who’d grown up in the house.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/facebook_founder_rents_to_buy_manhattan_townhouse/3221.