Perhaps feeling insecure after Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nayan stole the title as owner of the world’s largest yacht, billionaire Roman Abramovich has bought—well, he’s in contract to buy, according to the Post—this ridiculously opulent Manhattan mansion. The purchase would add a NYC home to an already robust portfolio (which includes, but is by no means limited to, nine-figure estates in St. Barths, Snowmass, Colo., and the English countryside), and provide Abramovich 22 rooms, eight bedrooms, 15 bathrooms, a grand ballroom, a reception rotunda, a library, a rooftop terrace, and some of the most lavish, gussied-up interiors in the city.
When the mansion hit the market last year, it was asking $72M for three units, all owned by the Monaco-based family of the late real estate developer Howard Ronson. That price was meant for uncombined—and frankly somewhat architecturally incompatible—units, but not the entirety of the building, as there were, at the time, still two of five holdout owners. If Abramovich was’t able to quietly convince them to vacate—and, really, who would want to be in the bad graces of a corrupt Russian billionaire?—perhaps his publicly profligate ways, surely a media magnet, will finally convince those guys to bid, uh, do svidaniya.
Curbed NY points out that if the deal goes through for $75M, it will become the most expensive co-op ever sold in New York. Oh, and that $3M over ask? Yep, that’s just about 0.03 percent of Abramovich’s net worth.
http://curbed.com/archives/2013/10/04/roman-abramovich-to-buy-lavish-almost-manse-for-75m.php