Billionaire pays $34M for Fifth Avenue co-op

Billionaire Robert Bass has purchased an apartment at 834 Fifth Avenue for $34 million, the New York Observer reported.

The founder of Oak Hill Capital Partners, a New York-based private equity firm, purchased the 12th floor apartment from Damon Mezzacappa, a financier.

The elite co-op, just opposite the Central Park Zoo, at East 64th Street, has been home to Rupert Murdoch, Charles Schwab and the late, doomed heiress to the Johnson & Johnson fortune, Casey Johnson.

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Murdoch famously overspent — at $44 million — for his unit in 2005, which was the record sale price for a co-op in New York City until 2008.

Developer Larry Heyman of Heyman Properties, bought a unit for $36 million in the building earlier this year. Four of the 20 most expensive co-op purchases in New York City’s history have been at 834 Fifth Avenue. [NYO]