Martha Stewart Reportedly Selling NY Duplex in Advance of Sentencing

Westport's Martha Stewart is reportedly unloading some property a day before she faces her sentencing, according to a published report today.

The New York Post reported that Stewart signed a contract to sell her West Village luxury duplex condominium for about $7 million, less than the $8 million she wanted when it was first listed back in 2002.

The report quoted a real estate source as saying that she "wanted to get as much of her [financial] house in order before Friday," when Stewart will finally be sentenced for lying to federal investigators about her sale of ImClone Systems stock in late 2001.

The deluxe 15-story doorman building features an upscale health club, a 24-hour concierge, a wine cellar, a planned restaurant, and extra security for its high-profile residents, the Post said, and has maintenance costs of about $8,823 month.

Stewart had planned to move into the 3,600-square-foot space but decided against it after the ImClone scandal gained momentum

According to the Post, the building's other celebrity residents include actress Nicole Kidman and designer Calvin Klein,

Stewart's other properties include her home in Westport, a farm in Bedford, N.Y. in Westchester County, the former Edsel Ford estate in Seal Harbor, Maine, a Fifth Avenue pied-a-terre and a summer home on Lily Pond Lane in East Hampton, the report said.

Stewart's spokeswoman, Susan Magrino, declined to comment on the transaction, the Post said.

In the past few weeks, Stewart has dumped $4.36 million of her company's stock — the first time she's cashed out any of her own shares since she founded the good-living firm, the paper said.

Stewart and former Merrill Lynch broker Peter Bacanovic were convicted March 5 on four felony counts each of obstructing justice and making false statements related to Stewart's suspicious sale of ImClone Systems stock in late 2001.

New York federal judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum, who has twice delayed this hearing, will sentence Stewart Friday morning, and then Bacanovic in the afternoon.

Despite her personal woes, the New York Times reported that Stewart has kept a high profile, making appearances at the Manhattan premiere of "Fahrenheit 9/11" and at other celebrity hotspots including the Four Seasons hotel in Manhattan.

"She isn't hiding in her bunker, and she isn't going out in some sort of false exuberance," the paper quoted Richard Feigen, a Manhattan art dealer who escorted Stewart to the "Fahrenheit" premiere, as saying. "She's strong, and looking at things as positively as possible."

Posted July 15, 2004 09:13 AM