Move over, Ekaterina Rybolovleva, it looks like your 15 Central Park West condo purchase is now the second most expensive ever: The country of Qatar has bought the former Wildenstein townhouse at 19 East 64th Street for somewhere north of $90 million.
There's some debate about the price: The Wall Street Journal says the sale is over $90 million while the Post claims the contract is at $100 million. Either way, that's a lot of cheddar—or just 0.058% of Qatar's GDP.
The building will become Qatar's first consulate in NYC (it's currently using the Ritz Carlton on Central Park South). Oren Alexander, a Douglas Elliman broker who represented Qatar, told the Real Deal, "Besides the location and width, it’s a turn-key property, which is what I think struck the state of Qatar. They wanted something that was going to happen rather quickly, and everything else in terms of location or with the right width was a project, and they didn’t want a two- or three-year project. Foreigners especially don’t want to come to the States and go through the headache of hiring contractors and building something." Hope they realize the UES is de Blasio's number one enemy.
The townhouse opened in 1932 was designed by Horace Trumbauer, based on the Wildenstein family's Paris home. David Wildenstein, who now heads the eponymous art firm, told the WSJ, "In many ways, it's a little bit the soul of this company and the soul of this family, so seeing it go will be difficult."
Curbed points out: "It remains to be seen whether it could eventually earn the title of most expensive residential sale overall because the buyer is an entity that will use the building for commercial purposes rather than an individual or family using it to live." And it's a better deal, per square foot, than Rybolovleva's CPW place: The East 64th Street townhouse is 20,500 square feet, while the Russian heiress's home is 6,437-square foot.
