Versace’s former townhouse listed for $70M

Hedge fund manager Thomas Sandell bought late designer’s UES mansion in 2005

Gianni Versace and 5 East 64th Street in Manhattan (Sotheby’s International Realty, Getty Images)
Gianni Versace and 5 East 64th Street in Manhattan (Sotheby’s International Realty, Getty Images)

Gianni Versace was killed 25 years ago, but his legacy lives on at an Upper East Side townhouse asking $70 million.

Hedge fund manager Thomas Sandell and his wife, Ximena, listed the late designer’s mansion at 5 East 64th Street, the Wall Street Journal reported. They purchased the home in 2005 for $30 million from the family of Versace, who had bought it for $7.5 million in 1995.

The home, half a block from Central Park, stands six stories tall and encompasses more than 14,000 square feet. The bottom four floors retain much of Versace’s vision, while the upper two were redesigned to include a media room and a game room. A rear balcony overlooks a garden.

The Italian Baroque-style home also includes a roof deck with a gazebo and could be configured to include up to nine bedrooms. Sotheby International Realty’s Nikki Field is co-listing the property with her daughter, Amanda Field Jordan.

Field told the publication that the home will “be purchased by someone who has that same reverence” for the property as the Sandells.

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The property has been marketed as a rental in recent years, asking for as much as $100,000 per month. Not everyone has had a great experience being a tenant at Versace’s former home, though.

In 2018, developer Joseph Chetrit sued the hedge fund billionaire, alleging a number of problems at the townhouse, including blocked sewage and a “raging” rodent infestation. The lawsuit accused Sandell of hiding the home’s issues from Chetrit, who was seeking at least $1 million in damages in addition to rent credit.

Field said the lawsuit was “amicably resolved.”

Sandell is also looking to sell some property in the Hamptons. The former head of now-defunct Sandell Asset Management listed 10 acres of land on Meadow Lane in Southampton for a modest $75 million.

[WSJ] — Holden Walter-Warner