Weeks after going under contract, more is being uncovered about the Wilf’s family sale of a Midtown Manhattan, including a drastically discounted closing price.
The sale of 9-11 West 54th Street closed for $38 million, the Commercial Observer reported. The deal for the property breaks down to $1,583 per square foot.
The buyer appears to be associated with billionaire William Robert Berkley, founder of W.R. Berkley Corporation and chair of New York University’s Board of Trustees. The deed was co-signed by the William R. Berkley Foundation. The other name on the deed is Interlaken Capital, an investment firm that appears to be defunct, but was founded by Berkley in 1979.
Berkley could not be reached for comment by the outlet, while the Wilf family’s Skyline Developers did not respond to a request for comment.
The property was built in 1896 for James Goodwin, the cousin and business partner of John Pierpont Morgan; the townhouse recently served as the headquarters of the US Trust Company. The buyer intends to use the home for personal and business purposes, according to Olshan’s weekly report from a few weeks ago.
Sitting on a 100-foot lot and spanning 24,000 square feet, the home has 11 primary bedroom suites, 11 staff bedrooms, 10 bathrooms and 12 fireplaces. The parlor floor has ceilings over 13 feet high, floor-to-ceiling windows and five Juliet balconies with views of the sculpture garden in the Museum of Modern Art.
The home last sold in 2019 for $55 million and was listed in 2023. Initially asking $63 million, the price dropped to $49.5 million in February 2024. The Gilded Age mansion went under contract late last month, ultimately closing for well below that ask.
Douglas Elliman’s Patricia Vance and Sandra Ripert had the listing.
Skyline recently filed plans for a 34-story residential building at 185 East 80th Street. The Department of Buildings plans call for a 244,000-square-foot, 508-foot-tall property with 66 residential units; it’s not yet clear if those would be rentals or condos in the Upper East Side.
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