We knew that 80s icon Cyndi Lauper lived on the Upper West Side, but Gothamist didn't realize she was trying to only pay $508 in her rent! Lauper, who sublets an apartment at the Apthorp, the apartment building that takes up Broadway to West End Avenue, 78th to 79th Streets, is suing the owners of the building because they had been paying $3,250 a month for many years, while the previous owner had paid only $508. Lauper's "landlord," Shlomo Baron, agreed to pay $2,400 a month for the apartment because it was not his primary residence. Lauper sued Baron in 1996 for overcharging her, and after much legal mishegas, a court said that using a real estate formula, Lauper should pay $989. Of course, Lauper and her husband are arguing that they should only pay $508, because it seems those music royalties aren't what they used to be, and now they are taking it all the way to courts in Albany. If Lauper does get her rent lowered to $508, or even to $989, Gothamist expects Lauper to generously tip every service person she comes into contact with, waiters, cabbies, doormen, you name it, plus give nice gifts to her personal assistants and the like, because rent of $508 sounds more like what you pay when you share an apartment with four other people in a Greenpoint loft. NY Magazine even lists rental prices at around $10,000!
The Apthrop is a beautiful building, from what we can tell when we walk by. The City Review has a nice description.
Photograph from the City Review
