The Metropolitan Museum of Art has reached an agreement to sell two townhouses on East 82nd Street on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. According to Olshan Realty’s weekly report, the properties were last listed for $28 million and were the most expensive among 25 Manhattan homes asking $4 million or more that went into contract last week. This figure represents a decrease from 29 such properties in the previous week.
The buyer signed a contract just 16 days after the homes, located at Nos. 6-8 East 82nd Street, were listed. The buyer reportedly won a bidding war and agreed to pay above the asking price, with plans to combine the two townhouses into a single-family residence. The resulting home will be 41 feet wide and cover 12,600 square feet.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has owned these Gilded Age mansions for nearly five decades. One of the homes, No. 8, was previously owned by George Schaefer, a brewing industry figure who acquired it in 1890. The Schaefer family began brewing beer in Brooklyn in the 1840s.
Corcoran’s Carrie Chiang and Andres Perea-Garzon represented the listing.
The second highest-priced home to go under contract last week was a condominium at JDS Development and Property Markets Group’s 111 West 57th Street. Unit 54 was last listed for $21 million, down from an initial price of nearly $27 million when sales began nine years ago. The condo is 4,200 square feet with three bedrooms and three bathrooms, featuring 14-foot ceilings and views of Central Park. Building amenities include a fitness center, pool, terrace, and private dining room.
At this tower on Billionaires’ Row, there have been 49 closed sales out of 60 units, averaging $4,500 per square foot. Unit 54 marks the twelfth time this year that a condo from the building has ranked among the top two contracts in Olshan Realty’s weekly reports.
The Nikki Field Team with Sotheby’s International held the listing for Unit 54.
Of the 25 properties that found buyers last week, there were sixteen condos, six co-ops, and three townhouses. Combined asking prices totaled $217 million, with an average price of $8.7 million and a median price of $6.5 million. On average, these homes spent over eighteen months on the market and sold for nine percent less than their original listing prices.
