Private equity billionaire scoops up massive UES manse for 40% discount

Apollo Global Management co-founder Joshua Harris just bought an Upper East Side mega mansion for $45 million – a nearly 40 percent discount to its $72 million asking price last year.

Harris, who also owns the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers and a stake in the NHL’s New Jersey Devils, made “the buy of the century,” an insider familiar with the deal told the New York Post.

“When it first came on the market, Josh put in a ridiculously low offer for $47 million,” the source said. “Then he waited it out.”

Paula del Nunzio at Brown Harris Stevens had originally listed the home for $72 million. Douglas Elliman’s Sabrina Saltiel and Roger Erickson listed it for $59 million in June.

The six-story, 44-foot-wide home at 50 East 69th Street clocks in at a whopping 21,070 square feet. Known as the Dommerich Mansion, it was built for international cotton magnate Otto Louis Dommerich in 1917 and was last used as a medical facility for expensive cosmetic surgery procedures.

Architect Henry C. Pelton, who designed Riverside Church, designed the neo-French classic-style building. It has 14 marble fireplaces, a basement with 15-foot ceilings, two elevators and a curved staircase that leads up to a stained glass dome.

It also has 3,350 square feet of outdoor space and terraces on the second floor and roof.

In other billionaire private-equity news, Howard Lutnick recently bought the massive triplex at the Pierre Hotel for $44 million – $80 million off its asking price.[NYP] – Rich Bockmann