The late financier and convicted sex offender’s Upper East Side home originally asked $88 million.
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The New York City townhouse of the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is in contract to sell for roughly US$50 million, according to two people familiar with the transaction. If the deal closes, the townhouse would be among the most expensive homes to sell in New York over the past year.
The property had been on the market for just seven months, a reasonably quick turnaround for a townhouse with such a high-price tag, especially given the property’s connection to Mr Epstein, these people said. However, it sold at a significant discount to its original asking price; it came on the market for $88 million in July, and the price was later lowered to $65 million.
The property was the most valuable of Mr Epstein’s extensive property portfolio, which also included homes in Paris, New Mexico and Florida. Mr Epstein’s home in Palm Beach is in contract to sell to developer Todd Michael Glaser for an undisclosed sum, The Wall Street Journal reported in November, though the deal hasn’t yet closed.
Listed by Adam Modlin of Modlin Group, the Neoclassical Upper East Side townhouse dates to the 1930s, when it was commissioned by Herbert N. Straus, an heir to the Macy’s department store fortune. It was later used as a school and was formerly owned by Leslie Wexner, the billionaire retail tycoon and a onetime close associate of Mr Epstein.
Mr Epstein paid $20 million for it in 1998, according to a person familiar with the situation.
The house spans about 28,000 square feet across seven floors and has oak entry doors, imported French limestone with carvings, sculptural figures and ornamental ironwork.
Mr Epstein died by suicide in jail in 2019, before he could stand trial on federal sex-trafficking charges. The proceeds of the sale are slated to go to his estate, which has created a compensation fund to adjudicate claims from Mr Epstein’s alleged victims.
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The imposing stone structures, with towers, turrets and a hot tub room, lord over the landscape near the mountain resort town of Sandpoint.
2 min
Idaho is not a place that’s often associated with Medieval castles, but a pair have just hit the market for $6.25 million.
The imposing stone structures have towers, turrets, ramparts, arrow-slit windows and even a drawbridge, and might just be the most authentic-looking castles this side of the Atlantic.
“Who expects to see a castle like this in Idaho?” said listing agent Brenda Burk of Coldwell Banker Schneidmiller Realty, who brought the property to the market last week. They are, she said, “extremely unusual.”
Schweitzer Castle and Château de Melusine, as they’re known, stand within Schweitzer Mountain Resort in the Selkirk Mountains and overlook the nearby mountain resort town of Sandpoint. They take in panoramic views of Lake Pend Oreille, Idaho’s largest lake.
The pair of ski-in/ski-out homes each have three bedrooms, two bathrooms and three stories, Burk explained. They are “so authentic,” she said. “Every single stone was handlaid.”
Schweitzer Castle, she said, wasn’t built for “functionality,” but has been modernized and adapted and now has everything a 21st-century residence requires, along with a dungeon, which for some buyers may also be a requisite.
The chateau, meanwhile, has a hot tub room with mountain views, as well as a garage.
The property is being sold furnished, and will come complete with the hand-carved statues, armor, mounted swords, stained-glass windows and a host of antiques dating to the 15th and 16th centuries.
The owner, an antique collector who couldn’t be reached for comment, “is always looking for that hidden jewel and he found that here,” Burk said.
The next custodian is likely to stem from a varied pool of buyers, Burk said, that would include “the trophy-home buyer, someone who can say ‘I own a castle.’”
The property could also appeal to someone looking for a vacation home, or a multi-generational estate, and beyond that “there’s the dreamers,” she said. “We definitely try to market to people who like Medieval history or maybe do Renaissance fairs.”
The seller “really wants it to go to someone with the same passion.”
