Blade, SweetGreen execs close big condo deals

One sells in Chelsea while the other buys in Nolita

Blade founder and CEO Robert Wiesenthal and SweetGreen co-founder and CEO Nicolas Jammet with 551 West 21st Street and 374 Broome Street (LinkedIn, Wikipedia, Corcoran, Elliman)
Blade founder and CEO Robert Wiesenthal and SweetGreen co-founder and CEO Nicolas Jammet with 551 West 21st Street and 374 Broome Street (LinkedIn, Wikipedia, Corcoran, Elliman)

Now you know where your $16 salads and $500 chopper rides are going.

Top executives at helicopter service Blade and takeout eatery SweetGreen closed big condo deals in Manhattan, even as their companies’ stock prices have fallen by more than 50 percent in the past year.

Blade founder and chief executive Robert Wiesenthal sold his unit at 551 West 21st Street in Chelsea for $15.7 million, public records show. Wiesenthal had bought it in 2016 for $15.1 million, and listed it in December for $15.9 million.

The buyer is an LLC registered to real estate attorney Sandor Krauss. Brokerage commissions and other expenses would have more than offset the ostensible profit Wiesenthal turned on the Foster + Partners–designed apartment along the West Side Highway.

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Meanwhile, SweetGreen co-founder and chief executive officer Nicolas Jammet bought a condo at 374 Broome Street for $4.75 million, according to filings. The building, where John Legend and Chrissy Teigen used to own a penthouse, sits on a handsome residential corner in Nolita.

The seller, fashion executive and banking heiress Julia Arnhold, whose wedding was written up in Vogue, recently gave a tour of the apartment to fashion website Doré. Arnhold bought the unit in 2012 for $3.6 million.

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SweetGreen shares are down 51 percent since going public in November, a fate that has befallen many startups that went the IPO route last year. Blade combined with a SPAC in May 2021 and has traded roughly between $12 and $7 since then. Shares of the blank-check company had reached $18 last February on news of the merger.

Blade offers $795 flights from Manhattan to the Hamptons, bypassing traffic that the company’s marketing calls “one of the worst experiences to endure.” Manhattan residents might add helicopter noise to that list; their vociferous complaints have led city and federal lawmakers to propose limits on chopper services.