Somerset head unloads stopgap Tribeca home for $3.7M

Keith Rubenstein, head honcho of Somerset Partners, a private equity firm active in New York City real estate during the boom, has sold his Tribeca apartment at 101 Warren Street for $3.65 million, according to city records filed today.

In 2008, Rubenstein and his ex-model wife Inga had paid $3.26 million for the duplex in the 35-story, 227-unit Minskoff Equities building, city records show. The 2,332-square-foot apartment has two bedrooms and three bathrooms, and is under a 421a tax abatement that expires in 2020, according to StreetEasy.

Rubenstein couldn’t immediately be reached for comment, while his listing broker, Tierney Model of Sotheby’s International Realty, declined to comment. The apartment was initially listed for $4.9 million in 2012 and went through two price chops before being listed for $3.9 million, according to StreetEasy.

Rubenstein, Inga and their son were using the home as a temporary abode while they were renovating their palatial townhouse at 8 East 62nd Street, better known as the Duncan Mansion, according to the New York Times. That 14,000-square-foot property had been split up into multiple homes, and Rubenstein, who paid $35 million for the building in 2007, has been converting it back into a single-family home, as previously reported.

The buyer was listed as Michael McGinn. McGinn and his attorney, Steven Mero, could not be reached by press time.

Earlier that year, Rubenstein had agreed to pay $20 million for a “sky home” atop 101 Warren Street, but backed out of the deal when the townhouse opportunity came around, according to the Times.

Somerset was an active player in the New York real estate market during its zenith in 2007, with deals such as the $509 million purchase – about $1,566 per square foot — of a 33-story, 350,000-square-foot office tower at 450 Park Avenue. Also in 2007, It Sold 85 Tenth Avenue — a 540,000-square-foot office building where Google recently took 360,000 square feet — to the Related Companies. Since 2008, however, it has kept very quiet on the New York scene and focused its resources on national markets, according to investment listings on its website.

In 2010, Rubenstein filed suit against a Southampton landlord over a summer rental home that Rubenstein alleged was a “death trap.”