Call Me "Mansion" - NYTimes.com The new mansions of Manhattan, and the urban Gatsbys flush enough to buy them, are having a moment, uptown and down. But these 21st-century mega-estates - pretenders, in the opinion of some traditionalists - are a bold departure from the definition of the classic city palace: a monolith optimally possessing ample frontage on a distinguished avenue. Landmark stand-alones with Tara-evocative staircases and dimensions to match are being upstaged by nouveau models that are actually colossal lower-floor components of luxury condominium conversions. They have been downsized just a smidgen and modernized to the hilt, and they are usually attached to the development by a discretionary umbilical cord - a private door to an attended lobby. The condominium provides the service staff (for a fee), absolving the mansion-owner of the annoyance of bankrolling the square footage needed to house a private in-house staff and a load of other responsibilities inherent in homeownership. Call these mansions of convenience, and daringly expensive. "We're seeing the term "mansion" used as an enticing marketing term to put a better spin on units on the lower floors of luxury condominiums," said Pamela Liebman, the chief executive of the Corcoran Group. "I agree that the addition of condo amenities offers an enhanced lifestyle component as compared to that of the town house," she continued. But I don't know why they have to call them mansions. It seems like developers have found a way of glamorizing what might have been ordinary space and fetching an extra price for it. "Maybe," Ms. Liebman said, "this is New York City's version of the McMansion, a grand multilevel space that is fully amenitized. This is a way to differentiate a product that hasn't been offered in the past: but whatever it's called, it still has to deliver. Supposedly it does, or will eventually. Few are functional yet, but that didn't stop the modern art fancier Alberto Mugrabi, whose family owns the largest private collection of Warhols in the world, from contracting to buy not just one but two of the four mansions offered by prospectus at the Schumacher, a Bleecker Street conversion. Once combined, they will provide him with a 9,000-square-foot playpen/gallery and his very own front door. Maybe two. "I stumbled onto something that totally fit expectations I didn't even know I had," Mr. Mugrabi said. The layout is perfect. I thought I wanted views, but here my views will be of a beautiful courtyard. It's hard to find new space with those dimensions, and I love it that it's in an old building being elegantly restored. "When I think of mansions," he said, "I think of the Frick, or a humongous house on the Upper East Side. I guess I'm going to have one of my own downtown, but I probably won't call it my mansion. I'll call it home. Or my pied-à-terre, ha-ha. By sleight of description, developers and brokerages are marketing as mansions enormous and extravagant lower-floor spaces inside - or in a few cases alongside - top-shelf condo conversions. This is because, according to them, using words like "maisonette" or "town house" would unfairly diminish the product in the eye of the buyer/beholder. "The informal rule of thumb in real estate is that residences with 25 feet or more of frontage are mansions - it's sort of the litmus test," said Roy Stillman of Stillman Development International, the developer of the Schumacher, the $70 million conversion of a 19th-century printing house at 36 Bleecker Street. Of the 20 units there, 4 were designated mansions (3 are spoken for). The 4 mansions range in price from $6.75 million to $10.995 million. "Just being eligible for the word didn't make it true," he said. A big place that's shoddy is just a big, shoddy home. These homes convey Old World grandeur. From a subjective perspective, I can say that they are bona fide mansions and pass the straight-face test. Also, according to the purveyors, the newfangled concept is superior to the traditional version precisely because, along with all that newness and potential for customization, it offers an option the old-timers can't: an embarrassment of 24/7 white-glove amenities, security and service.