THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Friday, February 21, 2020 |M3
design executive, has been living
in Milan since the late 1990s. He
says the city feels like “another
world” from other Italian cities.
In 2017, Mr. Moran, 46, moved
from a 2,200-square-foot rental in
the Corso Venezia neighborhood
to an up-and-coming area of
eclectic apartment blocks just be-
yond Porta Nuova. Mr. Moran
wouldn’t confirm the rental or
purchase prices of his homes, but
says Corso Venezia rentals similar
to his earlier home can be up to
$8,700 a month. He shares the
new 3,300-square-foot, three-bed-
room, which dates to the 1920s,
with Emiliano Salci, his co-
founder in Milan’s Dimorestudio, a
furniture and interiors company.
Mr. Moran and Mr. Salci vetoed
the idea of moving into a new de-
velopment, but newness was aMANSION
THE MARKET
Milan’s Runway Moment
The Fashion Capital is getting more fashionable itself, becoming Italy’s healthiest big residential market
Magazine publisher Luciano
Bernardini de Pace, below, is
selling his 3,850-square-foot,
upper-floor home in Milan.$6.4 Million
Brera district
Four bedrooms, four bathroomsThe 4,300-square-foot duplex, in a
19th-century building near the city’s
premium shopping district, has a
double-height living room and large
terrace. Agent: Dimitri Corti, Lionardprime attraction for Simona Pizzi,
a 50-year-old sanitation-company
executive who bought a 2,400-
square-foot, three-bedroom unit inthe Bosco Verticale complex.
“I liked the idea of the plants,”
she says, of the hundreds of trees
and thousands of bushes descend-
ing from the roof. “They improve
the quality of life inside and out-
side the apartment.”
Mrs. Pizzi shares the unit with
her 16-year-old son, Andrea Ma-
rino, who says he and his friends
like to hang out at the complex,
with its panoramic views of the
Milan skyline and funky balconies.
Stefano Boeri, the Milan archi-
tect whose studio designed the
complex, says prices in the two
towers have surged since first put
on sale in 2013, going from about
$850 to more than $1,800 a
square foot for upper-floor units
currently for sale.
In Brera—another premier dis-
trict—prices have surged 15% in
the past five years, says Marco
Daviddi of Ernst & Young.
That is where James M. Brad-
burne, the Canada-born director
general of Milan’s Pinacoteca di
Brera museum, lives and enjoys an
unexpected perk. “My windows
overlook Giorgio Armani’s gar-
den,” he says of his fashion-de-
signer neighbor. STEFANO TRIPODI FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL (5); JASON LEE (MAP)Purchase price of home
in 2013: $4.3 millionA Murano-glass
chandelier by VeniniMILAN
CityLife
BreraPorta
NuovaCorso
VeneziaMilan
Cathedral
ITALYtan area—has become the coun-
try’s lone large city with a
thriving residential real-estate
market.
Milan saw price gains of nearly
2% from the second quarter of
2018 to the same 2019 period, ac-
cording to Lon-
don’s Knight
Frank. By com-
parison, Rome,
Italy’s biggest
city in popula-
tion, as well as
the large cities
of Genoa, Na-
ples, Turin and
Palermo are all seeing stagnant or
falling home prices.
Milan’s most expensive residen-
tial neighborhoods are now clus-
tered in and around the historic
city center, according to analysis
from Ernst & Young, the profes-
sional-services company. Prices are
highest near San Babila, just east
of the cathedral, with strong in-
creases in the Porta Nuova
area, a radically redevel-
oped business and
residential district
near the Garibaldi
train station
where new luxury
high-rises have
helped prices
jump about 10% in
the past five years.
In Porta Nuova,
the Bosco Verticale—a
pair of residential towers
thickly covered with foliage—has
a 3,500-square-foot, five-bedroom
unit on the 22nd floor of the taller
building listed for $6.3 million.
A second new district called
CityLife, served by a new metro
station, is going up west of Porta
Nuova, on a 90-acre site once the
city’s trade-fair grounds. The
mixed-use area, presided over by
the Generali Tower, a twisting of-
fice skyscraper by London-based
Zaha Hadid Architects, has 536
new residential units spread
among several new buildings.
Construction is set to start this
year on an additional 102 units,
designed by Daniel Libeskind, with
prices up to $1,290 a square foot.
Carla Sozzani, founder of the
concept store and art gallery, 10
Corso Como, says Milan’s Expo
2015 world’s fair marked a trans-
formation in the city, capping off
new real-estate developments and
bringing added attention and con-
fidence.
“Everybody used to say that
Milan was gray and boring,” says
the 72-year-old, who has lived in
the city since she was a child. “It
was just a place to work. But that
has really changed.”
Britt Moran, an American-bornS
peaking in the dining
room of his villa-size
apartment, Milan maga-
zine publisher and ad
executive Luciano Ber-
nardini de Pace lists must-haves
for the good life: custom-made
Italian suits and shoes, ties off the
rack from Brooks Brothers and a
showpiece apartment in his own
Corso Venezia neighborhood.
“In Milan,” says the 67-year-
old, whose titles have included the
Italian version of Rolling Stone, “a
big part of social life takes place
in the home.”
Mr. Bernardini de Pace’s dining
room, with a parquet floor and a
Venetian chandelier, seats 12, but
he has had buffet dinners for up
to 100 in the 3,850-square-foot
four-bedroom, located on an up-
per floor of a landmark pre-World
War I building.
After renting for nearly two de-
cades, he bought the apart-
ment for $4.3 million
in 2013. Now, follow-
ing a recent di-
vorce, he has put
it up for sale,
with an asking
price of $5.4 mil-
lion. In the early
1990s, when he
first moved in, the
Corso Venezia area,
a mile east of the city’s
Gothic cathedral, was one
of only a few areas in Milan with a
high concentration of upscale
apartments. Now the neighbor-
hood has competition from a num-
ber of new and gentrifying areas,
as Milan becomes a standout
among Italy’s five biggest cities.
Long a finance and design hub,
Milan—with a population of 1.4
million in the city proper and an-
chor to Italy’s largest metropoli-BYJ.S.MARCUS$5.4
MILLION
Listing price of
the four-
bedroom in
Corso VeneziaWHERE THE FASHION WEEK REGULARS MEET
MILAN’S FASHION WEEK,
heldthisyearfromFeb.18to
24, may be about cutting-edge
design, but attendees are crea-
tures of habit out-
side the shows.
Taste in hotels
runs toward the clas-
sic. Leading magazine
editors and depart-
ment-store buyers
stay,astheyalways
have, in traditional
spaces such as the
Grand Hotel et de
Milan, where com-
poser Giuseppe Verdi
once made his home, andHotel
Principe di Savoia.
After the shows, the restau-
rantBice, in the heart of the
fashion district, is the place to
find fashion royalty dining onlow-carb Italian classics such
as vitello tonnato.
A five-minute walk away,Il
Barettooffers local specialtiessuch as osso buco, served with
Milan’s own variation on ri-
sotto, flavored with saffron.
After the last grappa,Plas-
tic, a 1980s disco, is still Fash-
ion Week’s default night spot.Naviglio Grande canalFOR SALE IN MILAN
LIONARDORAL REPRESENTATIONS CANNOT BE RELIED UPON AS CORRECTLY STATING REPRESENTATIONS OF THE DEVELOPER. FOR CORRECT REPRESENTATIONS, MAKE REFERENCE TO THE DOCUMENTS REQUIRED BY SECTION 718.503, FLORIDA STATUTES, TO BE FURNISHED BY A DEVELOPER TO A BUYER OR LESSEE. All artist’s or
architecturalrenderings, sketches, graphic materials and photos depicted or otherwise described herein are proposed and conceptual only, and arebased upon preliminary development plans, which are subject to change. This is not an offering in any state in which registration is required but in which registration requirements have not yet
been met. THIS IS NOT AN OFFER FOR CONTRACT OR SALE IN THE STATES OF NY, NJ OR MASS.THE SUCCESS CONTINUES
ANNOUNCING THE BOUTIQUE TOWER AT
THE ESTATES AT ACQUALINA
THE WORLD’S FINEST RESIDENCES
PRE-CONSTRUCTION PRICES. NEW SALES GALLERY NOW OPEN.
TWO RESIDENCES PER FLOOR WITH A 57-FOOT GRAND LIVING SPACE. ACQUALINA-LEVEL SERVICE.
LOBBY DESIGN BY KARL LAGERFELD.RESIDENCES FROM $6.2 TO $9M. TOWER SUITES FROM $17M.
PENTHOUSES FROM $25M. 17895 COLLINS AVENUE, SUNNY ISLES BEACH, FL 33160
WWW.ESTATESATACQUALINA.COM • 786.329.4962 OR [email protected]TMMANAGED BY ACQUALINA RESORT & RESIDENCES
THE #1 LUXURY BEACHFRONT
RESORT IN THE CONTINENTAL U.S.