Director Peter Jackson appears to have paid $17,350,000 for two units in New York’s TriBeCa area. We’re finally re-emerging after a few days of other activities, including some non-celebrity journalism that we still publish from time to time. As a result, we’re catching up on some celebrity real estate items that others have written on, but that we’ve ignored until now. Our first post involves an item that the New York Observer wrote a few days ago regarding New Zealander “Lord of the Rings” director Peter Jackson, who apparently is laying down some roots in New York City. The Observer noted that Jackson likely is the buyer behind a New Zealand-based entity called Loft Properties Limited, which has purchased two separate units in the Sugar Loaf Condominium building at 155 Franklin Street in TriBeCa. First, Loft Properties Limited paid $3,850,000 last year for the smaller first unit (“PHN,” which stands for “Penthouse North”) at 155 Franklin Street, with that deal going to contract on January 16, 2007, closing on June 21, 2007 and being recorded on July 6, 2007. Then, Loft Properties Limited paid $13,500,000 for the second penthouse unit (“PHS,” obviously denoting “Penthouse South”), with that second deal also going to contract on January 16, 2007, closing on June 30, 2008 and being recorded on July 9. In total, Jackson appears to have acquired a whopping 10 bedrooms, the Observer noted. In an interview with the seller, developer Chris Clark (the deed actually had been in the name of Clark’s 155-157 Franklin LLC company) told the Observer that the unit “wasn’t listed, but when the right buyer came along, they wanted the privacy of having the whole top floors.” The 8,018-square-foot space has another 4,000 square feet of outdoor space, including what the Observer noted was a “thickly planted wraparound terrace, caked in apple and pear trees, tulips and clematis.” The larger of the two units has a living room that measures an eye-popping 2,300 square feet. And, Clark added the top floor to the building, the Observer noted. The Sugar Loaf converted to condos in 1996.