Promoting an Higher East Facet townhouse generally is a lot like turning round a supertanker.
The palatial properties typically sit in the marketplace for years as itemizing brokers nudge them into form: change the turn-of-the-century finishes, modernize home equipment, and naturally, whittle away on the worth.
When one sells, it’s no small feat.
The house at 4 East 79th Road achieved such a victory in September 2024, promoting for $56 million, the seventh-highest worth fetched for a townhouse within the metropolis’s historical past. However the property reappeared in the marketplace in November, looking for one other peak worth.
The house, listed by Sotheby’s International Realty’s Serena Boardman, is now asking $68 million, making it probably the most costly townhouses in the marketplace within the metropolis. Spanning over 15,000 sq. toes, the 35-foot-wide limestone mansion is once more being marketed as a single-family residence, in response to a brand new itemizing for the property.
The vendor is American-Irish billionaire John Grayken, who based distressed debt investor Lone Star Funds and serves as chairman of the board, sources conversant in the unique sale informed The Actual Deal.
The explanations for the re-listing aren’t completely clear. Grayken, who reportedly renounced his American citizenship in 1999 for tax functions and spends most of his time in London, had purchased the house with plans to maneuver in earlier than altering course, sources informed TRD.
Grayken didn’t reply to a request for remark and a spokesperson for Lone Star declined to remark.
Boardman didn’t reply to a request for remark.
The primary three flooring maintain entertaining areas, together with a reception room, front room and formal eating room, and the constructing options strong mahogany doorways and home windows, bespoke marble paneling and flooring, English brown oak paneling, and parquet de Versailles and herringbone white oak flooring, in response to the itemizing.
The house can also be one of many few within the space with triple exposures as a result of a small strip of land on its western edge, which permits it to look out onto Central Park via a set of enormous western home windows.
The earlier proprietor, the late enterprise magnate Aso Tavitian, purchased the house in 1997 and commissioned a intestine renovation from architects Peter Pennoyer and Theodore Prudon that was completed in 2004.
After Tavitian died in 2020, his property listed the house at $65 million in 2023. Boardman had the itemizing as nicely.
The most recent $68 million asking worth has raised some eyebrows, given the quick turnaround time from when it final offered for $12 million much less.
The itemizing states that the home has been “up to date to incorporate all new methods” as of 2025, together with “safety, temperature/humidity, audio, lighting, and AV, in addition to a brand new kitchen, bogs, and different modifications.”
However some brokers expressed skepticism on the new worth. “Anyone who can afford that house is aware of how lengthy that takes,” one agent stated of a possible $12 million renovation.
One other summed up the secret relating to discovering a purchaser and transferring a trophy townhouse: “all you want is one.”
Difficult trades within the neighborhood
The Higher East Facet townhouse market has been comparatively energetic this 12 months, pushed by a variety of properties that minimize asking costs earlier than discovering a purchaser. There have been 63 gross sales recorded via the top of September this 12 months, up 37 p.c from final 12 months, in response to a market report from Leslie Garfield.
However the common sale worth has fallen 23 p.c to roughly $9 million, and the typical worth per sq. foot has fallen 10 p.c to $1,582.
One of many different few Gilded Age mansions arrange as a single-family at 973 Fifth Avenue closed for $46 million in May after initially asking $80 million in 2021. The house underwent a sequence of worth drops till it discovered a purchaser at its final asking price of $49.9 million in February.
The Woolworth Mansion at 4 East eightieth Road endured a fair longer ready interval, initially hitting the market in 2011 for $90 million. It found a buyer in October after chopping the asking worth all the way down to $50 million in March of this 12 months, closing for $38 million in November.
One other Gilded Age manse at 10 East 67th sold for $36 million in October after initially asking $50 million in 2024.
However Grayken can’t be faulted for attempting to show a revenue: A TRD evaluation discovered that of the 18 homes on the Higher East Facet, solely three have offered for lower than their earlier buy worth.
Along with his Higher East Facet buy, Grayken purchased a $35 million penthouse in Boston in 2016, setting a document on the time for the most costly condominium offered within the metropolis.
Grayken’s agency, Lonestar, has remained energetic as nicely, raising a $2.7 billion fund in 2024. It lately purchased a downtown Denver tower for $132.5 million and partnered on the acquisition of Fort Lauderdale’s Bank of America Plaza for $221 million. The agency can also be reportedly circling a 20-story San Francisco tower as soon as owned by WeWork.
