Icon buys Forbes townhouse at 52% discount

The mystery buyer of the Malcolm S. Forbes townhouse in Greenwich Village, which had been on the market since February 2011 and finally went into contract in January, has been revealed as New York-based real estate investment and operating firm Icon Realty Management, according to public records filed with the city today.

Icon, run by 30-something moguls Terrence Lowenberg and Todd Cohen, paid just $7.25 million for the 6,800-square-foot Forbes Management-owned townhouse, between Fifth and Sixth avenues, which had been asking $13.5 million. Its original asking price was $15.25 million, but the property, which was listed by Brown Harris Stevens broker Paula Del Nunzio, failed to attract attention at that price. Icon ultimately bought the property at a 52 percent discount from the original asking price. Del Nunzio was not immediately available for comment on the sale.

The 25-foot wide brick home, at 11 West 12th Street, built in 1847 and purchased in the 1960s by Forbes Magazine founder Malcolm Forbes, was previously owned by Macmillan Publishing Company. The property has played host to hundreds of gatherings, attended by figures such as Margaret Thatcher, Ronald and Nancy Reagan, David Niven, Richard Nixon, Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Volcker, according to the listing.

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The property is on a 103-foot lot and can potentially be rebuilt to approximately 8,000 square feet, the listing says.

Neither Icon nor Forbes Management was immediately available for comment.