How much does it cost to own the largest private residence in the city? As of this week, it’s $49.95 million.
An Upper East Side stunner, the Woolworth Mansion, just received quite a listing discount — now asking that princely sum, down $9.05 million since it hit the market last November asking $59 million.
This Gilded Age gem at 4 E. 80th St., once the crown jewel of fitness queen Lucille Roberts’ family, is also a far fall from the $90 million they asked back in 2011, when it reigned as New York City’s priciest townhouse listing. However, with that ask, the residence exited the market in 2013 and spent more than a decade away from sale, according to StreetEasy.
The Real Deal first reported the listing.
The new price certainly buys a lot, as StreetEasy notably shows this is Manhattan’s largest residential property currently for sale, weighing in at roughly 20,000 square feet, not to mention 35 feet in width. (Of course, there are commercial offerings — such as condominium buildings — and other investment sales now listed in the portal that are larger in size.)
The discount buzz comes hot on the heels of another posh property, 973 Fifth Ave., finally snagging a buyer last month after four years for sale.
Adam Modlin of the Modlin Group, the broker who nabbed the buyer for that pending sale, now reps the Woolworth pad. He’s crowing that it’s the “best value” for a place this massive, clocking in at about $2,500 a square foot.
Lucille Roberts, the force behind a women-only gym empire, and her real estate hotshot hubby Bob bought the place for $6 million in 1995 from the Young Men’s Philanthropic League.
They poured years into sprucing it up before Lucille passed away in 2003.
Their family tried selling it in 2011 for that sky-high $90 million — hoping to smash townhouse sale records — but no dice.
Two years later, they yanked it off the market after a disgruntled ex-employee of Lucille’s gyms allegedly went rogue, splattering white paint and firing BB pellets at the facade in 2012.
Kevin Roberts, the couple’s son, previously told the Wall Street Journal he bunked there with his dad until 2016. Bob eventually left Manhattan for the Hamptons and Palm Beach, leaving the property to rake in $80,000 a month from a deep-pocketed renter in 2021.
The offering, designed by architect C.P.H. Gilbert in 1915 for retail titan Frank Woolworth’s daughter Helena has nine bedrooms, 11 bathrooms, three kitchens — plus a gym, a library, a sauna and a solarium. Other touches include mosaic tiles, stained glass and a dining room that could host a small army.
Woolworth, the “Five-and-Dime” king, originally built it as part of a family compound — two other homes for his kids once stood nearby until their deaths in 1920s. His name is also attached to the Woolworth Building in Manhattan’s Financial District, which once stood as the tallest tower in the world.
