From Carrie Bradshaw to crypto kings, West Village real estate hits record-breaking sales

Exclusive: Once home to Carrie Bradshaw’s brownstone dreams and the coffee-fueled chaos of the Friends gang, Manhattan’s West Village has now united its bohemian charm and billionaire charm.

On its cobblestone streets, record sales are rewriting the rules of New York real estate, with penthouses fetching $85 million, and buyers ranging from tech giants to cryptocurrency kings. For Compass broker Jim St. Andre, this isn’t a comeback story — it’s a “reinvention.”

“People love the West Village for what it is, right? And it’s a beautiful little village almost in the middle of the city,” St. Andre exclusively told Fox News Digital. “There are really only a few great apartments, great townhomes, great buildings in general, and great locations in the West Village that you can choose to live in. That’s really pushed prices to a level that they’ve never seen before.”

125 Perry Street’s Penthouse East, currently under construction and preparing to make its market debut, is the largest of seven residences in the boutique building, priced at $85 million. It’s discreetly housed inside a renovated century-old parking garage, and St. Andre – which represents the menu – highlights how historic preservation fuels exclusivity and exorbitant prices.

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“There is a serenity to the experience of living in the West Village,” he said. “The low density and low-slung nature of the buildings there, there’s less traffic and there’s this tranquility that exists in this… a luxurious, serene experience that happens there… When we talk about the experience of living in a building like this, it’s seven units, there are amenities, there are services that would be appropriate for a much larger building. So it’s a very private environment, a very peaceful environment. I think that’s very attractive to a lot of buyers.”

“I think you see areas where people have done well over the last five to 10 years, whether it’s technology, private equity, hedge funds or crypto, we’re seeing buyers from all of those categories and others who are interested in being in the West Village and in a position where they want to… find the property that suits them best.”

Penthouse East spans 7,700 square feet of interior space with three private outdoor terraces. It features six bedrooms, eight full and two half bathrooms, and glass-encased entertainment areas with a central gallery staircase — not to mention skyline views stretching from Lower Manhattan to Hudson Yards and Midtown.

The surge in demand for multi-million-dollar West Village properties is both normal and “real,” according to a broker who has sold homes in the neighborhood for 22 years.

“With so little inventory in the West Village, there are many buyers for every condo or townhome available. So to me, it’s not likely that a bubble will be created,” St. Andre said. “There’s real demand from people who have moved to the city, who already live in the city or come from other countries…. It’s one of the leaders you get globally, as well as here in the U.S.,” he said.

Although “Sex and the City” and “Friends” may have put the West Village on the map for a generation, St. Andre points out that nostalgia isn’t driving today’s buyer craze.

“It’s actually a small part of it,” he said. “The West Village has been popular for a number of reasons, and it’s been well-documented in movies and on television and in books… It’s really just an evolution of where people want to be in the city…. It’s really the backdrop itself that is so attractive to people.”

And from a broader perspective on New York City’s growth story, St. Andre said it’s a story of reinvention, not rebirth — and there’s still room for both new inventory and record prices.

“What’s great about the West Village is… [we’re] “Very grateful that the historic district was established and that many of these buildings were protected, and that people were not able to build large apartment buildings at certain points in time ruining this amazing history,” St. Andre said. “The development that’s happening, it’s really a reorientation of the neighborhood to what makes sense at this particular point. I think it’s more of a reinvention of what has been around for a long time, and has been used in a different way.”

Five to 10 years from now, as this development continues, St. Andre remains confident that the West Village will still look like the West Village.

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“There is room for more projects like 125 Perry, but there are not many,” he said. “I think it’s going to get more interesting over time. And I don’t think it’s going to get less interesting unless there’s a major macroeconomic event.”

“We see a lot of people buying in the West Village who are active parts of the New York City community… Most of them are people who live here, and the neighborhood is very vibrant…. Opportunities abound in New York. And when you stand there and look at it from those penthouses, it all becomes very real and poignant.”

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