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Crypto executive spends $18.9M on Brooklyn Heights townhouse

Image: Stefano Ukmar/Brown Harris Stevens

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Cryptocurrency executive Joseph Lallouz has purchased a townhouse in the neighborhood of Brooklyn Heights, according to a report.

The Coinbase executive and his wife Chloe Thevenoz paid $18.9 million for the five-story brownstone and a separate carriage house, according to the Wall Street Journal. 

The seller was Andrew Vogel, whose family business provides floating housing to workers on offshore drilling projects and who purchased the house for $10.8 million in 2008, property records show.

The house on Remsen Street was extensively renovated before it was first listed in 2019 for $18 million. The price was dropped in 2020 to $13.5 million before an increase to $15 million in 2021, according to the report.

“He made it into an unbelievable, semi-underground grotto,” listing agent Nancy Giddins of Brown Harris Stevens told the Wall Street Journal. 

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The main house comes with six bedrooms, a top-floor office, a roof deck with views of the New York Harbor, three fireplaces on the parlor floor and two terraces. It also features wood floors, crown moldings and mantels.

The separate carriage house is equipped with a screening room, a garage, a full kitchen and one bedroom, along with a glass-enclosed rain shower with a stained glass ceiling on the lower level.

Prices in Brooklyn have risen amid limited inventory, according to data from Compass, which shows that the median sale price in Brooklyn hit $1,261,634 in the second quarter of 2022. Across all property types, sales volume swelled to $4.5 billion, a 14 percent jump year over year.

The report calls this a “remarkable” figure given that total transactions increased by only one percent, though the average sales price rose by 13.1 percent compared to last year.

“Overall, Brooklyn is a beacon of hope,” the Compass report reads. “It offers cultural attractions, diversified abodes of all sizes and price points, and an unrivaled aura of inevitable success. While the market is different than it has been in recent quarters, some new opportunities are suddenly possible.

“For instance, sellers now may be more willing to negotiate on price—a benefit for buyers–allowing the market to mirror
what it has traditionally been more closely.”

The most expensive property sale in Brooklyn was the 2020 sale of a $25.5 million townhouse also in Brooklyn Heights.

The buyers were represented by Mark Jovanovic and Scott Hustis of Compass.

Email Ben Verde