This Monday, The Observer broke the news that Donald Trump had finally sold his last three units at the monolithic Trump World Tower on First Avenue, for the tidy sum of $33.654 million. The three-unit penthouse duplex went to a limited liability corporation, according to city records, and a source said the buyer was an "Asian-American moneyman."
Indeed he is. According to a very delicious real estate gossip site called Big Time Listings, the buyer is Blackstone (BX) senior vice president Chu Chinh, a maestro of the corporate equity biz. He'll have the tower's 89th floor to himself, plus half of the 90th.
Three years ago, Mr. Chu had half an hour to save Blackstone’s two-year takeover of a chemical maker called Celanese. It took a few sweaty phone calls for Mr. Chu to pull off the $3.8 billion deal, the largest public-to-private buyout ever in Europe— which is why he gets to own a Trump duplex penthouse with 34 rooms, 14,864 square feet, 12 bedrooms and 16.5 bathrooms.
But, sadly, that all amounts to just one and a half floors at the top of Trump World Tower! Mr. Chu tried to buy out the neighbor that shares the 90th floor, two sources told The Observer on Monday, but his efforts to claim the apartment failed. He’ll have to make due with his 16 (and a half) bathrooms.
