Natural gas billionaire Michael Smith offloaded four condos at 250 West Street for $60 million — roughly $10 million more than he paid for them between 2015 and 2016.
An entity tied to Smith, the CEO of Freeport LNG, bought the Tribeca penthouse in 2015 for just under $30 million, according to public records. The deal was a steep discount from its initial asking price of $42 million when it hit the market two years prior and was reportedly eyed by Leonardo DiCaprio.
Between May and October 2016, Smith, under the same LLC, scooped up three more condos one floor below the penthouse, including Unit Nos. 11B, 11C and 11D.
Both the penthouse and the condos sold in off-market deals to anonymous trusts. The sales are listed under two separate entities, though it’s unclear whether they’re shielding the same buyer. If it is indeed one buyer, the new owner can combine the currently separate units to a total of roughly 12,500 square feet.
The 11th-floor units were purchased under Two Fifty Trust with Great Neck-based attorney James Wei as the trustee. The penthouse buyer is listed as West Property Trust, with attorney Edan Pinkas as trustee.
Pinkas, of the firm Schwartz Levine Pinkas Stark, represented the Qatari prime minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani when he bought a Greenwich Village condo last month, according to Crain’s New York. The publication first reported the sale of the penthouse and one of the below units totaling $47 million.
Adam Modlin of the Modlin Group, who represented Smith in the deal, did not respond to a request for comment. Pinkas and Wei did not respond to requests for comment.
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Former Plaza Hotel owner Elad Properties bought the 12-story building, once a fruit-and-vegetable warehouse, for $142 million in 2006 and converted it into a 160-unit condominium. Sales launched in 2011.
Smith, whose Texas-based firm exports liquified natural gas, notched a Los Angeles County record in 2018 when he and his wife, Iris, paid $110 million for their Malibu mansion. A year later, the couple sold their home in Bridgehampton for $43 million.