An Upper East Side town house just sold for $40 million. Here’s what it means for the neighborhood
An Upper East Side townhouse has just exchanged hands for over $40 million cash amid a shroud of secrecy. The deal, as reported by The Wall Street Journal, and NY Post, is one of the year’s priciest deals at a period where NY Real Estate has been against the ropes with surging inventory and falling prices. The buyer had gone to great lengths to keep their name private (though several news sources have outed him as David Koch).
“It was one of the most concealed transactions I’ve ever seen — all through a trustee in Delaware,” someone familiar with the deal told The Post.
What hasn’t been a secret is the seller’s identity. The property is a parcel of six landmarked row houses purchased by developer Joseph Chetrit in 2007 for $26 million. He combined them into three, skirting the Landmarks Preservation Commission by maintaining the properties facades while dramatically altering the interiors. As investments go, they turned out to be incredible, earning almost 5 times their original purchase price in a decade. The house in question is located at 110-112 E.76th St. A second mansion is located at 118-120 E.76th St and is on the market for $39 million while the third at 118-120 E.76th St. is not yet listed.
The sold house is 36 feet wide and has 15,000 square feet, spanning seven levels with eight bedrooms, ten bathrooms and four half bathrooms. Despite updates and contemporary furnishings, the property is old school New York luxury with marble, onyx and brass finishes. A wall of glass on the ground floor overlooks a limestone clad courtyard.
The buyer, apparently fell in love with the home while visiting it as part of the 2018 Kips Bay Decorator Show House, with the interior designs kept on, with the designers permission, from the event.
The sale marks another piece of positive news for the Upper East Side, following Street Easy’s Q2 Mark Report in July which showed the UES the only buoyant neighborhood in Manhattan. According to the report, The Upper East Side was the only submarket where prices rose. Home prices in the neighborhood which includes the UES submarkets of Lenox Hill, Yorkville, Carnegie Hill, Upper Carnegie Hill as well as UES neighborhoods, increased 3 percent to $1,058,121. Prices dropped in every other submarket; in Midtown, they dipped to 2016 levels, falling 3.3 percent from last year to $1,206,268. Earlier this year a mansion at 19 64th St sold for $90 million after selling the previous year for $79.5 million after the Chinese conglomerate that purchased ran into financial difficulty.
The reasons for the Upper East Side’s growth can be squarely attributed to the opening of the Second Avenue subway. Fairly affordable neighborhoods, such as Yorkville, were primed for gains. In addition, numerous condos and apartments have flooded the area.
There is a chance that after a long wait, the rest of Manhattan may soon be able to catch up.
“The dynamics of the city’s real estate market have favored renting over buying for some time now, though the tide may be starting to turn,” says StreetEasy Senior Economist Grant Long in the report. “New Yorkers with the means for a down payment now have more options to choose from than at any point in the past seven years — and this trend isn’t just contained at the high-end, where we’ve been seeing rising inventory for several years now. Heading into the fall, buyers are in a strong position to strike a deal and can afford to shop around, wait for the right home, and negotiate aggressively.”