Diamonds may be forever, but townhouses on the Upper East Side are not.
The Geneva, Switzerland-based jeweler, Chopard, listed its American headquarters at 21 East 63rd Street, also known as the Chopard Mansion, for $40 million on Thursday. The company bought the property in 2002 for $9.25 million. The Beaux Arts townhouse was originally built in 1892 for the Bloomingdale family behind the famous department store.
The historic home is currently zoned as commercial space, however listing agent Robin Rothman of Sotheby’s International Realty also wants to draw in potential homebuyers in the market for a mansion.
The listing describes the 12-room, 9,720-square-foot mansion as a four-bedroom, and notes that the property has had “extensive exterior renovations” and has “all new state-of-the-art” interiors. That includes a private fiber Internet connection, security system, commercial elevator and an “inviolable vault” in the basement.
The townhouse’s kitchens, baths and a full rooftop terrace were added under Chopard ownership, however Rothman said the building was “being gutted right now” to allow a buyer to finish the home as desired.
Rothman said Chopard’s putting its mansion on the market was not a sign of the Swiss company’s retreat from New York City. “If anything [they’re] doing something more [and] making their presence better known,” she said.
Elsewhere on the Upper East Side, Stellar Management sold an unfinished 12,000-square-foot townhouse at 134 East 74th Street for $25.3 million in June.
Rothman defended the price of the unfinished Chopard mansion, pointing to the Graff building at 710 Madison which traded for $66.5 million in February and another across the road at 711 Madison, which houses Roberto Cavalli’s store, that sold in May for $50.4 million.
“All of those supports this price very comfortably,” she said.
In June — a record month for residential sales — hedge funder John Griffin set a record with the $77 million buy of Philip Falcone’s Upper East Side townhouse. After the state’s transfer tax set in on July 1, residential trades slowed to a crawl last month, with only one contract signed for more than $10 million in Manhattan.