Bush staffer buys $12M UES pad

From left: James Shinn, 2 East 70th Street and Elliman’s Daniela Kunen (building photo credit: CityRealty)

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Former president George W. Bush’s assistant secretary of defense, James Shinn, and his wife, Masako, bought a triplex apartment at 2 East 70th Street for $11.75 million. The ninth-to-11th-floor unit, which overlooks the Frick museum on Fifth Avenue, was originally listed for $19.5 million this February, and then relisted for $14.95 million in the fall. The apartment, listed with Prudential Douglas Ellimam’s Daniela Kunen, features mahogany floors, an oval dining room and a swirling three-story staircase. “It’s really like having a townhouse inside of a building,” Kunen said. Previous apartments occupants include actress Joan Crawford, who moved into the building in 1957 with her husband, Pepsi chair Alfred Steele, and dermatologist A. Bernard Ackerman. The Shinns recently sold their five-floor Lenox Hill townhouse for $13.65 million, at a $1.35 million loss compared to what they paid in 2007. [NYO]