Mariah Carey’s NYC Penthouse Is On The Market For $27m

It was the late 1990s and all Mariah Carey wanted for Christmas was Barbara Streisand’s penthouse duplex on Central Park West. Despite offering up $8m in cash, the powers that be (AKA the Ardsley apartment co-op board) rejected the offer on the grounds that her flamboyant celebrity image would disrupt the building’s family-friendly feel. 

Not one to put up with those who don’t respect her A-list status, Carey abandoned her dreams of living on the Upper West Side and looked downtown for her next home – eventually setting her sights on Tribeca’s 17-storey Franklin Tower. Unsatisfied with the duplex penthouse on the 17th and 18th floors alone, she rounded-out the purchase with the full-floor unit directly below – all for a cool $9m. 

Transforming the former 1900s-built Bank building into an Art Deco haven inspired by the golden age of Hollywood, she brought in the ‘Prince of Chintz’, late designer Mario Buatta, to maker her vision a reality. ‘I wanted to create a background for Mariah’s own glamour,’ he told Architectural Digest. ‘She exudes glamour – and sex appeal, too. She has incredible charisma.’

During Carey’s residence, guests were greeted by silver-leaf doors, lacquered peach walls, bronze-inlaid limestone floors and a showgirl-style apartment dripping in gold drapery. The heart of the home is a long room divided into three distinct spaces: a living area, dining area, and an intimate spot for after-dinner conversation – formerly delineated by a baby grand piano once owned by Marilyn Monroe, and purchased by Carey for $600,000. 

As you’d expect of someone with an album called Butterfly, the property is suitably rife with butterfly motifs. As Buatta told AD: ‘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.’

Other highlights of the home include two kitchens, an exercise room, a Turkish-style banquette large enough for a dinner party, a steam room lined with white marble, a hair-and-makeup room, a recording studio, an aquarium-equipped media room designed to evoke ‘the feeling of a movie theater under the sea’, and Carey’s 38ft bath – longer than most Park Avenue living rooms – from which you can enter her boutique-style clothes room (AD suggested it was too big to call a closet) which leads through to her shoe room. 

Now on the market for the first time in three decades, the palatial pad offers up eight bedrooms, seven bathrooms and a powder room. Spanning 12,700 sqft, four large windows flood the central space with light, while a rooftop terrace off the semi-circular sunroom (plus wet bar) offers 360 views across the Manhattan skyline and Hudson river. 

On the market for $27m. Find out more at corenyc.com

Where Else Has Mariah Carey Owned Homes?

Westchester County, New York

In 1993, Mariah Carey and her then-husband, Columbia Records executive Tommy Mottola, purchased 51 acres in Bedford, Westchester County for $2m. They designed and built a 22,000 sqft Georgian-style mansion on the site featuring nine bedrooms, seven fireplaces, a ballroom, a pistol range, a recording studio, and both indoor and outdoor pools. When the couple separated in 1997, they sold the property to executive Nelson Peltz for $20.5m – at the time, the most expensive sale in Westchester County history. 

The Bahamas 

In 2007, the star picked up a beachfront compound on Windermere Island in the Bahamas for $5m. Known as Villa Sea Lily, the three-acre compound comprised four pavilions arranged around an interior courtyard, with about 4,000 sqft of interior living space and 3,500 sqft of covered terraces and marble walkways. More than a home, the property was also the site of her intimate 2008 wedding to her now ex-husband Nick Cannon. Carey and Cannon returned to the Caribbean estate to renew their vows one year later, and reportedly lived there part-time throughout their marriage. The couple listed the estate for $5.5m in 2011. 

Bel-Air, California

In 2009, Carey and Cannon purchased a Colonial-style mansion previously owned by 80s star Farrah Fawcett for $6.9m. Spanning 11,750 sqft, the three acre property boasts gated driveaways, motor courts, a swimming pool, seven bedrooms, nine bathrooms and seven fireplaces, plus a double-height foyer, home theatre, game room, recording studio, indoor basketball court, putting green, tennis court and a 32ft entertainment lounge. After the pair called it quits in 2014, they listed the home and sold it for $9m the following year.

Atlanta, Georgia 

The singer purchased a mansion in Atlanta’s Sandy Springs area for $5.65m in 2021 to be closer to her band. The redbrick colonial-style estate was originally built in 1951, and boasted nine bedrooms, eight bathrooms, and five half baths spread across 12,575 sqft. Carey made her mark on the residence with a private recording studio, a pink dressing room with a pink vanity, a glittery pink chandelier in the foyer, and a giant tufted velvet headboard in the primary bedroom. Following a burglary in late June 2022, Carey put the home on the market for $6.5m just nine months after purchasing it.