Angelina Jolie Renting Basquiat’s Last Workspace
By Mark Hallum July 11, 2023 5:16 pm
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Angelina Jolie will be turning Jean-Michel Basquiat’s last apartment and studio into a collaborative space for designers.
Jolie signed an eight-year lease for the entire 6,600-square-foot 57 Great Jones Street to open Atelier Jolie, a space for clothing designers to work out of, according to brokers on the deal.
It also happens to be the place where the famous artist passed away in 1988 when the space was owned by the estate of Andy Warhol, who died the year prior, but Jolie believes the purpose of Atelier Jolie honors that legacy.
“We will do our best to respect and honor its artist legacy with community and creativity,” a message on Atelier Jolie’s website reads.
The brokers representing the landlord — Robert Von Ancken, according to property records — did not disclose the asking rent.
While the space was listed in the past for $60,000 per month for a minimum of 10 years, Jolie doesn’t seem to have been pulling any punches in negotiations.
“I’m not exactly sure how [Jolie] is going to build out the space, but I know she wants to preserve the historic feel and some of the street art as best as she can,” John Roesch of Meridian Capital Group, who represented the landlord alongside Garrett Kelly, told Commercial Observer. “She wanted to get this deal. When we met her at the space she asked, ‘What do I have to do to get this done now?’ ”
Richard Johnson of Odyssey Retail Advisors brokered the deal on behalf of Atelier Jolie. Johnson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The unassuming building on Great Jones Street has a long and checkered history in NoHo, having been built in 1860 to house livestock before it was turned into an industrial space. Then in the early 20th century, Paolo Antonio Vaccarelli, better known as Paul Kelly, turned it into the Brighton Athletic Club.
The club opened in 1904 and served as the headquarters for the Five Points Gang. Pop artist Andy Warhol later bought the building and rented it to Basquiat from 1983 to 1988.
In April 2021, it was designated a historic site by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, five years after preservationists placed a plaque on the building recognizing it as the site where Basquiat created some of his greatest works.
Mark Hallum can be reached at mhallum@commercialobserver.com.
