David Ganek, founder of now-defunct hedge fund Level Global, and his wife Danielle, a novelist and former journalist, are selling their 6,000-square-foot penthouse in the fabled Puck Building, on the border between New York’s Nolita and SoHo neighborhoods, with an asking price of $36.5 million.
Ganek became well known in 2010, when the FBI and New York prosecutors raided his company in an insider trading probe. He filed a lawsuit in February 2015 against the FBI and Southern District prosecutors after the raid resulted in the shutting down of his $4 billion firm. He claimed the FBI lied in order to secure a search warrant but lost the case in 2017. Neither Ganek nor Level Global were ever charged, and the financier now invests through his family office, Apocalypse 22.
Listed with with Dana Power and Max Nehrig at Corcoran, what is perhaps most striking about the Ganek’s four-bedroom and five-and-a-half-bath condo are the 2,000 square feet of beautifully planted decks and limestone-paved terraces. Especially pretty are the willow-draped pergola and serene fountain. There’s also a 55″ outdoor TV and a hot tub.
Designed by Fox Nahem Associates, the penthouse is both comfortable and sophisticated. The foyer and gallery feature the barrel-vaulted brick ceilings and cast-iron beams the Puck Building is known for, while Venetian plaster walls and custom lighting make the most of any art collection. And indeed, the Ganeks are well known for their avid art collecting; the apartment is filled with perfectly lit works by a who’s who of contemporary artists, including John Baldessari, Ed Ruscha, Alex Israel, Gilbert & George, Andy Warhol, and Robert Indiana.
The great room is surrounded by floor-to-ceiling windows, and offers amazing textures on every surface: custom metallic plank ceilings, more cast-iron columns, and pony hair-upholstered wall panels. The kitchen vibes industrial chic with another barrel-vault brick ceiling, a marble island, and a pricey La Cornue range. Luxurious textures also abound in the media room: custom millwork, padded wool walls that provide soundproofing, and a shiny metal-and-glass bar.
Tucked away at the end of a zig-zagging corridor, the master suite is truly luxurious, featuring blackened steel, bronze and oak finishes softened by mohair wall treatments. The suite also boasts a pair of deluxe bathrooms — both offer soaking tubs, steam showers, and hidden TVs — and two dressing rooms, as well as a home office and small gym. Three more bedrooms are all en-suite.
Built in 1985 as a printer’s warehouse, the Puck Building is a New York City landmark that was redeveloped by the Kushner family beginning in the late 80s. Jared Kushner, who went on to work as a senior advisor at the White House while his wife’s father was president, added six one-of-kind penthouses to the building in 2014. The largest of the penthouses was put into contract last year with an asking price of $42.5 million by Kushner’s younger brother, Josh Kushner, and supermodel Karlie Kloss, who own another penthouse in the building that’s also in contract to be sold, but with asking price of $23.5 million.
Even after this sale, the the Ganeks will hardly be homeless. They once owned a gigantic duplex at New York’s illustrious 740 Park Avenue — it was sold in 2017 for just over $25 million to Brazilian banking heir Jacob M. Safra — and like their Kushner neighbors, the couple recently bought in Florida, paying $22.7 million for a newly constructed mansion in Palm Beach. They also own an 8,500-square-foot mansion in Aspen, a large estate in the Hamptons, and a 48-acre spread in L.A.’s Mandeville Canyon that is currently on the market at $21.5 million, a huge discount from the $31.5 million the place was saddled with when it first came to market nearly four years ago.
