Marilynn K. Yee/The New York Times A neo-Georgian (brick at near right) sold by the designer Reed Krakoff. An imposing Upper East Side mansion that underwent a flamboyant renovation after being gutted by a fire in 2006 and was rumored to be available for $52 million in 2009 has sold, quietly, for $51 million and was the most expensive sale of the week, according to city records.
The 30-foot-wide neo-Georgian home at 113-115 East 70th Street, owned since 2005 by Reed Krakoff, formerly the executive creative director of the $5 billion Coach brand, sits proudly on a prime residential block between Park and Lexington Avenues; elite neighbors include Woody Allen, whose townhouse is across the street. The annual property tax is about $75,000.
Records indicate that the 18,000-square-foot, seven-story brick-and-limestone mansion was built around 1922 for I. Townsend Burden, a cousin of the industrialist James Burden. But by the time Mr. Krakoff acquired it for $17 million, it had lost most of its luster, having been chopped into separate apartments, in a process that necessitated the demolition of its elaborate internal staircase and other period details. The fire occurred while the home was in the preliminary throes of a painstaking renovation presided over by Mr. Krakoff’s wife, Delphine, a French-born interior designer.
Despite the setback, the couple completed the restoration on a grand scale. In a 2011 New Yorker profile of her husband, Delphine Krakoff said their statement-making central staircase was inspired by the Guggenheim’s helical ramp. The article also noted the presence of a powder room with gold snakeskin walls and the ultimate conversation piece, a spherical toilet. On a more classical note, the home has antique European floorboards and 18th-century mantels.
Mr. Krakoff, who left Coach last summer to start an eponymous brand of luxury leather goods and apparel, was identified as the seller in city records. The anonymous buyer used a limited-liability company, 70th Street Acquisition, with an address in Hewlett, N.Y.
There is speculation that Brown Harris Stevens negotiated both sides of the whisper deal, but the brokerage declined to comment. Paula Del Nunzio, a veteran Brown Harris Stevens broker who specializes in mansion and townhouse sales â€" she handled the record-setting $53 million sale of the Harkness Mansion on East 75th Street in 2006 â€" represented Mr. Krakoff in 2007 when he sold his previous Upper East Side townhouse to Roger Waters of Pink Floyd for $14.9 million. Ms. Del Nunzio refused to comment on the $51 million transaction.
What can safely be surmised is that Mr. Krakoff is once again on the hunt for a chic city domicile.
Big Ticket includes closed sales from the previous week, ending Wednesday.
