Tuesday, December 20, 2011

UPDATE: Sandy Weill

 Your Mama suggests the children sit down and swaller a nerve pill because several reports from (reputable) New York City real estate gossip columns claim that very controversial former Citigroup CEO Sanford "Sandy" Weill sold–for the full asking price–the opulent New York City penthouse he slung on the open market with much hullabaloo just over a month ago with a glass shattering $88,000,000 price tag and a very public promise to donate the sale proceeds to unspecified philanthropic causes.

The first reports out of the New York Observer on Sunday pinned the prodigious purchase atop limestone sheathed 15 Central Park West on Russian chemist turned multi-billionaire potash potentate Dmitry Rybolovlev, a man who sold his multi-pronged fertilizer concern last year for around $6,500,000,000 and is said to be worth somewhere in the neighborhood of 9.5 billion bucks.

The folks at Forbes quickly followed up with an important (and flabbergasting) clarification: The Weill spread, 6,744 square feet of immaculate interior space with a wide terrace that wraps around three sides of the apartment with drop dead park and city views, was not actually purchased by Mister Rybolovlev but rather Ekaterina Rybolovleva, his horse-minded 22-year old second daughter, reportedly a resident of Monaco, a student at an unnamed U.S. University, and a competitive equestrian.

Forbes actually received a statement from young Miss Rybolovleva's representative(s) who revealed the barely legal heiress "plans to stay in the apartment when visiting New York." That's right, "when visiting." This pampered whippersnapper–a college student, mind y'all–just dropped a record breaking $88,000,000 on a god damn pied à terre.

This news comes on the heels of the $85,000,000 purchase of The Manor, showbiz widow Candy Spelling's severely bloated behemoth in Los Angeles acquired earlier in the year by 22-year old London-based Formula One racing heiress (and out-and-out real estate size queen) Petra Ecclestone. Doth we spot a budding real estate trend, children? College-aged scions with multiple part-time residences around the world that each cost more than the GDP of any number of nations in sub-Saharan Africa? Have mercy.

Whether an emerging real estate trend or not Your Mama smells a back story to the Rybolovlev(a) acquisition that we suspect has less to do with one globe-trotting über-heiress with a thing for pricey pieds à terre trying to outdo another globe-trotting über-heiress with a thing for pricey pieds à terre than it does an exceedingly wealthy international businessman managing his vast fortune in a manner advantageous to his jam-packed pocketbook and swollen real estate portfolio.

We don't know a roller coaster from a dirt clod but we can imagine this pricey procurement could be a good thing for Mister Rybolovlev's tax situation, an easy place to park a substantial amount of cash or possibly have something to do with the ongoing divorce battle with his soon to be ex-wife Elena who has requested the Swiss courts grant her half of everything he's got including the keys and deed to Maison La Amitie, the grotesquely opulent, 33,000 square foot ocean front residence in Palm Beach, FL for which Mister Rybolovlev paid Donald Trump $95,000,000 in cold hard cash back in the summer of 2008.

Mister Weill and his wife Joan coughed up $43,687,750–or $42,405,000 depending on where one looks–for the Robert A.M. Stern designed and Mica Ertegun decorated penthouse at 15 Central Park West back in August 2007. At the time it was one of the highest amounts paid per square foot for a private residence in Manhattan. The single-level, mansion-sized penthouse carries, according to listing information we peeped, monthly maintenance fees and taxes that total $13,824.

A few quick flicks of the well-worn beads on Your Mama's bejeweled abacus shows that Mister Weill now has $44,312,250–or $45,595,000–less capital gains and no-doubt substantial real estate fees to donate to the charity or charities of his choice.

As far as we know Mister and Missus Weill continue to own and maintain a much smaller apartment on a much lower floor at 15 Central Park West, a significant estate in big money Greenwich, CT, a camp in the Adirondacks, and a nearly 400 acre spread in Sonoma, CA they scooped up in October 2010 for (a reported) $31,000,000.

floor plan: Brown Harris Stevens

38 comments:

Anonymous said...

*dead*

mama, it seems like everyone buying these super expensive properties in the us are russian.

Anonymous said...

Whom is going to protect this woman when the much more violent occupyers storm the doormen and building? Weil no doubt sees the writing on the wall and it is much easier to arm and secure his Sonoma estate, than live in a collapsing city in the end days.

Anonymous said...

Good for these billionairesses! Love it! More Reality Shows Perhaps! Oh Yes!

Any updates on my favorite Petra and her lair?

Anonymous said...

For them, an $88,000,000 pied-a-terre is probably about the equivalent of buying your kid an $800,000 condo to live in while he's at NYU if you're worth, say, $8,000,000. No?

Anonymous said...

You have to remember that the price they paid the developer -- $42-43m, doesn't include the build out and finishing of the interior which surely set them back many, many millions more. However, I do believe the basic floorplan was determined by the Stern firm as part of the original development of the building.

As an aside, on a number of occasions, I have been in an apartment on a comparable floor in an adjacent building, and seen Joan using the terrace to walk her dog. But that's the extent of my first-hand.

Kansas City Realtor said...

What is abnormal here? Doesn't everyone give their kids a few hundred million dollars to buy second homes?

I'm sure these real estate deals are ways to escape taxes.

Doug said...

When I was 22 I had a one bedroom apartment and a second-hand Buick. Believe it or not, I wouldn't change my life at that time for what her's will be.

Anonymous said...

Hope more Russians, Chinese and other foreign nationals come to the USA to spend their $$$$billions. Good way to jump start the economy.

Anonymous said...

this just disgusts me! so tired of these russian and european billionaires buying up mass properties in the us for their daughters and wives. they are just buying the american dream because they can. no hope for the rest of us- i mean us "americans" the blue collar working class.

Jayne said...

Ekaterina, dahlink, keep those grades up if you ever want to amount to something.

Anonymous said...

agree with the comments here... nyc is gonna be the new moscow/china/muslim stronghold. what american wants to live there.. noone speaks english.. same with miami- the new latin america. buckle down and grab your m4's... nwo is here and us americans are s.o.l.

Anonymous said...

Just disgusting on all fronts.

And who cares where she goes to university, no one cares about this chick. I am pretty sure unless she does not actually attend any university, it would take about 5 seconds for someone who knows her to blab. anyway, just look for the young pampered overpriviliged chick with 5 Russian bodyguards around her on campus.

Anonymous said...

This is a great building and keeps setting records because there is no co-op board to reject purchases like this one. The co-op buildings on Park Avenue and Fifth Avenue would never approve these buyers in a million years.

Buyers don't have to worry about how they got their money, their religion, ethnicity, career, social standing, if they are "old enough" money, or if they even plan on living there. The only thing that matters if if the cheque clears.

This building is going to keep setting records for selling price per sq ft.

Anonymous said...

Who cares what nationality the buyer is or if the bulding is "restricted"? Some of you sound like Auntie Mame's almost in-laws.
She and Daddy are bringing a ton of money and many jobs for the designers and other workers that refurb the place.
Jealous much?

Anonymous said...

Ugh, co-ops suck. Old money is so overrated. I'd rather live in a young glamorous international new money building like this with fun over-the-top folks and celebrities than live with Agnes and Mortimer in some stuffy old building on Park Avenue.

Anonymous said...

6:27 PM well since you Americans are too broke to buy your own damn properties WE WILL.

DEAL WITH IT.

angie said...

10:18, zing, ouch, wink

Anonymous said...

I agree that it's great to have these monied foreigners coming here to spread their wealth the old fashioned way - by spending it!

Also, a minor tax law clarification for you Mama - if'n Sandy is donating this money to charity, no capital gains taxes will be due. 100% will go for a good cause of his choice. I'm sure he pays more than his share of taxes though each year to keep the New York social welfare industrial complex humming!

Anonymous said...

My how times have changed..When I was a kid, if I didn't wake-up with a boner on XMAS morning I'd have nothing to play with the whole day!

Anonymous said...

Anon. 6:20 PM is clueless. I have no idea what this woman plans to do with the interiors of this particular apartment, although I wouldn't be surprised if she makes some significant changes because that's just the way it is with these types. However, in general, renovations of large apartments end up employing many, many people, ranging from the guys who gut the old apartment all the way through the ones doing the touch up painting the day before the move in and programming the Lutron system to make the blinds go down at 3 PM. If you saw the line of laborers forming at 8:45 AM to get in to some of these buildings, maybe you wouldn't be so dismissive. And I can guarantee you that the money is being far more efficiently moved down to the working class than any shovel ready stimulus plan that the government could dream up.

Anonymous said...

I think many more US super rich should sell their overpriced real estate to foreigners (including Russians) and then donate the proceeds to some worthy cause. This is a way to get foreign super rich to support our charities. I can't see any downside to that.

Anonymous said...

LMAO at the idiots that really believe these people when they say the money is going to charity. All these charities are is a way for them to funnel their money tax free into another entity and make themselves look good in the process. Weill and this guy are both thieves, I am sure none of this deal is kosher.

I guess the same idiots that think these charities are legit are the same people that give their money to these crooked ministers every Sunday and then those guys buy multi-million dollar homes, six figure cars and jets.

And yeah, redecorating one apartment is really going to boost the economy, yeah right. Bringing a factory or business in that employs thousand of people boosts jobs, not some rich spoiled brat renovating her apartment for a few months.

Mike Cook said...

zing, ouch, wink indeed. Sadly true.

"Ugh, co-ops suck". Oh darling, come sit by me. We have to talk.

Anonymous said...

Anon 6:52, thanks for backing up my post. Just to redo my little beach house in CA took almost year and I couldn't even count the number of workers and subs. Painting and scrapping the ceilings took them over a month for 1700SF. I was my own gay decorator however, lol.

And to those saying the Russians or whoever are "taking over", I've heard that same tired line back in the 80s with the Japanese and the Persians. Hasn't happened yet. We should all be thrilled that the USA is still considered one of the prime spots in the world, especially from an investment standpoint.

lil' gay boy said...

"...so tired of these russian and european billionaires buying up mass properties in the us for their daughters and wives..."

Anyone besides lil' ol' me remember the late 70s when the "A-rabs" were buying everything in sight, or the late 90s when it was the Japanese buying Hollywood lock, stock & barrel?

Get over it.

So what if someone else is currently beating us at our own game; good for them. Because when all is said and done, it's still skewed in our favor.

And don't think for a minute that this current crop of heiresses has anything new on the likes of Doris Duke, Gloria Vanderbilt, Barbara Hutton and their grip on the dubious title of "Poor Little Rich Girl" --- something else we invented, too.

Anonymous said...

anon 9:11a.m.--"heard the same in the 80's re persians".. um...... ever heard of orange county... they infested the oc like a plague now look at it!

imo- i could care less about spolied kids and daddy's pocketbook. it's a life none of us will live so just move on and be content with what'cha got.

Anonymous said...

Some of you whores are just overflowing with jealousy. Yes, the "foreigners" can afford things you could never dream of even seeing. Get over it. Keep hating from your trailer park in Weedhole, Oklahoma.

Anonymous said...

8:12. How do you know the money will not go to a legitimate charity? Why not hold his feet to the fire and demand to know what charity it has gone to? There is no doubt that he will get a tax deduction for the charitable gift, but that is true of all charitable gifts.

Anonymous said...

i think the 88 million should goto the wounded warrior project and spec op's warrior relief fund.. those are 2 charities that would benefit greatly.

Anonymous said...

Rich americans buy property in foreign countries all the time. Now the tables are turning.....
Good luck.....

Anonymous said...

99% of these charities are BS and garbage, that is why Bill Gates does his own work.

I still remember the most "legitimate" one of all the Red Cross was paying Elizabeth Dole a salary of $500,000 or so a year. One of my family members works for Worldvision and she is an utter scam artist also. She met with a wealthy potential donor and had a fit that the woman did not put her up in a five star hotel and not take her to a five star restaurant.

I have three reverends in my neighborhood that live in large million dollar plus homes and drive six figure cars while their congregations barely can pay their bills.

The day that I believe that a transaction between a Wall Street thief and a Russian thief/murder is legitimate and true will be the day that I put a downpayment on the Brooklyn Bridge.

Nathan said...

I dislike when kitchens aren't connected or beside the dining room. And why is there a wet bar in the "bedroom area" of the home? lol. Midnight drinks I guess?

Anonymous said...

Renovations on the scale of this apartment can easily cost $1,000 to $2,000 per square foot. That works out to $6.7 million to $13.5 million, which is a lot of trickle down.

Even condos have work rules and restrict the hours when work can be done, so the estimate of "a few months" is not realistic. Despite what some commenters have said, that does in fact represent a sizable number of jobs all across the spectrum from laborers to painters to upholsterers to craftsmen, etc.

A buyer like this would never pass a co-op board. It is not about being stuffy, it is about being prudent. The "fun over the top people and celebrities" are NOT good neighbors, and rarely have any interest in interacting with their neighbors - all they bring are guests, bodyguards and stalkers.

Foreign ownership is frowned on not because of xenophobia, but because of the possibility that the purchaser may decide at some point to stop paying the maintenance, and it is much more difficult to pursue an absentee owner.

Anonymous said...

12:43 PM
"I have three reverends in my neighborhood that live in large million dollar plus homes and drive six figure cars while their congregations barely can pay their bills".
What the hell neighborhood do you live in? Facts please, 'cause I'm in OC at the beach and wish I had neighbors that could at least afford to keep up their places. Something about this post stinks......

Anonymous said...

3:42 not everyone lives in overpriced California idiot.
You do know that there is an entire world outside of California and New York, right?

in fact in most of the country you can get massive homes beginning in the high six figures and so on.

Anonymous said...

I find it fascinating and amazing that people already know he will give the money to a worthless or fake charity. Even before he has done it. I wish I could know ahead of time what people will do. It would be helpful in planning my future.

Anonymous said...

I don't think the charity is "fake" .... but I do think this is a public relations maneuver. The Weills know that there is likely to be a lot of attention from selling the most expensive apartment in New York, so they are trying to mitigate bad PR. My guess is that the proceeds will go into a private foundation, which will then disperse the funds to charity over a period of years..... BUT that it is more of a shell game in that they will not being giving more than they would otherwise be donating. They are just publicly linking the sale of the apartment to the giving. It would be nice if they gave a lump some to a single, worthy institution (like Lincoln Center next door... or a hospital) but I wouldn't hold my breath for that kind of largesse

Anonymous said...

And people wonder why there is a growing unrest in the streets, alleys and squares around the world.