SamboraBlog

Rock-and-rollers live the high life, all right.
Take Richie Sambora of Bon Jovi, who soon will settle on his $3.58 million condo on the 52d floor of Two Liberty Place.

Why Philly? "I love Philadelphia," Sambora said in a sit-down last week. He lived on Buttonwood Street in the mid-1980s while Bon Jovi recorded 7800° Fahrenheit at the Warehouse. "Living here is like coming home. At the end of the day, let's face it: I'm an East Coast kid. I'm a neighborhood kid. Philly's a neighborhood town."

Sweeping his hand - and his southern view takes in the stadium complex - he adds: "This is just a nicer neighborhood."

For now, his 2,600-square-foot apartment contains model furniture in its three bedrooms, 31/2 baths. The fridge has only Coke and water.

Sambora, who has a home in California and his mother's place in New Jersey, said he expected to move in around August, as the band's tour ends, and stay a total of a couple of months a year. He's excited about the building's concierge service. "I want to be catered to," he said. "I'm spoiled. I want room service. I want to press 9. When I'm home, I want the same kind of things I get on the road."

Sambora's choice of lodging seems curious. He and Jon Bon Jovi are partners in the Philadelphia Soul arena football team with Craig Spencer, who is developing a competing condo project, the Residences at the Ritz-Carlton, a block away.

Sambora said he had worked before with Two Liberty's developer, the Falcone Group. "I said, 'Hey, let me take a look at this.' We're friends. It was a shoo-in."

Sambora, describing himself as a single dad (his daughter, Ava, with ex-wife Heather Locklear, is 10), said he planned to take it easy here. "Oh, yeah. Naked broads all over," he said. "I don't think so. I'm a family guy now. I did all that - and I lived. . . . Everybody's grown up now. We've all got wives and kids. That's what this is going to be. A family place."

Richie Sambora talks about the music industry from his Two Liberty Place condo: http://go.philly.com/sambora