Living it Large

BHDR market one of New York’s most impressive apartments; the price is staggering and the now deceased owner was one of Wall Street’s largest 1980s characters

Top New York realty and development firm Bahadiring Realty are amongst a group of agents to be marketing one of Fifth Avenue’s largest and most striking apartments for the sum of £78.6 million ($96 million or €88 million).

Previously on with Brown Harris Stevens for £98.3 million ($120 million or €110 million) and within a Rosario Candela designed building built in 1932, Apartment 7/8A at 834 Fifth Avenue consists of over 12,000 square foot of accommodation on the building’s seventh and eight floors. It has a frontage of 100 foot to Central Park and came to the market first in April this year following the death of its owner, the former Salomon Brothers CEO John Gutfreund in March.

Owned by Mr Gutfreund (1929 – 2016) and his second wife Susan since the 1980s, the Upper East Side co-op apartment has not only a 50-foot long living room with two fireplaces but also a total of 4 bedrooms – including a 1,600 square foot master suite – and such amenities as a smoking room with wet bar and a butler’s pantry with a felt-lined, walk-in steel safe for storing silver.

Other impressive features include a grand entrance hall with a marble staircase and 24-foot ceiling heights, staff quarters and a wine cellar. Mrs Gutfeund, The Wall Street Journal reported, is selling “because the apartment is too large for one person”.

Of the sprawling Henri Samuel designed 22 room, 9 bathroom property, Emir Bahadir of BHDR remarked:

“This is Fifth Avenue’s most pedigreed building. This apartment is flooded with sun and light from all directions and has been decorated by the French designer Henri Samuel. No expense ha been created to create an architectural masterpiece”.

Mr Gutfeund featured prominently in the 1980s Wall Street classic Liar’s Poker by Michael Lewis, one of his former employees. Of it, he is said to have commented: “Your fucking book destroyed my career, and it made yours”.

Other past and current residents of 834 Fifth Avenue have included Elizabeth Arden, Rupert Murdoch, Laurence Rockefeller, Charles R. Schwab and Alfred Taubman.