Belafonte Buys Neighboring West Side Condos for $5 M.

Octogenarian folk hero Harry Belafonte won’t be leaving the Upper West Side, even though he sold his 48-year home on West End Avenue last October. According to city records, he has paid $5 million for neighboring apartments in the freshly converted Apple Bank Building.

“What makes the Upper West Side so terribly attractive to me,” Mr. Belafonte told The Observer, “is that it is truly a mosaic. It represents the best in the American spirit.”

The block-long, block-wide limestone fortress at 2112 Broadway was just converted into residences—but built in the 1920’s. “I’m glad to know that something has endured longer than I have,” said the artist-slash-humanitarian.

Mr. Belafonte is actually one year older than the building: “Oh my God!” he said when informed. “Well, that makes it even more attractive.” The chandeliered exercise room is also appealing, more than the eighth-floor “private canine-grooming facility.”

According to city records, he bought directly from the developers, Stahl Real Estate.

His new L-shaped spread has four bedrooms, two overlooking West 73rd Street and two overlooking Broadway. Neighbors won’t overhear Mr. Belafonte crooning hits from his 1956 masterpiece, Calypso (the first album ever to sell a million copies): The apartments’ windows and dark hardwood floors are soundproofed.

Still, the place pales next to his 17-room sprawl at 300 West End Avenue, which he reportedly sold last year to heiress Abigail Disney for $10.75 million. “Dr. King lived here in New York when he sought anonymity and privacy,” he said about that co-op apartment.

Eleanor Roosevelt was a frequent guest, too.

Why is the co-op’s replacement a new condo in an old (and landmarked) building? “It’s part of the New York City landscape,” he said about the Apple Bank Building. “Nothing can be changed; it will endure.”