YOUR MAMA’S NOTES: The French government put up the U.N. ambassador’s residence at New York’s ungodly ritzy and pedigreed 740 Park Avenue up for sale on the open market in early April with an immense, if not exactly unheard of, $48 million asking price. (As per our trusty currency conversion contraption That’s €35,290,700 and 231,492 FRF, at today’s rates.)
A blistering bidding war broke out between a trio of real estate baller buyers and, as was first reported by the peeps at Paris Match, the elegant and generously proportioned if not particularly chic, 18-room duplex is said to be under contract for an astonishing $70 million. The buyer? A low-profile American multi-billionaire named Israel “Izzy” Englander who, Your Mama’s entirely unscientific research on the Internets suggests, has a bit of a thing for statement eyewear.
Now, buckle in, kids, because here’s where things get really interesting. The hedge fund plutocrat already owns a sprawling simplex apartment directly upstairs from the one being sold by the French government. So, the question is, does the silver-spooned Mister Englander want to knock through the floor of his simplex and the ceiling of the duplex to create a titanic triplex that would rival that of business tycoon Stephen Schwartzman, the current owner of the building’s largest apartment? Or does he just want to swap the simplex for the duplex? Bueller? Bueller? Anyone?
Of course, even though he’s a resident of the building since 2000 when he bought the high floor simplex for an unknown amount, in order to complete to purchase of the downstairs duplex Mister Englander will need an official and typically tough to come by nod of approval from the building’s famously persnickety board. Your Mama has no idea whether the all-mighty board would or would not see a possible combination of the two already huge apartments into one suburban Mcmansion-sized behemoth as a good or a bad thing but, be assured butter beans, if that’s on Mister Englander’s residential real estate agenda they’ll most certainly have the last word on that, too.
FYI: Listing details show the monthly common charges for the duplex rack up to $24,087 per month. That’s $289,044 per year. Anybody else feeling a little financially inadequate right now?
For more photos of the property, click here.
Listing photos and floor plan: Brown Harris Stevens and/or Sotheby’s International Realty
