Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Another High Priced Pad at 834 Goes on the Market

SELLERS: Leslie and Abigail Wexner
LOCATION: 834 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY
PRICE: quietly asking $60,000,000
SIZE: Huge

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Turns out Araxia Buckhantz's $30,000,000 two bedroom sprawler in the unimaginably exclusive apartment house at 834 Fifth Avenue in New York City isn't the only grand apartment for sale in the white glove building. According to the always on top of things Max Abelson at the New York Observer, billionaire retailer Leslie Wexner has quietly foisted his little used doo-plex on to the market with a butt clenching $60,000,000 asking price.

That's right children, sixty million big ones. Your Mama needs a nerve pill just to get our damn mind around a number that big.

For all the children not caught up on the whos and whats about American billionaire biznessmen, let Your Mama school you for a moment. Mister Wexner, a man whom Your Mama indirectly used to work for, started The Limited clothing stores which eventually popped up in just about every mall in America and made the man richer than the damn Pope. Mister Wexner, a man who knows how to mint money, has since bought and started a string of super successful mall brands such as Victoria's Secret, Bath & Body Works, The White Barn Candle Company and perhaps the jewel in his retail tiara, the venerable Henri Bendel department store.

Reports from the time reveal Mister Wexner, who had blue tinted hair, a much younger wifey and an even younger male assistant the last time we ran into him, purchased his 6 bedroom doo-plex fixer upper in 1997 for $9,000,000 after it sat on the market for several years. Years! At 834! The seller was a mysterious gal named Eduarda Crociani, of Italy and Monaco, according to a New York Times article. It was also reported at the time that Miz Crociani owned another apartment adjoining the lower floor of her doo-plex which she sold for $4,200,000 the year prior to selling the big doo-plex to Mister Wexner.

At the time of Mister Wexner's purchase the 16 room apartment was reportedly in sad shape and did not even have air conditioning. A loose tongued and wonderfully catty source even told Mister Abelson, "You almost gagged to death" in the summer swelter. Of course Mister and Missus Wexner had the apartment all did up and did over–allegedly by notoriously autocratic high society architect Thierry Despont–in a style akin to "a grand Virgina home or an English men's club," according to Mister Abelson's bean spiller.

Your Mama recommends the children do not hold their collective breath waiting for photos and floor plans to pop up on the internets because similar to the legendary 30+ room doo-plex apartment at 740 Park Avenue that widowed philanthropist Courtney Sale Ross is reported to be quietly offering to qualified buyers at "over $60,000,000," there will not be any advertising, online listings with photos or online floor plans that Your Mama and the children could swoon and swan over and there will certainly not be any open houses. We'll just have to use our over-active imaginations to picture the stuffy grandeur.

Mister and Missus Wexner undoubtedly have several homes to which they can wing to aboard their private jet, but their primary residence is a vast, perfectly symmetrical and multi-winged Georgian inspired mega-mansion that sits on 300 and some acres of flat farmland in New Albany, OH. The dee-luxe digs are said to measure in excess of 45,000 square feet and the property includes a long, long, loooong tree-lined driveway, several ponds, numerous barns, a large complex of stables and riding rings for the horsies, a swimming pool complex with not one, but two pool houses plus changing pavilions, a tennis court with even more pavilions, a grass volleyball court and a reflecting pond nearly 200 feet long.

As do many biznessmen with big money to burn, Mister Wexner also owns a behemoth boat, called Limitless, which at a staggering 315+ feet was the longest private yacht afloat when it was built in the late 1990s but which has since been eclipsed by a dozen or more mega-yachts including (but not limited to) Paul Allen's 414 foot Octopus, Larry Ellison's 452 foot long Rising Sun and Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz's cruise ship-sized floater Al Salamah which reportedly measures 456+ feet long and features an indoor swimming pool under a glass roof.

photo: New York Observer

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

How I wish I were the owner just so I could stage a regular old open house, and then absorb the shocked and disturbed faces of other owners to snicker about privately. It's just that the more I learn about the super rich mentality in places such as NYC, the more ridiculas it seems to me. I'd view popping a too well insulated bubble here and there as an act of humanitarian mercy.

Anonymous said...

over 60 million....yikes!

Anonymous said...

Mama, did you used to have a PT gig hawking the oatmeal scrub at B&BW?

Anonymous said...

In addition to this swanky pad, look up the details on his primary home in New Albany, Ohio, adjacent to The Limited HQ (among the other companies he founded). That place is 60,000 sq ft. Yes, 60,000.

Anonymous said...

how about his boat "limitless" more craaaaaazy money!

Anonymous said...

the home has a hydraulically operated dining room platform that raises fully set tables from a basement kitchen...

Anonymous said...

Wonder if he's trying to make up for some Madoff money he lost?

Ivy Lane said...

Anon..good point on the "Madoff money"... !!

I could almost be sick at the thought of this price tag!!!

Anonymous said...

Mama, I know the Pope is rich but am I to understand that these fancy properties make him damp? Real estate porn indeed!

Anonymous said...

.......and while I know it is off topic, I would like to encourage all chillun who love great interiors to visit the Richard Driehaus museum in Chicago. Mr. Driehaus is kindly sharing his unparalelled restoration of the Nickerson Mansion with the rest of us. This house is heaven, so if you find yourself in Chicago, as I was this weekend, you will be happy you made the visit. The Tiffany fixtures and lamps alone are worth the trip.

Anonymous said...

Ms. Crociani is the major shareholder of an Italian Aerospace (that's frightening, if you ever owned an Italian car, but nonetheless...) firm and the mother of one of the many Duchesses and Dukes of Italy. Apparently the entire world is full of rich folks we New Yorkers have never even heard about.

Anonymous said...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e3/Limitless.jpg

Anonymous said...

click here to see his Ohio MANSE! (google maps)

Anonymous said...

what happened to his tree lined driveway!?

Anonymous said...

For those of you wanting to keep track of who has the biggest private yacht, and where they have last been seen:

http://www.yachtspotter.com/ysp2_ycard_sy.php

luke220 said...

Regarding another Candela building at 1040 Fifth Ave, this link gives interesting history, photos and floorplan of Jackie's former home on the 15th floor, http://pinkpillbox.com/1040.htm

The 17th floor penthouse at 1040 is currently for sale ($43 million, all cash) and floorplan and pictures are on the Corcoran site.

Anonymous said...

A $60 million New York apartment? Mr. Wexner is sucking too hard on his Ganga pipe! Who has that kind of money now to spend on a rapidly depreciating vanity asset? The asking price of this apartment is about equal to the total market cap of Citigroup these days. Even the Russians and Arabs are wiped out! I'll guess it sells for $20 Million ... and the Wexners will be on-their-knees grateful to get it.

As I said before, most of those who would have been buyers of this kind of property a year or two ago are spending their time these days considering whether to roast the family Pekingeses for calories to hold off this year's extra-cold New York winter.

The Wexner name does not appear on public lists of Madoff victims, although they may have invested with Madoff through "feeder" funds (love that name). On the other hand, the stock of Limited Brands has lost about half its value over the last year alone, and is now trading at about $8.50 ... off a whopping seventy-five percent (approximately) from it's 2007 high of about $33. That's a lot of unsold lingerie! Maybe women are economizing by going naked under their skirts and slacks these days? Is there any way to check?

BENJAMIN BREHM said...

the site for the assumed architect of their remodel has pictures of what he only refers to as "a city estate"

the photos there seem to match with the description of how it looks. "a grand Virgina home or an English men's club"

see www.despont.com

Anonymous said...

Disgusting a holes and their wretched excess.

Anonymous said...

I love that while real estate prices are coming down in the rest of America, they seem to be going up on this building. I'd love me some floor plan and/or photos on this one, but like mama says, I guess we have to use our imaginations.

Anonymous said...

As to the people mentioning Madoff...it's going to be interesting to see if his scheme alone drives down prices of super pricey NYC apartments.

Anonymous said...

Never could understand the allure of paying ridiculous amounts of money to live in an old nondescript looking building on a busy street with no yard and people living above and below you.

For half the price you could buy a beautiful huge house with tons of land to call your own, not located in the middle of a noisy claustrophobic concrete jungle.

But what do i know? I don't have an extra 60 million burning a hole in my pocket.

Anonymous said...

If you did any research on Les & Abigail Wexner and their charitable endeavors, you'd have a difficult time being critical of them, particularly for what they've done for the Columbus, Ohio area in a state that is now very economically depressed. Yes, he has a LOT of money and bit of somewhat quiet largesse, but when you have billions, use lots of it for charitable endeavors as well, I can't be critical. I say enjoy himself and if he doesn't get $60 million for his NY apartment, so what?

El Comodoro said...

Anon 10:31,
Another Madoff theoretical is that they got out with some gains before the collapse and are doing some serious legal handwringing about tipping other LPs/claimants off to their good or at least better fortune. Again, just whistling in the wind, here.

And it's hard to fathom an APARTMENT of any sort in any locale that would command an asking price able to launch a real decent little hedge fund. Wow.

Anonymous said...

Anon 6:56 are you a home boy/girl? Not many know to call him "Les", well unless your from Columbus. And I do agree with you he is a very generous man in many ways.

Anonymous said...

Will the Madoff scandal affect real property values? You bet it will! It already has. Just consider that the story below is now being played out countless times all across the segment of society that might have been bidders for expensive homes in New York and Palm Beach [http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/20090122_West_Goshen_widow_s_riches-to-rags_story.html]:

"Ebel, 60, a widow who lives outside West Chester and winters near West Palm Beach, thought she had $7.3 million with Madoff. ....
Six days after Madoff's arrest for allegedly bilking investors in a $50 billion Ponzi scheme, Ebel had a strenuous temporary job caring for a wealthy friend's 93-year-old mother and keeping her house, pushing the vacuum cleaner and ironing. 'The first day, I went home and cried,' Ebel said."

I'll bet she cried. And she'll be entitled to cry every day for the rest of her life. And if there is a groat of justice left in the world Madoff will soon be spending every day of the rest of his life in service as the butt-bitch of some prison homeboy.

luke220 said...

And I hope Ruth Madoff spends the rest of her life behind a vacuum.

Anonymous said...

in a vacuum would be better