Lee and Linda Eisenberg (Patrick McMullan)
Filmmaker Joel Schumacher contributed in no small way to the Hollywood iconography of the 1980s and 90s, directing Brat Pack staples St. Elmo's Fire and The Lost Boys, and taking over the Batman franchise from Michael Burton. Mr. Schumacher likewise started off strong in the aughts, launching Colin Farrell's career with 2000's Tigerland. But as the years went on, Mr. Schumacher's output largely failed to make waves, and then Christopher Nolan rolled out Batman Begins, whose very title seemed intended to erase the efforts of Mssrs. Burton and Schumacher, and which was filmed in a city that was very obviously not Mr. Schumacher's native Gotham. Now the director, too, seems poised for a change of scenery, having just sold his Greenwich Village condo at 25 Fifth Avenue for $1.6 million, according to city records. Andy Fink, Alex Nicholas and A.J. Wilkerson, of Corcoran shared the listing.
Headed downtown?
The apartment, a one-bedroom affair of 790 square feet, shares little with Bruce Wayne's palatial quarters, but it nonetheless has much to offer an eligible bachelor like Mr. Schumacher—or a discerning couple, for that matter. Possessed of dark hardwood floors set off by tasteful white molding, the mint-condition unit features a windowed modern kitchen and western living room views of Fifth Avenue. Understated and practical, the condo occupies a rare full-service building on lower Fifth, just a few blocks from Washington Square Park, and a few more from the New York classics Gotham Bar and Grill and Strip House, on 12th Street.
Wooden and tasteful
Perhaps these temples to top-shelf living were a particular draw for one of the apartment's buyers, Lee Eisenberg, the longtime editor of Esquire and reputed coiner of the term "power lunch." Having edited the likes of Truman Capote, Nora Ephron and Gay Talese, among others, Mr. Eisenberg has more recently acted as executive vice president and creative director for Lands End and authored a book called Shoptimism—about the pleasures of conformity, and the importance of trends—in which his wife Linda makes an appearance. The book's subtitle—Why the American Consumer Will Keep On Buying No Matter What—might well serve as a tagline for the city's real estate market, and it seems like a pretty good bet that Mr. Eisenberg, whose previous book The Number concerned investing for retirement, made a carefully calculated investment with his latest buy.