Livvy Dunne called too ‘sparkly' for NYC neighborhood as locals question why co-op blocked her from buying Babe Ruth pad: locals

New York Post

5 days ago

She may have played gymnastics with the truth.
Former LSU gymnast and influencer Olivia 'Livvy' Dunne's viral sob story about being rejected by an Upper West Side co-op board stretches many details, neighbors and building insiders claimed.
Other locals said even if Dunne didn't take a tumble in her $1.59 million bid to buy Yankees great Babe Ruth's former apartment, the social media phenom would simply have been too 'sparkly' for the subdued neighborhood.
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'I think she's making a lot of stuff up to get people to feel sorry for her,' a longtime worker in the West 88th Street building who's familiar with the matter told The Post.
6 Olivia 'Livvy' Dunne's tale of last-minute rejection by a co-op board split from the truth, locals said.
TikTok / @livv
6 Dunne was nowhere near closing a deal on Babe Ruth's old home, a building worker said.
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Dunne, a former LSU star gymnast who's dating Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes, vaulted into megastardom in part because of her prolific presence online.
But, as The Post first reported, Dunne's oversharing ways — — including an Instagram video celebrating that she 'bought a nyc apt' — ticked off co-op board members and may have led them to reject her purchase.
Neighbors in the quiet Upper West Side neighborhood weren't surprised.
Many said the Sport Illustrated Swimsuit model's perpetually online personality would be out of balance in the residential blocks near Riverside Park.
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'She's sparkly! She doesn't belong here,' joked Monica Rosenberg, who has lived on the block for six years.
'Maybe she likes standing out, but eventually, if this is going to be her home, and she wants to be accepted by her neighbors and be accepted as part of the community, there's nothing in it for her,' Rosenberg added. 'She can walk her dog in Riverside Park five times a day, and then she'll say this is very boring.'
6 Local Monica Rosenberg said Dunne was too much of a 'sparkly' celebrity to truly feel at home on the West 88th Street block.
Robert Miller
6 Dunne had her heart set on Babe Ruth's old home.
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6 Dunne is dating Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes.
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Boring or not, Dunne apparently had her heart set on buying Babe Ruth's old home, but hit a foul ball with a very New York City adversary: the co-op board.
Co-op boards notoriously aren't obligated to say why they reject prospective buyers — a practice that advocates argue fuels racial discrimination and violates the city's human rights law.
A City Council bill last year would've required co-op boards to outline each and every reason for stopping sales, but it failed to get beyond committee.
Dunne's one-sided battle with the co-op board did garner some sympathy online.
'Welcome to NYC coop boards, where money can't buy you everything,' an X user posted. 'They make suburban HOA's (sic) look like welcoming committees.'
But one Big Apple real estate broker chimed in with suspicions about Dunne's story.
'There's something fishy about this,' the broker tweeted.
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'You don't get a board denial one week before going to pick up your keys. In fact, the board makes there [sic] decision well before a closing is even scheduled. There's definitely more to this story.'
The longtime building worker claimed Dunne had much farther to go in her bid to buy Babe Ruth's home than she told her millions of followers.
'Like, she said they were going to give her the keys,' the worker said. 'No, that's not true. It doesn't work like that. It's extensive, she would actually have to go get interviewed. They would check her out first. She didn't even do none of that.
'She had another probably six, seven weeks worth of interviewing and checking her finances and stuff like that. She didn't even get that far.'
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Celebrities more famous than Dunne have been rejected by the co-op board, the worker said, without elaborating beyond 'financiers, tech people, a family member from the Coca-Cola family.'
Applicants who have been approved are mostly husbands and wives, families, successful professionals and a handful of directors and actors, the worker said.
Dunne's social media oversharing probably didn't help her application, and could harm her prospects at other co-op buildings, the worker offered.
'A lot of people are going to see this,' the worker said. 'She's going to apply to other buildings and they're not going to want the application. It's just making it worse for her.'
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6 Dunne's online oversharing helped cost her the apartment, residents said.
Co-op boards are leery of influencers such as Dunne because they bring paparazzi, chattering fans and other troubles, real estate brokers have told The Post.
Lucas States, 24, a dog walker strolling near Dunne's would-be home, said those boards in his experience are also suspicious of trust funds.
He said it was difficult to find a co-op board that would work with the 'circumstances' surrounding his trust fund when he first moved to the Big Apple.
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'I also wanted to do a cash-only type deal here, but they [co-op boards] did not want to do that,' he said. 'I remember reading somewhere that they think you get your income through drug dealing and that kind of stuff. There's a lot of stigma around it.'
Dunne's reps and seller's agent didn't return requests for comment.
Additional reporting by Jenna Lemoncelli