Capote House Buyer ID’d As Grand Theft Auto Designer

By on March 21, 2012 9:57 am in Celebrity Residents, Real Estate

The New York Observer identifies the buyer of 70 Willow Street as Dan Houser, creator of the popular Grand Theft Auto series of video games, and co-founder of Rockstar Games. The Observer story notes that the seller, Nicholas Callaway, a long time publisher of coffee-table books, is also involved in the digital world, having started a company, Callaway Digital Arts, to design and market mobile apps, especially for the iPad.

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  • Nabeguy

    What an hilareous contrast!

  • David on Middagh

    “New-money bourgeois upstart!”

    JK. Welcome to the ‘hood, Dan.

  • SB

    Bohan Heights Blog?

  • Reggie

    Didn’t the buyers describe themselves as “just a boring family?” Nice try at making the story go away!

  • Cranberry Beret

    The Observer is misreading the public records on the 1998 sale. It was for $3.85 million. (The $1.25 million is the mortgage he took out.)

  • Cranberry Beret

    The Observer is good at the social gossip but they missed the most important part: the seller gave the buyer the mortgage! Fascinating peek into the pocketbooks of the rich and famous…

  • stuart

    Grand Theft Auto?!
    No wonder he wanted a house with its own drive and gate.

  • Master Of Middagh

    That series of games has never had any appeal to me- UNTIL NOW! Because I would totally play the heck out of Grand Theft Auto: Brooklyn Heights. I’d crash my ride right into Gristedes for a laugh or two! ;)

  • PierrepontSkin

    @SB, haha nice! I’m probably the only one who’s going to understand that joke!
    Welcome to Bohan, Dan!

  • PromGal

    It seems that Dan Houser is British. Adds a nice international mix to the community.
    To those who refer to Brooklyn Heights as “the hood”. Get yourself a dictionary, and check Brooklyn Heights demographics. There are no $12 million houses in the hood. The median income income is $200k & the population 87% white.

    As to the comment about the seller taking the buyer’s mortgage, this is common practice in real estate deals on private dwellings and commercial properties. It benefits both the buyer and seller, usually at a lower rate than the going mortgage rate.

    It is far more common in much lower end properties, where the buyer cannot qualify for standard mortgages. not among the people you ridiculously label as the 1% (or is it the 99%?) The concept is so asinine it

  • David on Middagh

    Hi Promgal,

    I *love* dictionaries. I have only a few (MW 2nd, Compact OED, misc. foreign and specialized), but I am proud to possess a 1789ish American volume that was being let go in a moving sale across the street from me some years ago. It’s a bit yellow and worn, and smells of mouse, but I intend to keep it in my little home in the ‘hood, which “in compofition”, it informs me, “denotes quality, character, as knighthood, childhood. Sometimes it is taken collectively, as a brotherhood, a confraternity.”

    I meant nothing else.

  • Bette

    I thought “hood” was just a diminution of the word “neighborhood”. As in “the ‘hood.”

  • Cranberry Beret

    PromGal, I think we’re in agreement but your message was cut off so I can’t tell exactly. My point was that seller-financed mortgages are not so common on $12.5 million houses in an era when you can get a 30-year fixed mortgage for under 4% and an ARM for under 3%. (Yes even on multi-million dollar principal.) Undoubtedly the guy who’s able to pay $10MM cash can find his pick of lenders. My guess is the seller saw no prospect of finding another buyer anytime soon, so sweetening the deal by offering financing helped him move the property — that’s obviously to his benefit, but I doubt the interest he’s charging is maximizing his return (though the income stream is nice).

  • maestro

    Hood is a hood is a hood. And ours is great.

  • PierrepontSkin

    We really in tha ‘hood now, son.