Marcus Yam for The New York Times The 17-room town house at 106 East 71st Street was built in 1910 and has been fully restored, with amenities including a media room and a gym.A magisterial limestone town house on one of the Upper East Side’s most moneyed blocks sold for $22.85 million and was the most expensive sale of the week, according to city records.
The 17-room home at 106 East 71st Street, built in 1910 for an Orange County heiress and later divided into two apartments, was returned to its original splendor as a single-family residence by a foreign investor who bought it in 2007 for $16.7 million. Its most recent asking price was $26.5 million.
The restored mansion was put on the market for $28.8 million in 2010, the same year it came to the rescue of the Kips Bay Boys and Girls Club, which had been forced to cancel its annual spring decorator show house event for the first time in 38 years because its intended site had been sold just before the show. After 106 East 71st Street stepped in and played good Samaritan, the show was successfully staged in the 10,235-square-foot space that autumn. The $1 million charitable event supplies roughly 20 percent of the club’s operating budget, with the funds designated for after-school programs for Bronx children.
The six-bedroom, seven-bath town house is unusually wide â€" a baronial 25 feet â€" and has seven wood-burning fireplaces. The first lends a cozy charm to the entrance foyer, and the 600-square-foot mahogany-paneled living room and dining room each have fireplaces, as does the all-white eat-in kitchen, which has the requisite center island and also overlooks a planted garden. Most of the floors are of white oak planks; the limestone balcony is original, and windows are trimmed with mahogany.
There are two powder rooms, two wet bars, an extra kitchenette, a paneled “penthouse library,†a media room, a gym/playroom and a roof terrace. On the lower level, two rooms and a bath are specifically designated for staff members.
The six levels are connected by a grand marble staircase that is original to the home, but for modernity’s sake there is also an elevator. Before the sale, the house had been listed for rent for $85,000 a month in 2011; the annual property taxes are $100,000.
The seller, shielded by a limited-liability company, 135, was represented by Carrie Chiang and Janet Wang of the Corcoran Group. The buyer also used a limited-liability company, choosing a whimsical identity, Hash Bass. The identity of the buyer’s broker was not divulged by Ms. Chiang, but she did speak reverently of the trophy home: “106 East 71st Street is a rare find, an extraordinary 25-foot-wide limestone mansion on a premier block,†she said. “Graciously laid-out rooms and generous space, both indoors and out, made it the perfect venue for the Kips Bay Show House.†And perfect, evidently, for someone under the guise of Hash Bass.
Big Ticket includes closed listings from the previous week, ending Wednesday.
