If Roman Roy was a real person, he wouldn’t live on the Upper West Side.
So said a real realtor recently. However, Roman’s apartment during the fourth season of “Succession,” the hit HBO show about three wealthy siblings vying for control of their father’s media empire, is actually a penthouse at 200 Amsterdam Street, with panoramic views of the city. Fans of the show were there with Roman (played by Kieran Culkin) during a recent episode when he officially brushed his teeth the morning after a devastating plot twist.
It is a four bedroom duplex On the market for $38 million. Daniela G. Schlesser, real-life partner broker with Brown Harris Stevens and listing agent for the apartment, said that if Roman was a real person, she would redirect him south, perhaps to TriBeCa, where he might receive a warm welcome. Given his winning personality, she advised, “Nobody’s going to talk to you here—you’re not going to make any friends” in the family-oriented Upper West Side.
There are two other “succession” locations on the market – Roman’s house in Chelsea from Season 2, Listed for $22.5 million (down from $24.995 million) and brother Kendall Roy in the Upper East Side penthouse from Season 4, Listed for $29 million (less than $33 million). Realtors on all three lists tend to be addicted to the love-hate show as they try to coax buyers into snapping up prizes in a stagnant housing market.
“Someone called me and gave me a good number because they’d seen the show,” said Leila Nejad, a Douglas Elliman sales rep and listing agent at Roman’s Season 2 home on West 17th Street. But it’s still on the market, and it’s now rented to a renter who pays $100,000 a month to live in six stories of extravagance, with a home theater, private garage, and indoor pool.
To bring in more traffic 200 AmsterdamMs. Schlesser has partnered with the sales team for The Penthouse at 180 East 88th Street — where, this season, viewers watched Kendall (Jeremy Strong) collapse on the floor of his brutalized bedroom in grief — to host an open house for double brokers on May 9, giving the real estate community A taste of where Roy’s heir (or better yet, their real customer) could live.
“People want what others consider cool,” said Ms. Schlesser, standing in the living room of the 200 Amsterdam penthouse, admiring the view of northern Manhattan and the Bronx. “And that’s what they chose.”
Paul Eskenazi, location manager for Succession, doesn’t see Roman Roy as an Upper West Cider either — something he considered when making choices for Jesse Armstrong, the show’s creator.
“It’s a really balancing act,” said Mr. Eskenazi. But if Roman lived in the area, he’d probably choose 200 Amsterdam. At 668 feet, the building is the tallest in the neighborhood and was in Central A.J Protracted legal dispute With community organizations fighting an ultimately unsuccessful fight to get out of the top twenty floors.
To give the space a Roman vibe, the ensemble rearranged the bedroom staple, adding an oversized print of a woman’s naked breasts above the bed. Other Romulus details included a vape pen lying on a desk and a night stand filled with books, incl “Bad Sex” by Nona Willis Aronowitz.
The room was pumped full of cologne to set the mood. “It was really musky, like a stench,” said Matthew R. Breeden, vice president at SJP Properties, the building’s developer, who attended the photo shoot last summer.
If Kendall Roy lived North 59th Street, Mr. Eskenazi suspected he would be in a building like 180 East 88th Street, which he described as having a more downtown feel than the Upper East Side. He said, “It’s exciting, it’s cool.” “It feels like he’s on top of the world, floating somewhere in the sky, looking down on everyone else.”
The developers of Kendall’s Penthouse–a triplex with a spiral staircase, 28-foot ceilings in the dining area, and dramatic arched windows–didn’t finish making the most of the show site. The building’s residents’ lounge doubled as Shiv Roy’s (Sarah Snook) office in the final episode, and his wine cellar appeared briefly with Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgard) in the show’s trailer. On the morning a reporter visited, Fendi took over the five-bedroom space to host a private event. Shelves of fur coats fill the living room.
“Anytime you do a collaboration with someone, you want to make sure that the collaboration matches your brand,” he said. Joseph A Macmillan Jrfounder and CEO of DDG, the building’s developer, describing its brand as “luxury, cool and aspirational.”
But is there a downside to associating an estate with the most abhorrent thing in America—even if it’s fictional? Some billionaire might find the connection broken? Mrs. Schlesser is not worried. “You mean the other kind of super rich?” she asked. “What kind is this? The kind that accidentally became super rich, but is it really low-level?”