Brown Harris Stevens
- A billionaire’s Manhattan mansion is finally set to sell after nearly 8 years on and off the market, WSJ reports.
- It’s in contract to sell for close to $60 million, a 47% discount from its original $114 million asking price in 2013.
- The 20,000-square-foot townhouse has a panic room, a pool, and a Versailles-inspired dining room.
- Visit the Business section of Insider for more stories.
After nearly eight years on and off the market, one of New York City’s most opulent homes is finally in contract to sell for nearly $60 million, Katherine Clarke reported for the Wall Street Journal.
If the deal closes at that amount, it would be a roughly 47% discount from the home’s original price.
The 20,000-square-foot mansion with a panic room and a Versailles-inspired dining room was originally asking $114 million in 2013, making it the most expensive home listed in the city. But it has seen price chop after price chop and was most recently listed for $79 million.
The home’s billionaire owner, Vincent Viola, who owns the Florida Panthers, nearly sold the home once before. In 2017, a buyer was in contract to buy the home from Viola for $80 million, The Real Deal reported. But the deal fell through, so the house went up for rent for $175,000 a month before being relisted for $88 million.
Listing agent Paula Del Nunzio of Brown Harris Stevens did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment for this story.
Here’s what the Manhattan mansion, now set to sell for around $60 million, looks like.
Brown Harris Stevens
Since it was first listed for $114 million in 2013, the home has seen several price reductions. Even its most recent listing price of $79 million made it the second-priciest public listing in the city, according to Trulia and Zillow.
Vincent Viola, who founded Virtu Financial and has a net worth of $2.8 billion, bought the house in 2005 for $20 million, according to The Real Deal.
In December, Viola sold his home in Brooklyn Heights for $25.5 million, breaking the record for Brooklyn’s priciest home sale ever, Mansion Global reported.
The townhouse is half a block from Central Park.
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The six-bedroom Upper East Side townhouse is 40 feet wide and “totally renovated,” the listing agent, Paula Del Nunzio of Brown Harris Stevens, told Insider in 2019.
Brown Harris Stevens
The opulent six-level home spans more than 20,000 square feet. The floors in the entry hall are heated onyx marble.
Four windows span both the front and the rear facades, providing “remarkable light at all times,” according to the listing.
The formal entry hall has 14-foot ceilings.
Brown Harris Stevens
The house has a water filtration system, a security system with cameras, and a heated sidewalk for automatic snow removal.
The entry hall opens to a rotunda with 28.5-foot ceilings.
Brown Harris Stevens
The home’s interior design style is “typical of the great mansions of Europe and of Stanford White in America,” Del Nunzio told Insider in 2019.
“The original architect of this mansion, William Bosworth, worked on the Rockefeller family estate, Kykuit in Tarrytown, and under the auspices of John D. Rockefeller Jr., Bosworth was commissioned to restore the Palace of Versailles, France,” she said.
A hidden door off the main hallway leads to the double-height library and office with 24-foot ceilings.
Brown Harris Stevens
The house was commissioned for an international silk trader in 1883 and renovated into its neoclassical style in 1913.
A colorful mural is painted on the library’s ceiling.
Brown Harris Stevens
On the garden level, an additional entrance to the library offers private access to the office.
Del Nunzio described the scale of the interior rooms as “without compare” in any New York mansion.
Brown Harris Stevens
Viola, the owner, collected art, furnishings, and decoration ideas during his world travels that were used in the home, per the listing.
In 2017, the home almost sold to a Chinese buyer for $80 million, but the deal fell through, The Real Deal reported.
Brown Harris Stevens
The house then went up for rent for $175,000 a month before being relisted for $88 million.
The home’s third floor includes a 40-foot-wide kitchen.
Brown Harris Stevens
Four windows bring in bright natural light.
On the same level is the formal dining room, which was inspired by the Palace of Versailles in France and can accommodate more than 40 people.
Brown Harris Stevens
Bosworth, the home’s architect, was also commissioned to restore Versailles, according to Del Nunzio.
The house includes two bedrooms on the fourth level and a master-bedroom suite with a large sitting room and two full baths on the fifth level.
Brown Harris Stevens
The two 40-foot-wide bedrooms on the fourth floor could be converted to four or more bedrooms, according to the listing.
The fifth-floor master bedroom also includes two dressing rooms and a separate guest suite.
Brown Harris Stevens
One of the master bedroom’s dressing rooms is wired as a panic room, the listing says.
The bathroom pictured in the listing looks like it belongs in a palace.
Brown Harris Stevens
Like much of the apartment, it’s decorated opulently. The apartment has a total of nine bathrooms.
On the home’s lower level is the saline swimming pool, as well as two saunas and a full bath.
Brown Harris Stevens
In the rear of the pool is the lower entrance to the split-level home movie theater.
The movie theater spans two levels and includes 12 velvet chairs.
Brown Harris Stevens
In total, the apartment is spread across six floors, culminating in a 2,650-foot rooftop that has a garden — and views of Central Park.
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