The last time actor-singer-U.N. goodwill ambassador-Panamanian tourism minister (and, it has to be said, all-around Renaissance man) Ruben Blades dipped into the real-estate market back in 2005, he was unloading his West Houston loft for $3.26 million in 2005. He returned in February, when the Real Deal reported he’d gone into contract for an 1842 Italianate brownstone in Chelsea. Looks like the deal has closed, and city records confirm that Blades did not negotiate the price down a whit — brokers from Massey Knakal had it listed for $3.95 million, and he paid exactly that. Then again, the seller was the Roman Catholic Church of the Guardian Angel, so perhaps it seemed daunting to negotiate with an entity as divine as that?
