Hedge fund billionaire Steve Cohen has been very lucky in the world of finance, but over the last six years his luck in trying to find a buyer for his ritzy New York City apartment hasn't been so hot. He's had to slash his asking price for the five bedroom One Beacon Court unit at least six times in as many years, and the latest price cut brought the apartment down to $45 million.
That's still much more than the $24 million he reportedly paid for the space back in 2005, but that was before he brought in famed architect Charles Gwathmey, who worked on the recent renovation of the Guggenheim Museum, to oversee an extensive makeover for the building's only duplex apartment. After that, Cohen decided that the place was worth $115 million when he originally listed it for sale in April of 2013. The market, however, disagreed, and he wasn't able to find a buyer and close the deal.
Victoria Shtainer is one of Cohen's neighbors in the building and is also trying to help him sell the apartment. She tells Bloomberg that its precipitous drops in price in the last six years indicate how the real estate market has changed in that time period:
"One Beacon Court used to be the only game in town… That's why he priced it so crazily."
But she's optimistic that now, at long last, the price is right:
"He finally got it right, and the market will show him that."
Cohen first dropped the price of the duplex to $98 million by the end of 2013, going on to cut the price at least five more times: To $82 million in 2014, $79 million in 2015, $72 million in 2016, $57.5 million in 2017, and now its current price at $45 million. Overall, the most recent price points represents a deep, $70 million discount over his original asking price.
If you're interested in possibly seizing that bargain for yourself, or maybe you just want to do a little penthouse touring for fun, check out the video below:
