The Wall Street Journal-20080201-WEEKEND JOURNAL- The Home Front- Private Properties

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WEEKEND JOURNAL; The Home Front: Private Properties

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Sidney Sheldon's

Widow Lists Compound

The widow of author Sidney Sheldon has listed their Palm Springs, Calif., compound for $7.9 million, plus a house across the street for $4 million. The Oscar-winning screenwriter, best-selling novelist and creator of TV's "I Dream of Jeannie" died a year ago this week at the age of 89.

Mr. Sheldon and his wife, Alexandra, owned a total of four houses in the Old Las Palmas neighborhood. Three adjacent houses, on two acres, measure a combined 18,000 interior square feet. The Sheldons lived in a midcentury modernist seven-bedroom home bought in 1977 and also owned a six-bedroom Mediterranean-style guest house. A four-bedroom home used for entertaining with a glass-enclosed indoor pool and a poolside kitchen can be bought separately for $1.45 million. The compound has two other pools.

The 5,800-square-foot home across the street, on 0.8 acre, also has a pool. Brook Ashley, Scott Palermo and Jim Sanak, all of Prudential California Realty's Estates division, have the listings.

Mr. Sheldon won his Oscar for the 1947 comedy "The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer," and his bestsellers include "The Other Side of Midnight."

Manhattan Price Cuts

(And Signs of Strength)

In a rare sign of weakness in Manhattan's ultra-high-end real-estate market, owners have cut the price of two apartments at New York's Plaza condominium, the redesigned Plaza Hotel.

Fred Farago, the president of a fruit-flavoring company, is now asking $5.9 million for a 1,200-square-foot one-bedroom apartment there, roughly the same amount he paid for the 15th-floor unit in July and 13% lower than his original $6.8 million asking price. Meanwhile, Italian-born architect Teresa Sapey trimmed $200,000 off the initial $10 million price tag for her 13th-floor unit, bought for $6.9 million, also in July. Stribling's Plaza Resales & Rentals has both listings. The redesigned Plaza set records for Manhattan real estate. In June, developer Harry Macklowe paid nearly $60 million for an apartment there.

To be sure, Manhattan real estate remains strong. At 15 Central Park West, Evan Cole -- who co-founded ABC Carpet & Home, a well-known Manhattan furnishings retailer -- has agreed to sell his 15th-floor three-bedroom apartment there for over $9 million. He paid $4.83 million. One floor below, Michael Holtz, a travel-agency owner, recently signed an agreement to sell an identical apartment for more than his $8.5 million asking price. Both apartments measure 2,250 square feet and have partial views of Central Park. Corcoran's Jon Capobianco and Lauren Muss had both listings. Their colleague Rica Tarnoff, was a co-listing agent for Mr. Holtz's apartment.

Last month, hedge-fund executive Scott A. Bommer paid $46 million for a Fifth Avenue duplex, a record for cooperative apartments.

Rupert Everett Offers

Miami Beach Condo

Actor Rupert Everett has listed his Miami Beach pied-a-terre for $1.15 million.

The British-born performer, who voices Prince Charming in the "Shrek" sequels and starred in the comedies "My Best Friend's Wedding" and "An Ideal Husband," paid $670,000 for the two-bedroom, two-bath condo in 2004.

On Ocean Drive in South Beach, within walking distance of the area's restaurants and nightclubs, the 1,350-square-foot apartment, on the seventh floor, has an ocean view, a 500-square-foot balcony and terrazzo floors.

Mr. Everett, 48, renovated the kitchen and bathrooms. The actor, who also owns homes in London, Paris and New York, is selling because he's spending more time in Europe, according to Michael Valdes, of Sol Sotheby's International Realty, who shares the listing with his colleague Jorge Uribe.

Miami's real-estate market has tumbled. In December, the median price of a condo in Miami-Dade County dropped 10% from a year earlier, according to the Florida Association of Realtors.