UWS Schinasi mansion finally sells

The Upper West Side’s last existing freestanding single-family mansion, the Schinasi House at 351 Riverside Drive, has finally found a buyer after several rounds of price cuts, the New York Observer reported.

The 12,000-square-foot, white marble French Renaissance home was most recently on the market for $13.5 million, down from the original $31 million asking price.

The 12-bedroom, 11-bath mansion had been on the market since 2006. Corcoran broker Tod Mercy confirmed the sale, but did not reveal the buyer.

At 41-feet wide by 73-feet deep, the house is surrounded by private gardens on a corner lot off 107th Street and faces the river. It’s a stunning home with a tiled entrance hall, stained glass windows and a pristine facade.

But it needs work, brokers say, despite a 20-year renovation by the owners, Beverly Smit and the late Columbia University law professor Hans Smit, who bought it in 1979 for $325,000.

It had once been thought that the Schinasi Mansion could set a record for a Manhattan single-family home. But at $13.5 million, it would not even break the record for the neighborhood, set by a landmarked mansion next door. At 352 Riverside Drive, Helen LaKelly Hunt, daughter of oil tycoon H.L. Hunt, paid $15.75 million in December 2007. [NYO] — TRD