Did the co-op board at 907 Fifth Avenue really hate the idea of making a full-floor apartment out of Huguette Clark’s two 8th-floor residences? Or do they just hate children?
Following our report yesterday that Clark’s mega-apartment sale fell through, reportedly because the board didn’t like the bidder’s plans to combine the units, the New York Post IDs the reason as too many kids. That’s a new one.
The rebuffed buyer, rumored to be Qatari prime minister, Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jaber Al Thani, reportedly made a $31.5 million bid, which was $500,000 over the combined ask for the two apartments, listed at $19 million and $12 million, with Brown Harris Stevens brokers Mary Rutherfurd and Leslie Coleman.
Mr. Hamad’s 15 kids, two wives and and small army of staffers were simply too much for the co-op board, claims the Post. But it’s not like the crew would have been cramped in a 22-room floor-through apartment—which, if combined, would have been quite possibly the biggest of its kind of the park. And we’re talking 40-foot rooms next to other 40-foot rooms, none of two-bedroom, possible three-bedroom conversion business you see with the starter-millionaire properties.
Maybe the board were just afraid the family plus entourage would hog the elevator? Or it seemed too much of a shift from the childless Clark, who hadn’t lived there in decades anyway?
“It was just too complicated,’’ a source told the Post.
Clark, who died in May 2011 at age 104, owned the penthouse at 907 Fifth Avenue, which is currently in contract (reportedly for close to the $24 million ask) and the two 8th-floor apartments.
Mr. Hamad has reportedly been searching for a New York City pad for more than a year. Given that he seems to have plenty of money to spare, we’d recommend Millennium Partners founding partner Christopher M. Jeffries’ $77.5 million pad at the Ritz. Not only is the apartment already renovated in high style, but Mr. Hamad won’t have to deal with any pesky co-op boards.
kvelsey@observer.com
