Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s estate sells UES units for $101M

Penthouse, lower unit sold in possible NYC co-op record

Late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and 4 East 66th Street (Getty Images, Google Maps, iStock)
Late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and 4 East 66th Street (Getty Images, Google Maps, iStock)

The estate of late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has executed what could be the most expensive co-op sale in New York’s history.

Two apartments at 4 East 66th Street on the Upper East Side traded for $101 million, the Wall Street Journal reported. The outlet noted that if considered as one property, the sale smashed the previous co-op record set in 2015 at $77.5 million, according to real estate appraiser Jonathan Miller.

The sale includes a penthouse and an apartment on a lower floor in the 16-unit building. Allen paid $25 million for the penthouse in 2011, but it’s not clear how much he paid for the other unit.

The buyer’s identity was shielded behind a Delaware limited liability company. The Corcoran Group’s Betsy Messerschmitt represented Allen’s estate in the off-market deal.

The exclusive Upper East Side building is no stranger to high-dollar deals. In 2016, hedge-funder Daniel Nir sold his apartment at the building for $52 million. More recently, financier J. Christopher Flowers and his wife purchased a unit at the building for $43 million.

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Socialite Shafi Roepers has aimed in recent years to sell her unit in the building in that price neighborhood, but to no avail. Last year, Roepers slashed the price on the 7,000-square-foot apartment down to $45 million. That’s $20 million below what she wanted in 2015; it was previously priced at $55 million in 2017.

During his life, Allen compiled an impressive personal real estate portfolio. Among his holdings were a 4,000-acre property in Idaho and a swath of land on the San Juan Islands.

At the beginning of the year, Allen’s former 120-acre Beverly Crest hilltop estate sold for $65 million. The property, often referred to as Enchanted Hill, originally had an asking price of $150 million.

Allen died in 2018 from complications with cancer. He co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates when he was 22, before leaving the company eight years later. Allen amassed a massive fortune in his life, giving often to philanthropic causes and buying both the Seattle Seahawks and Portland Trail Blazers.

Forbes estimated his net worth to be $20.3 billion upon his death.

— Holden Walter-Warner