Falcone’s $80 Million Townhouse Sets a New York Record

(Bloomberg) -- A hedge fund manager sold his Upper East Side home for almost $80 million, the most expensive residential townhouse ever sold in New York, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. The townhouse, owned by Philip Falcone and his wife Lisa Falcone, is located on East 67th Street between Madison and Fifth Avenues.

The building previously belonged to Penthouse magazine founder Bob Guccione. The Falcones purchased it in 2008 for $49 million and have since invested millions in a multi-year renovation of the property, installing a pool and movie theater below ground level and expanding the property to almost 30,000 square feet.

The property was never formerly listed but instead shopped through real estate agent Adam Modlin for a couple of months, according to the Journal.

The sale comes hot on the heels of reports that Jeff Bezos bought three condos at 212 Fifth Ave. for $80 million, and Kenneth Griffin paid $238 million for a penthouse at 220 Central Park South. Despite these sales, New York’s luxury market remains relatively soft.  Sales at or above $30 million doubled in the first quarter year over year, according to a report from Douglas Elliman and Miller Samuel, though the listing discount for luxury sales also doubled, from 4.4 percent in Q1 of 2018, to 8.8 percent.

Richard Pretsfelder, a partner at  Leslie J Garfield & Co Inc., says Falcone’s sale is a positive indicator for the city. “It just goes to show that in spite of uncertainty in the market, there’s still buyers out there willing to pay top dollar for New York real estate,” he says, going further to say the volume of listings in the city is starting to pick up, especially on the Upper East Side. 

Lest any billionaires fear they’ve missed out, there are plenty of other mega townhouses on the Upper East Side that remain unsold. There’s a $67 million, 13,000-square-foot, seven-story mansion on East 63rd street right off Central Park listed by Corcoran; a 33-foot-wide townhouse 11 blocks north on East 74th street, listed for $41 million by Douglas Elliman; and an 11,000-square-foot mansion on East 76th Street with a price tag of $35.8 million, listed by Buchbinder & Warren Realty Group.

The Falcones have yet another townhouse that’s also up for sale for a comparatively modest $29.5 million.  

It came on the market for $39 million in 2018, but its price has been decreased several times. They originally bought the property for $10.4 million in 2004.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Justin Ocean at jocean1@bloomberg.net

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