Monday, April 7, 2014

UPDATE: 960 Fifth Avenue

About a month ago Your Mama (and just about every other property gossip on the globe) discussed the Fifth Avenue penthouse that Edgar Bronfman Sr.'s heirs hoisted on the open market with an astronomical $65,000,000 price tag.

Almost immediately, so the high-toned real estate scuttlebutt goes, an intense bidding war erupted between a couple of deep pocketed prospective purchasers. The winner, who paid a pearl clutching $70 million for the sprawling five bedroom penthouse, is widely rumored and reported to be bazillionaire Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton, the drunk driving daughter of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton.

The $70 million purchase price makes it the most expensive co-operative apartment to ever trade hands in New York City but—seriously, kids, it's pocket change for 64-year old Miz Walton whose net worth is estimated to be somewhere close to $35 billion.

The art hoovering horse breeder currently lives on a 3,200 acre ranch in rural Millsap, Texas, about 80 miles due west of downtown Dallas.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Love that she can buy whatever she likes. However does not co op board approval take a bit of time (meaning is it really a done deal?). I am naive to all of this, and perhaps a billionairess is exempt from such scrutiny and gets the rubber stamp. I hope she gets a good gay decorator to freshen it up.

Anonymous said...

Werk bish!

Anonymous said...

In this kind of building, there is often a kind of "pre approval" of a potential tenant before the contract is signed. Unless something completely hidden is revealed, the new tenant should pass the board. I've heard that it is actually someone else who bought the place, so it will be interesting to see.

bentley said...

Oh my, A Walton at 960, there goes the neighborhood.

Fingers crossed she'll drive less in New York.

Sandpiper said...

Bentley,
You beat me to it. I was thinking about the New York City / no driving thing, too. She's a legal weapon behind the wheel.

Anonymous said...

@2:26 is completely right. In a building like this, if a contract has already been signed, it means that the boad has almost certainly told the contract-purchaser that they will most certainly be approved, and in a building like this, and such a pricey unit, I'd be surprised if the co-op board hadn't already given approval. First off, I'm entirely sure the realtor wouldn't even show this place to someone without "pre-qualifying" them, meaning that they'd be required to show proof of funds not just for the sales price, but also provide proof that they have sufficient "liquid" funds to meet the boards financial requirements. Despite what some believe, this doesn't have to be cold hard cash in an account. No one with that much money would have hundreds and hundreds of millions in cash just sitting around when it could be earning some rate of return. The "liquidity" requirements of co-op boards usually include any number of government/sovereign bonds, AAA rated corporate bonds, basically any investment that will hold its current value and could be turned to cash almost instantaneously.

But I'd also have to agree with you that I'd be real, real, surprised if Walton was the buyer. I have a hard time imagining the co-op board welcoming her with open arms, especially if there was a bidding war and other interested parties. They would much rather approve some non-famous rich person who was only willing to pay $60 or $65 mil, than a hillbilly that stepped in shit when her dad left her billions. Not to mention, wal mart is probably one of, if not the most, hated company in America. So if a Walton moves into their building they run a big risk of having occupy-Wall Street types or whatever protesting outside their building in the even of some wal mart scandal.

Not to mention that I don't really see why this woman would all the sudden drop $70million on a fancy shcmancy co-op in Manhattan, a place where the Walton's have really never had much of a prescience, especially at 64. If a Walton like her was looking to spend this kind of money in Manhattan I'd imagine they'd just go for some mega expensive condo.

I'd bet the buyer ends up being some hedge funder, what a surprise that'd be.

Anonymous said...

Ms. Walton and the Rabbi met by chance on the M4 local.

Rabbi Hedda LaCasa

Anonymous said...

2:32 "why this woman all of a sudden would drop 70M on a fancy schmancy co op.." Because she CAN dear. Why she would contribute to Hillary C (wont fill in the rest) is another story.

Anonymous said...

HILLBILLY? I don't think you know much about Ms. Walton or her interests? Maybe you should research more before you throw around names. Ever heard of Crystal Bridges?

Anonymous said...

Five counts of drunk driving and she still has car keys. That's not right. Multiple offenses. Anyone on the road while she's driving, including passengers, is subject to grave bodily anger.

Whatever secondary endeavors she's involved in are not part of the root concern.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/briansolomon/2011/10/13/alice-walton-arrested-for-dwi-held-overnight-on-birthday/

Anonymous said...

...oops... should be ... grave bodily danger.

Anonymous said...

Alice Walton is probably one of the three richest women in the world and a big deal in the art world who is willing to pay whatever for important and classic American paintings for her Crystal Bridges museum in Bentonville, Ark. If being an alcoholic who got rich the old fashioned way wasn't acceptable, they could never sell those apartments. Alice Walton is philanthropic and not a showy person. Edgar Bronfman Sr. lived there despite being the son of a (Jewish) bootlegger and despite his interesting personal life. Anne Bass of Fort Worth is a longtime resident, maybe she put in a good word for Miss Walton. If Alice Walton does move there, she should fit right in among Mrs. Bass, the Brazilian Safras and Steinbruchs, the Cisneros family of Venezuela, Mrs. C. Douglas Dillon, etc.

Anonymous said...

@3:24

Rabbi: I assume uptown M4. You were headed to Yeshiva U, she was going to the Cloisters, still wearing her admission sticker from the Metropolitan Museum which, as the Rabbi is no doubt aware, gets u into the Met-owned Cloisters. Provided u use it same day.

Anonymous said...

@12:48, I know much about Alice Walton and her interests. I am not saying that she isn't a generous person, and she is quite a good patron to the arts. When I called her a "hillbilly" I was being half sarcastic and half not. To many of us up north, anyone from Arkansas or other parts of the "deep south, Bible Belt, etc." are hillbillies. You can put lipstick on a pig but it's still a pig, meaning you can give someone a fortune, but it doesn't really change who they are. Ms. Walton may be very generous, and probably quite intelligent. But her behavior clearly shows she is still much of a redneck.
I mean, at one point she married the contractor who put in her pool, and then promptly divorced him. Then went on to another shotgun wedding, which she also promptly ended. And she's gotten into numerous very serious car accidents, including one where someone died as a result of her wreckless driving.
She once got a DUI while striking a gas meter, and another one years later on her birthday. Anyone who has tens of billions of dollars would hire a full time chauffeur, or at least hire a car to drive her around on occasions when she intends to get plastered, like her birthday. I mean that just shows she has absolutely zero class. And I assure you, class is probably the second most important step for board approval at 960 fifth.

@7:16, I think you missed my point. Obviously I know it would be "because she can." What I was getting at is that she is a 60 something year old woman who has spent most of her life living well below her means, living on a ranch in Texas with a ranch style home of about 4k square feet. I just don't see someone like her just deciding at this point in her life to "just say fuck it and suddenly change the way she lives drastically, from low-key rancher to heiress in the most expensive co-op in one of the most exclusive co-op buildings. I'm sure if people are speculating she's the buyer I'd imagine she probably did view the apartment. But I just don't see her passing muster with the board at all.

Anonymous said...

to 10:23 from 2:00...
Holy crap, she's already killed someone?

I speculated that she could cause a drunk driving death in the context of future speculation, not that it she as already killed someone. I just read up. She was not charged, nor has she serve time for all of the other DWIs. I'm repulsed.

Again, still has car keys?! What a loser. I'm repulsed.