Emily Weiss Bought Two Townhouses in 5 Months

Photo: Jamie McCarthy/WireImage

Emily Weiss raised multiple eyebrows last week after The Real Deal reported that she had bought a second multimillion-dollar townhouse just five months after closing on another. The Glossier founder and her partner, William Gaybrick, an executive at Stripe, bought a five-bedroom Greek Revival rowhouse at 118 West 12th Street in Greenwich Village for $17.9 million last November. And last week, the couple was apparently also in contract for a $22 million landmarked five-bedroom townhouse at 1 Sidney Place in Brooklyn Heights.

Why would Weiss need two extremely expensive houses just a short subway ride apart? Might have been plain old buyer’s remorse. Weiss, who purchased the West 12th townhouse through a trust called the Ruby Doggo 2023 (Weiss’s dog is named Ruby), put the place back on the market this month for $18.9 million — a $1 million price bump from when she bought it five months ago. (More Weiss lore: One of the brokers selling the apartment is Eva Alt, a former intern at Into the Gloss who spent six years running social media at Glossier under Weiss.)

Weiss’s second, perhaps more permanent, Brooklyn Heights townhouse was recently renovated by the Brooklyn Home Company, which added a parking garage and rooftop terrace. According to the listing, it has multiple fireplaces, a new kitchen with Calacatta marble and custom cabinets, and a garden-level bedroom suite that is “ideal for staff.” It sits on the corner of Joralemon Street and Sidney Place and is around 16 feet wide, according to floor plans submitted to the Landmarks Preservation Commission. The $22 million the couple paid is the second-most expensive sale ever recorded in Brooklyn.

But not everyone thinks the historic listing is worth its historic price. The purchase sparked intense chatter on a local Brooklyn Heights blog’s open comment thread, where one person wrote that the price was “unfathomably absurdly high,” noting the apartment’s size and shape. Another commenter under the username Jorale-man agreed: “As someone who lives in the immediate vicinity, it’s not a $22m block of Joralemon either.” Who knows — she may very well find something she likes better.