Outfoxed a decade ago by Gary Barnett, Marty Burger pays $10M for Carlton House pad

Marty and Alison Burger dropped $10M for co-op at 21 East 61st Street

Alison Burger and Marty Burger with 21 East 61st Street (Credit: Police Athletic League)
Alison Burger and Marty Burger with 21 East 61st Street (Credit: Police Athletic League)

Looks like Marty Burger will get a chunk of Helmsley Carlton House after all.

The Silverstein Properties CEO and his wife Alison Burger shelled out $10.2 million for a pad at 21 East 61st Street— now known simply as the Carlton House, property records filed Wednesday show. The records show another unit — most likely for storage — was included in the deal, but the type of unit could not be confirmed.

Silverstein had bid on the Upper East Side building nearly a decade ago but eventually lost out to Gary Barnett’s Extell Development and private equity firm Angelo, Gordon and Co., which turned the property into a 68-unit cond-op.

Marty Burger did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A representative for Extell said it could not confirm or deny the buyers. Brown Harris Stevens’ Daniella Schlisser, who had the listing, declined to comment.

Extell and Angelo bought the 17-story property in 2010 for $175 million and completed its renovations in 2015.

But years before, Silverstein, the real estate firm founded by Larry Silverstein, also had eyed the building.

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“[We had] a very well-known hotel brand that agreed to let us use their name to sell condos,” Burger told The Real Deal last fall. “We thought that was our edge.”

The Carlton House’s former owner, the estate of Leona Helmsley, went with Extell and Angelo because the partners’ pitch included adding more retail. Thor Equities ended up dropping $277 million for that retail space, which sits along Madison Avenue.

“It made 100 percent sense,” Burger previously told TRD of the retail play, “and I kicked myself for not thinking of it because [it was] just a different approach.”

The Burgers’ new apartment spans 4,060 square feet and has five bedrooms and five-and-a-half baths, according to its listing. The building is steps from Central Park and has a 65-foot heated indoor swimming pool.

The unit had several price cuts over the years. Extell first listed the unit for $14.5 million in 2014, according to listings website StreetEasy.

In January, a trust tied to marijuana investor Jonathan Sandelman and Alicia Bona Sandelman picked up the 35-foot-wide townhouse next door at 19 East 61st Street for $27.5 million — or less than half the home’s original asking price.