David Bowie’s New York apartment sells for $16.8 million

The building has been the site of several memorials since the musician’s death in 2016.

A woman pauses outside David Bowie’s SoHo apartment building on 10 January 2017, the first anniversary of the music icon’s death. (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)

David Bowie’s longtime New York City apartment is set to be sold for $16.8m after spending less than a month on the market.

The music icon bought the home in the SoHo/Nolita neighbourhood of downtown Manhattan for $3.81 million in 1999.

The nine-story building on Lafayette Street was originally built in 1886 as the Hawley & Hoops chocolate factory, before being converted into an apartment building with 30 units in the 1990s.

According to StreetEasy.com, Bowie’s former home was listed for sale on 14 June by The Corcoran Real Estate Group and taken off the market 27 days later on 11 July.

The 5,000 square foot residence boasts four bedrooms, three bathrooms, a library, three terraces, an open-plan kitchen and elevator access. The Master bedroom suite alone measures over 1,000 square feet and includes a fireplace, dressing room, oversized bath and private terrace.

Bowie and his wife Iman moved to the downtown apartment full-time after leaving their midtown apartment overlooking Central Park in 2002. The apartment has been the site of numerous memorials to Bowie since his death on 10 January 2016.

According to Will Brooker’s 2017 book Forever Stardust: David Bowie Across the Universe: “Bowie loved living in SoHo/Nolita. He felt at home, semi-anonymous, among New Yorkers too cool to act star-struck at celebrity sightings.”