This past Tuesday was the 500th day on the market for the Pierre’s 7,000-square-foot, 14-room, five-bedroom, seven-bathroom, 35-closet duplex. It was back in November 2007 that the ailing private-equity titan Lionel Pincus listed the Fifth Avenue sprawl for $50 million, making it New York’s second most expensive co-op. The duplex was taken off the market last year but re-listed a few months later—against the wishes of Mr. Pincus’ companion, Princess Firyal of Jordan, who lost out in Surrogate’s Court last year after trying to block its sale.
It was also on Tuesday, as these things so marvelously go, that Mr. Pincus’ two sons filed suit against the princess in State Supreme Court, requesting, among other things, that she be prevented from impeding the duplex’s sale. The suit claims that she urged the elderly Mr. Pincus to change his estate plan after cancer surgery so that she could keep the apartment; that she “tricked” him into leaving his old Park Avenue home; and that she once spent $1.07 million of his money in one month.
The Observer cooed over the troubled apartment’s floor plan when the Corcoran listing first surfaced in ’07, but 500 days later (it’s even longer if you count the time it was off the market), the place deserves another long ogle. - Max Abelson
