Hugh Jackman Closes on Huge Triplex--But It's A Bargain

In what must surely be a bit of good news for super-luxury Manhattan real estate--but, then again, must also be a bit of bad news--Hugh Jackman has closed on the Hudson River triplex that The Observer wrote about last month. It's a reason for jittery brokers to sigh, considering that two sources said last month it was "possible" the actor would walk away from his deal.

He didn't walk away, but one of those sources said the final sales price was between $20 and $23 million--lower than the $25 million-plus he was reportedly going to be paying. Maybe Mr. Jackman is a good haggler? Or maybe it's that every super-expensive apartment in New York is going to be open to negotiation for the foreseeable future.

Mr. Jackman's seller, the Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy, paid $17.57 million for the raw space in 2002. Considering that Mr. Joy probably spent millions to fix up the 11,032-square-foot triplex, it's likely he has lost money on the deal--not that Sun co-founders worry about that kind of thing.

Meanwhile, the Australian actor happens to be in town today, so maybe he'll be seeing his new 51-foot-wide living room, 51-foot-wide rec room, 51-foot-wide master bedroom, a 54.5-foot-long dining room/gallery, or the slightly smaller music room, library, wet bar and exercise room.