Joseph Chetrit sells UES townhouse for $25M

In one of the priciest deals since the coronavirus pandemic hit New York, real estate investor and developer Joseph Chetrit has sold his Upper East Side townhouse for $25 million.

A source familiar with the deal said the contract price was initially higher, but was renegotiated because of the pandemic, the Wall Street Journal reported. The buyer is unknown.

The 32-foot-wide property, located on East 76th Street, has eight bedrooms, six stories, an indoor swimming pool and a rooftop garden. It was first listed in 2017 for $39 million.

The property was one of several townhouses Chetrit transformed after buying six brownstones from Lenox Hill Hospital in 2007 for a total value of $26 million, according to the Journal.

Since the city shut down all nonessential business in late March, luxury deals have been slow, and many buyers have looked to renegotiate existing contracts as the market falls.

In the past six weeks, there have been just 14 luxury contracts signed in Manhattan, for a total value of $111 million. That’s compared with 135 contracts signed in the same time period last year, for a total value of more than $1 billion.

But Chetrit’s deal is not the only big closing. In mid-April, the priciest home ever sold in Brooklyn closed for a record $20.3 million. [WSJ] — Sylvia Varnham O’Regan