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Garden District mansion reportedly owned by Beyoncé, Jay-Z up for sale

October 22, 2021

The Garden District mansion reportedly owned by power couple Beyoncé and Jay-Z is looking for a new owner.

There is a $4.45 million asking price for the 13,000-square-foot home at 1527 Harmony St., according to a listing on Trulia, an online real estate marketplace and subsidiary of Zillow. The property is a half block off St. Charles Avenue and is near Louisiana Avenue. It was a Presbyterian church in the 1920s and converted into a ballet school in the late 1970s before becoming a residence.

1527 Harmony St. Photo courtesy realtor.com

According to the Orleans Parish Assessor's Office, an entity known as Sugarcane Park LLC purchased the home in January 2015 for $2.6 million. The Louisiana Secretary of State's Office lists the mailing address for Sugarcane Park as the same one for Parkwood Entertainment, the New York City-based management and entertainment company founded by Beyoncé in 2010.

Public records show the property was listed on July 26 for $3.45 million and the price rose to $4.45 million on Aug. 1. The Trulia listing says the property is "for sale by owner," meaning there is no listing agent or brokerage affiliated with it and could signal the couple is attempting an off-market deal. It's not clear if Beyoncé and Jay-Z ever lived at the residence.

The three-story home offers seven bedrooms and eight bathrooms and also has three one-bedroom apartments on the first floor that are approximately 1,000 square feet each, with entrances on Eighth Street. The apartments can be added to the main residence or accessed through the interior of the building, the listing said.

The main residence is accessed via Harmony Street and has a master suite with a walk-in closet, full length mirror and a master bath with an antique tub and walk-in shower. The kitchen has a Viking stove top, refrigerator and double ovens. The outer kitchen wall can be moved to turn the space into a large party room.

The main room – once the church's sanctuary – boasts a 26-foot ceiling. The residence also offers hardwood floors, high ceilings and floor-to-ceiling columns. The listing says the property "has hosted weddings, events, salons, major recording stars and corporate executives" and "will be painted prior to closing the color of your choosing."

Britt Galloway, an agent with Latter & Blum and the listing agent for the property when it sold in 2015, said the previous owner – listed in public records as New Orleans resident Sandra McNamara – performed extensive renovations when she purchased the property in 2001 for $500,000. When asked about the current $4.45 million listing price, Galloway said he couldn't comment on it because he's not sure what has been done to the property in recent years. But home prices have never been higher in the New Orleans market, he added.

The area saw a 10% jump in home prices from the same time as last year, according to a virtual presentation at the annual Economic and Real Estate Forecast Symposium at Loyola University this week.

The mansion caught fire this summer, according to a July report in the Times-Picayune/New Orleans Advocate, and police suspected arson. It's unclear if repairs have been made since then.

The Spanish Baroque-style structure was built in 1925 as a place of worship for the Westminster Presbyterian congregation. It later operated as the Ballet Hysell School in 1978, which was established by choreographer and dancer Harvey Hysell and attracted and trained students from across the country.

Hysell closed the school in 1998, and McNamara bought the property a few years later and converted the space into a mansion.

"It's a truly unique offering," Galloway said. "It's one of a kind."

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1527 Harmony Street Andrew Valenti Beyonce construction Garden District Jay-Z New Orleans real estate 1:05 pm Fri, October 22, 2021 New Orleans CityBusiness