Financier closes on Meier tower penthouse for $11.8 million

Financier Gilbert Lamphere, Meier North Tower and the interior of the apartment

Financier Gilbert Lamphere, chairman of Flatwood Capital, is finally free of Meier North Tower, the first development in Manhattan by architect Richard Meier. The unnamed Chilean buyer who went into contract on Lamphere’s duplex penthouse in the building at 133 Perry Street has completed his purchase for $11.8 million, according to public records filed with the city today.

Lamphere, who bought the unit from Martha Stewart in 2004 for only $6.65 million, first listed the property in October 2010 with Sotheby’s International Realty vice president Camille McKinley. McKinley was not immediately available for comment. The identity of the buyer’s broker was not clear.

The 3,300-square-foot apartment, which was featured on “Open House New York” and boasts a key-access elevator and four terraces, is decorated in somewhat of a novelty style. It was previously reported that Lamphere has a playful style and decked out the unit in Ikea furniture and curious modern art. His family is said to refer to him as “Captain Fun.”

When contacted by The Real Deal in June, Lamphere said that he was selling in order to generally reduce his real estate holdings and simplify his life. He will stay at his wife’s apartment in Times Square when he visits the city in the future.

He is not the only financier to sell in the building recently.

Keith Jacobson, a former investment banker turned developer, sold his duplex apartment for $10.5 million in July, $5.78 million more than the $4.72 million he paid for the sixth- and seventh-floor spread seven years ago.

Completed in the early 2000s, 173 Perry was the first of three Meier-designed buildings in the West Village. — Katherine Clarke