Tbilisi tycoon bought an expensive house in Brooklyn: now immigrants from Georgia live there for free

While the average renter shells out over $ 2400 a month to live in this corner Brooklynresidents of Bedford-Stuyvesant's most expensive building don't pay a dime, reports New York Post.

John C. Kelly's iconic 10-bedroom mansion at 247 Hancock Street has become and remains Bed-Stuy's most expensive property. In 2018, a mysterious LLC paid $ 6,275 million for it. However, the owner chose not to occupy the 700 square meter palazzo-style mansion. He invited a group of grateful Georgian artists to live there for free.

“I had no idea about the house, I just mentioned that I’m not sure what I’m going to do - maybe I’ll return to Georgia - and he was like,“ Why don’t you live in this house? ” Eteri Chkadua spoke about the fateful conversation with the owner of the property. He is her longtime friend and art collector.

A hotel tycoon from Georgia who owns the home, but declined to comment for this article.

In the fall of 2020, Eteri was finally allowed to return to the United States after five months in Vietnam, closed from Covid... She called to ask if he was still interested in her painting when he offered her a lease for life.

In November, Eteri and his brother moved into the house.

“No one lived there, and it was full of boxes, like in a warehouse,” she recalled. The second floor soon became her studio. Her brother took over the lower floor.

“It was as if I got to those days,” said Eteri's brother, Gocha Chkadua, about life in an old house built in 1887.

He filled the huge basement with the Alien Flower. Glow-in-the-dark floral creations made from recycled plastic cups and junk. He allows Eteri to choose a color for them.

Creative people constantly come to visit Eteri

Although at first they were alone, over the past year, creative people have been constantly joining them. Most of whom are citizens of Georgia. Eteri lists them: There were two pairs of artists - an actor and his model wife. There was also a chef and her photographer boyfriend. They moved out a few months ago. There was also a Dutch writer, a professor from Berkeley and others. Countless guests, all friends of the owner.

The French photographer will be arriving at the end of this month. Sometimes the owner stays - now his son lives there. Nobody pays the rent.

A mansion in the suburbs has become a space for work and life. Eteri also used it to satisfy her insatiable desire to host dinner parties.

“In Georgia, we throw big parties, and when you have a guest, you should treat him to dinner,” she explained her deep love for receiving and treating kindred souls, many of whom have recently been strangers.

in winter Eteri prefers to receive guests in a living room with Corinthian columns. During the warmer months, she makes full use of the backyard of the house.

There she hosted film screenings, screenings, musical events, performances and much more. Occasionally, casual people come in from the street to enjoy the fun and relax among the landscaped gardens.

The history of the mansion

Eteri recently hosted a small joint birthday party for herself and her brother, who is a year and five days her senior.

This mansion has a 134-year history. Like everything that has long existed in New York, this address has lived many lives. He was not always as handsome as he is now. Its previous owner, Jamaican-born marketing director Claudia Moran, bought it for $ 140 in 000 and was once an SRO. It was also the filming location for Sharon Stone and hosted the 1986th president, Grover Cleveland.

As far as Eteri knows, his current incarnation will remain unchanged. The owner, whom she speaks of in a reverent tone, has no plans to remodel, sell, or otherwise do anything to the building. The owner has many children and friends in New York and enjoys providing them with accommodation for a while.

Although the lease does not expire, Eteri's collections have an ephemerality, an aura that no gold can hold.

Indeed, what such an ornate and huge building in one of America's hottest real estate markets is currently used primarily as a venue for the festive whims of one outgoing artist is something of a New York miracle.