For the last several years, the gallery owner Leo Koenig has been busy creating his own work of art: his West Village home.
The sprawling duplex, at 259 West Fourth Street, which he shares with his partner, Jennifer Lyu, a top executive at the fashion brand Kate Spade, is made up of three apartments that he painstakingly pieced together starting in 2018, including one that had previously been combined. The last of the units was purchased in 2021.
“It was a labor of love,” said Mr. Koenig, who deals in contemporary art and runs a gallery on the Upper East Side. He paid around $3.5 million for the apartments. “Then at least a million more in renovations,” he said. “I got to the point where I stopped counting.”
Besides combining the three spaces through extensive renovations, which included new tiled bathrooms and an updated kitchen, he added a four-zone HVAC system and soundproofing. All of these changes and upgrades were just recently completed.
And now — you guessed it — it’s time for him to sell. “Our lives are shifting more and more uptown,” said Mr. Koenig, who also has a farm complex in Andes, N.Y. “Jen works on Park Avenue, and I’m on Madison and 75th Street. Her child goes to school on the Upper West Side. And our friends have also been moving up north.”
One of the couple’s requirements for their next home: “We’re looking at apartments that need renovations,” he said. “I love projects.”
The duplex, at the corner of Perry Street, is now on the market for $5.5 million, with $5,130 in monthly maintenance, according to Kane Manera, an agent at the Corcoran Group who is listing the property with his colleague Hilary Landis.
Measuring around 2,300 square feet, the apartment sits on the third and fourth floors of the six-story, walk-up co-op building. It is currently configured with two bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms, along with an office and a library/sitting room. “They could be converted to additional bedrooms,” Mr. Manera said.
The main entry is on the upper level. A foyer opens to a large living room, which leads to the office and library, lined up enfilade style. There’s a second living room at the other end of the apartment, along with a laundry room, a full bathroom, a guest bedroom and an en suite primary bedroom.
“It’s winding,” Mr. Koenig said of the layout, “and it keeps going and going.”
Downstairs is an open kitchen, equipped with granite countertops and backsplash, maple wood cabinetry and stainless steel appliances. And nearby is a powder room and an extra-large dining room, where a large assortment of Hopi kachina dolls is on display.
“My special spot is the dining room,” Mr. Koenig said. “I sit there at the table every morning and I do my work and drink my coffee.”
There are whitewashed oak floors, nine-foot ceilings and oversize windows throughout the home. And then there’s the contemporary artwork, which includes bold paintings by Anselm Reyle and Peter Saul and a modern sculpture by Donald Judd, as well as furnishings by designers like Wendell Castle and Jean Royère.
The art and the furniture are also available for sale. “If someone loves the art as much as the home, there’s a further conversation to be had,” Mr. Koenig said.
Mr. Koenig, who was raised in Germany, began dealing in art when he was just 21, setting up a makeshift gallery in an industrial garage in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. He is now one of New York City’s top art dealers.
Mr. Koenig says he has enjoyed living downtown. “I’ll miss the vibrancy of the neighborhood and the quietness,” he said. “You have both.”
“This is the prime block that everyone seemingly wants to be in,” Mr. Manera added.