Former Marvel CEO’s Gramercy triplex goes into contract

Listing broker John Burger of Brown Harris Stevens and the triplex at 22 Gramercy Park South

The top three floors of a Gramercy Park townhouse, listed for $10
million, went into contract last week, according to listing broker John
Burger of Brown Harris Stevens. The 26-foot-wide 1865 Greek Revival townhouse at 22 Gramercy Park South, which overlooks Gramercy Park, is owned by Eric Ellenbogen, former CEO of comic book giant Marvel Enterprises. He has since founded Classic Media, which owns the rights to cartoon characters like Mr. Magoo, Rocky & Bullwinkle, and Casper the Friendly Ghost, and is the executive producer behind the 1990s television adaptation of “Lassie” and the 2007 film “Underdog.”

The condominium went on the market in October 2009 and the contract was signed this past Friday, said Burger, who would not disclose the sale price or the buyer.

“We came to a very fair and good understanding,” he said.

Burger sold the townhouse to Ellenbogen for $2 million in 1999. At the time, the home had eight units, but Ellenbogen divided the interior into two large apartments and turned the building into a condo. With the help of Manhattan architect Michael Haverland, he renovated the triplex penthouse, adding a glass wall that looks out onto a south-facing Private Terrace. Accessed from the outside by a private elevator entrance, the three floors of the home are connected by a winding staircase clad in Italian travertine marble.

The home comes with a key to Gramercy Park, a carefully tended plot of land that sits behind wrought-iron gates between East 20th Street and East 21st Street, between Third and Park avenues. The scenic private park is only accessible to residents of adjacent buildings.

Ellenbogen, who is also known as a collector of photographs and midcentury furniture, had staged the penthouse, and the furnishings proved attractive to the buyer, Burger said.

“Somebody came along and fell in love with it and purchased it completely furnished,” Burger said.

Ellenbogen originally planned to live in the bottom three floors of the mansion himself, but he put the four-bedroom triplex, which comes with a private garden, on the market for $11 million in February 2010. The entire house is listed for $22 million.