Hedge fund heavyweight Steve Eisman and wife Valerie Feigen have sold their second 1125 Park Avenue apartment, according to city records, this time for $4.3 million. The hedge fund manager sold to Peter Halloran, CEO of Pharos Financial Group, a hedge fund active in the securities market of Russia and the former Soviet Union.
According to his company’s Web site, Mr. Halloran has resided in Moscow since 1995, so we can only infer his recent Park Avenue purchase will serve as a pied-à-terre for the enterprising Putin-ite. Due to the time difference, Mr. Halloran could not immediately be reached for comment.
The past 18 months have proven a rocky real estate ride for Mr. Eisman, who in pre-Lehman 2008, bought a three-bedroom apartment in the same building for $6.995 million. Soon after the purchase, the banking buccaneer decided the apartment wasn’t big enough for him, his wife and three children, and promptly put it on the market unlived in. It sold last August for $5.2 million, at a 26 percent loss. But Mr. Eisman had the last laugh when he purchased a $7.4 million, four-bedroom, penthouse duplex across the street at 1120 Park Avenue—originally listed for $11.5 million! (He told The Times then of the transfer, “Just say that we are very happy.”)
The 1125 Park apartment sold in this most recent transaction is the original Eisman home that the family of five lived in throughout the buying and selling bonanza. The Web site Streeteasy has no record of the apartment being listed, suggesting a quiet listing. Stribling agent Jo Parrish Hardin, who is one of the top listing agents in the building but who was not affiliated with this deal, agreed. “It’s very possible he sold it to a friend, and, clearly, no broker was involved since it wasn’t listed. It must have been a private transaction; people do that all the time.”
Mr. Eisman’s previous transactions have been handled by Gumley Haft Kleier president Michele Kleier, who could not comment on this sale. Mr. Eisman, mythologized in Michael Lewis’ doomsday finance expose in Portfolio, also declined to comment.
cmalle@observer.com
