THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Friday, April 3, 2020 |M1
experiences for their residents, including watercolor
lessons, behind-the-scenes gallery tours, and advice
on collecting and installing art. Some are even let-
ting artists use high-price apartments as studios or
living space on a short-term basis.
Although some programs and amenities have
been suspended in response to the Covid-19 pan-
demic, developers plan to resume them once the vi-
rus no longer poses a threat. Most are continuing to
support the artists and art institutions they have
partnered with, and some are even looking at ways
to offer virtual arts programs for their residents. At
the Ritz-Carlton, the art studio is still open to resi-
dents. “The kids can still paint on their own, it’s
Please turn to page M12her brothers, Bronson, 7, and Colton, 5. “He has a
bunch of his art hanging up, so when I don’t know
what to paint I look at one of his paintings.”
Mr. Sodamin, 32, who creates vivid, oversize
paintings inspired by south Florida’s lush vegeta-
tion, enjoyed working with the kids in the Ritz-
Carlton’s Piero Lissoni-designed art studio until
late March, when he began staying home out of
concern for the coronavirus. “It’s really clean, so
it’s like, I had to practice being clean,” he said, of
the 300-square-foot studio.
The newest weapon in luxury real estate’s ameni-
ties arms race is a paint brush. Developers are forg-
ing partnerships with art academies, art consultants
and working artists to provide a range of aestheticMANSION
Loretta Lynn
Her childhood in
the holler was
fodder for her
future. M8$3 Million
A renovation adds
modern luxe to a
tired Houston
estate. M3HOMES|MARKETS|PEOPLE|REDOS|SALESA
ubrey Rosenhaus lives at the Ritz-Car-
lton Residences, Miami Beach, in a
four-bedroom duplex that her parents
bought for $2.81 million in September.
The 13-year-old’s new home has lots
of fun features, including a rooftop pool deck, a
movie theater and a 33-foot motorboat reserved
for residents. But her favorite amenity is the Ritz-
Carlton’s gleaming art studio and its artist-in-resi-
dence, painter Magnus Sodamin.
“We would schedule these amazing classes ev-
ery Wednesday. Magnus would watercolor with
us,” said Aubrey, who attended the classes withBYAMYGAMERMANStaying Apart Together
Some families are using vacation homes to quarantine
individual members of the familyLuxury Home Sales
Amid the Pandemic
Some buyers pushed ahead with deals, while others looked
to pull out or renegotiate amid the pandemic and
stock-market plunge; ‘No guts. No glory.’ON MARCH 16, as New York state’s coro-
navirus response kicked into high gear,
Angelo Acquista and his wife Svetlana
Acquista closed on a $19.5 million pent-
house atop 252 East 57th Street, a luxury
new development.
The couple said they had no choice:
They’d already sold their previous home
on Park Avenue and had placed a $2 mil-
lion deposit on this one. Before the clos-
ing, their agent Marina Bernshtein of Hal-
stead Real Estate armed herself with a
mask and gloves to give Dr. Acquista,
who specializes in pulmonary diseases, a
final walk-through of the apartment. The
closing was done over teleconferencing.
Ms. Bernshtein said her buyers got a
great deal regardless of the pandemic,
paying 48% off the apartment’s original
listing price of $37.5 million in 2017. The
six-bedroom apartment has two sprawling
Please turn to page M5BYKATHERINECLARKEDOROTHY HONG FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL On March 16, a penthouse at New York’s
252 East 57th Street sold for $19.5 million.
ALEXIA FODERE FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL (4)
Top: Artist-in-residence Magnus Sodamin holding a workshop in his studio with the Rosenhaus siblings, Colton, Bronson and Aubrey, and, right, carrying his piece ‘Blood Banana.’ The wall
painting in the common area is by Feng Lianghong. Bottom: The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Miami Beach, and, right, Cassandra Hall with her children, theRosenhauses.Painting Is Drawing Buyers
Homeowners are enjoying new works in their buildings, learning to paint and getting advice on their own art collections,
as luxury developers add a touch of glamour to their complexes by luring artists to live and work on siteUnits
range from
$2 million to
$40 million.Ritz-Carlton
Residences, Miami
Beach, gave artist-in-
residence Magnus
Sodamin use of a
300-square-foot
studio.OWNING A VACATION HOME has long
been a way to bring families together.
Now, in this unprecedented global crisis,
it offers an unexpected benefit: keeping
family members separated.
The spread of the new coronavirus
across the U.S. has forced many people
to self-quarantine. Some-
times it is to protect vul-
nerable parents from chil-
dren back from college or
an overseas trip. A family
member who is already
sick might need a separate
room, while partners in
front-line jobs like health
care stay on opposite ends of
the house to avoid infecting
each other.
“I would love to be home, but I am
not comfortable going home,” says
Zoe Beutel, 22, who lives in
New York City and works in
investment banking at La-
zard. Ms. Beutel’s par-
ents live in Newton,Mass., where their house only has 1½
bathrooms. Her mother, Robin Kaplan, is
a 58-year-old clinical social worker who
has asthma and just got over an upper-
respiratory infection in February. Up until
March 16, Ms. Beutel was working at 30
Rockefeller Plaza, a business and tourism
hub, eating takeout at work and ex-
posed to too many variables to risk
going to Newton, where she would be
afraid of touching the
refrigerator.
Instead, Ms.
Beutel is living for
now with her boyfriend
in his family’s vacation
house in Westhampton,
N.Y. His parents, who are
in their 50s, go back and
forth between their house
in Great Neck, N.Y., and Westhampton.
Even though she has been dating her
boyfriend for two years, they weren’t
living together. Ms. Beutel had been
away with his family before a couple
of times, and they get along well, but
living in someone else’s space has its
Please turn to page M4BYNANCYKEATESMARK CONLAN (ILLUSTRATION)