This Beastie Boy’s NYC childhood home has sold for $1.62M after a bidding war

Ad-Rock
Ad-Rock

The childhood home of Beastie Boy Ad-Rock, located in Manhattan’s West Village, has just sold for more than its last asking price following a frenzied bidding war, Gimme Shelter has learned.

The unit, which hit the market for $1.79 million last October, was last asking $1.59 million. It traded hands this week for $1.62 million.

“Once we hit the sweet spot with the price, there was a feverish bidding war,” said listing broker Asit Parikh of Compass. The buyers were repped by Kristen Rylander, of Douglas Elliman.

The Beastie Boys’ Michael “Mike D” Diamond (left) and Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz (right). Getty Images
The Beastie Boys’ Michael “Mike D” Diamond (left) and Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz (right). Getty Images
A home office comes with a sliver of blue sky. Allyson Lubow
A home office comes with a sliver of blue sky. Allyson Lubow
Ad-Rock and his brother Matt were raised here by their mother Doris. Allyson Lubow
Ad-Rock and his brother Matt were raised here by their mother Doris. Allyson Lubow

The rapper, otherwise known as Adam Horovitz, grew up in the fourth-floor duplex co-op at 726 Washington, between Bank and West 11th streets.

He was raised with his brother, Matt, by his mother, artist Doris Keefe. Their father, playwright Israel Horovitz, left the family in 1969.

Horovitz is married to feminist punk singer-songwriter Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill and Le Tigre fame. They moved to California during the pandemic, paying $3.5 million for a Pasadena midcentury-modern home.

The three-bedroom, 1?-bath unit boasts a double-height living room, a windowed dining area, plus a mezzanine loft and a central staircase. At the time when Horovitz lived in the building, it was part of the Mitchell-Lama housing program, which enabled middle-class families to live comfortably in the city.

The home’s main bedroom features prime city views. Allyson Lubow
The home’s main bedroom features prime city views. Allyson Lubow
A view of the layout. Allyson Lubow
A view of the layout. Allyson Lubow

The home features lots of light and views from the West Village to Hudson Yards. The building also features a backyard park with mature trees, barbecue grills, patio tables and plantings maintained by the co-op buildings that share it.

The Beastie Boys — a pioneering hip-hop trio composed of Ad-Rock, Michael “Mike D” Diamond and the late Adam “MCA” Yauch — would often rehearse here, said Parikh. Their first album, “Licensed to Ill,” was released in 1986.

By 2012, the iconic trio was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. A few weeks later, Yauch, then 47, died of cancer. The survivors, Horovitz and Diamond, vowed to never play music as the Beastie Boys again.

The sellers are Mark and April Hallenbeck, who bought the home for $333,294 in 2006, according to property records. Back then, it was still a rent-stabilized building. It turned co-op in 2008.

The buyers are “a lovely tech couple,” sources said.