Manhattan townhouse fetches $79.5 million, setting price record

Bloomberg

A home on Manhattan’s Upper East Side sold for $79.5 million, according to property records made public, making it the highest price ever paid for a townhouse in the borough. The 20,500-square-foot property, at 19 E. 64th St., had been owned by the Wildenstein family, billionaire art dealers whose gallery was located at the site for more than 80 years. The previous record for a Manhattan townhouse was the $53 million paid for 4 E. 75th St., in 2006, according to appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. In 2014, the Wildenstein family signed a deal to sell its limestone-clad building to the government of Qatar for use as a consulate. The building has three stories, accessible by elevator, and 20-foot (6.1-meter) ceilings, according to a description in a lawsuit brought by another would-be buyer. The plaintiff in that suit, Len Blavatnik’s Access Industries LLC, accused the Wildensteins of reneging on a verbal agreement to sell it the townhouse for $79 million after the Qatar deal fell through.