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Hedge funder bruised by shorting GameStop sells Tribeca condo

Buyers inked 33 contracts last week for Manhattan homes asking over $4M

Leon Shaulov and 56 Leonard Street (YJP, Matt Clare/Wikimedia)
Leon Shaulov and 56 Leonard Street (YJP, Matt Clare/Wikimedia)

Leon Shaulov, founder of hedge fund Maplelane Capital, has found a buyer for his lofty Tribeca penthouse at 56 Leonard Street.

The financier, whose fund suffered a 45 percent loss in January after shorting high-flying meme stock GameStop, could at least turn a profit on the home sale. He and his wife bought the 5,489-square-foot unit for $26.7 million in 2017 and was asking $34.5 million when the condo went into contract last week.

Overall, Manhattan’s luxury market continued to see strong activity last week with 33 homes asking more than $4 million going into contract last week. In the past 28 weeks, in only two did the numbers of contract signings dip below 30, according to Olshan Realty’s weekly report.

Buyers last week came to terms on 26 condo units and three co-ops. Sixteen of the 26 condos were sold by developers with buyers snapping up five units at Hudson Yards.

“The market overall is good, and what’s shocking is this is really in the depths of the summer,” said Donna Olshan, the report’s author.

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The median asking price was just under $6.4 million. The average discount from the original to the final asking price was 11 percent.

Of last week’s contracts, the most expensive listing was for Shaulov’s penthouse. The hedge funder’s five-bedroom condo has two terraces totalling 745 square feet and panoramic views of the Hudson River and New York Harbor. It was first listed last July for $37 million, before the asking price dropped to $34.5 million.

It marks the second week in a row where a condo at the jenga-like Tribeca tower called 56 Leonard has been the priciest to go into contract.

The second largest contract was for a full-floor unit at 200 Amsterdam Avenue, a building previously threatened by a judge’s tear-down order. The three-bedroom condo spans nearly 4,000 square feet and overlooks Central Park from the tower’s 45th floor. The buyer was from the tristate area, according to Olshan’s report, and the unit was last asking $19.3 million.

The tower at 200 Amsterdam has survived a spate of legal battles as it has been constructed. At one point a state judge ordered developer SJP Properties and partner Mitsui Fudosan to remove 20 floors from the 52-story tower, but the decision was overturned this spring. Closings at the tower are slated to start in the fall.

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