Philip Lehman house, asking nearly $50M, in contract

The Philip and Carrie Lehman House at 7 West 54th Street has a buyer, and it is the most expensive townhouse contract signed so far this year, according to a weekly luxury market report released today by residential brokerage Olshan Realty.

The five-story limestone townhouse, built in 1899 for the first chairman of the now-infamous Lehman Brothers investment bank, hit the market in May 2012 with a $65 million price tag; townhouse specialist Paula Del Nunzio of Brown Harris Stevens had the listing.

Carrie Chiang of the Corcoran Group took over the listing in December and lowered the price by 25 percent to $49.9 million.

The report did not state who the buyer is or what sale price was. StreetEasy pulled the listing as long as three weeks ago; Chiang did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The townhouse is the priciest sale reported so far this year. Units at 432 Park and One57 have reportedly gone into contract for over $90 million. However, those deals have not been officially listed or recorded with the Real Estate Board of New York, so they have not been counted as formally in contract yet.

The home was purchased in 2005 for $13 million by hedge fund Zimmer Lucas Capital, which spent millions of dollars restoring the building’s façade and redesigning the interior with the help of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as previously reported. The townhouse has been used as the company’s headquarters.

The John Duncan-designed, renovated townhouse features a rich art history. The Lehman art collection once had more than 3,000 pieces and the home became the family’s private gallery, according to the listings.

Philip Lehman was the son of Emmanuel Lehman, the founder of Lehman Brothers. Philip served as the bank’s chairman from 1929 to 1941.