The most watched real estate sale in years, if not ever, is now one for the books. The deed for the sale of Sandy Weill‘s penthouse at 15 Central Park West just hit city records. It reveals little—the LLC the buyers used is iron-clad—but there was an interesting bit of news about the seller of the $88 million home. It was not the former Citi chairman but his wife, Joan Helene Weill.
Of course this means nothing in terms of who actually owned the home or lived there. Ms. Weill’s name was on the deed when it was bought, too, along with the JW Revocable Trust. It may well have to do with taxes and other things the wealthy do to protect their money—not unlike the theories about why the Weill’s are giving the proceeds of the sale to charity. Never forget the tax benefits!
This arrangement also underscores the fact that despite wide, often wide-eyed, reports to the contrary, the home is not really for equestrian-loving Ekaterina Rybolovlev but in fact her father, Dmitry Rybolovlev, the potash king of Russia.
As Shakespeare once wrote, “What’s in a name?” Or maybe that was Chekhov.
