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Look what Vander-built!
A Gilded Age mansion that was the childhood home of the late heiress/fashion designer Gloria Vanderbilt, mother of CNN’s Anderson Cooper, has sold for $32.2 million, The Post can report exclusively.
Back in 2014, a group of investors in Russia bought the property at 39 E. 72nd St. for $19 million with plans of transforming the palatial, 27-foot wide sandstone-clad mansion into three ultra luxury condos that, they thought, would fetch around $70 million.
“Individuals in Russia held the primary equity position. They bought it as an investment, not as an oligarch’s hideaway,” a source said.
The buyers hired upscale architects CetraRuddy to do a gut renovation that included a central elevator and leather-paneled walls in the lobby, along with internal elevators, limestone floors, chef’s kitchens and gas fireplaces in each unit.
But the Russians’ big plans were dashed in part by the pandemic, which tanked real estate prices in New York, and forced the investors to fight off foreclosure by a lender instead.
“They wanted a home run. What they got was a good, not great, conclusion,” an inside source said.
The neo-Grec residence features unique details, like a copper cornice. Built in 1891 by Robert B. Lynd, it’s where Vanderbilt, the great-granddaughter of railroad baron Cornelius Vanderbilt, lived during her “Poor Little Rich Girl” days — from the time she was born until shortly before she moved to Paris with her mother in 1924.
Vanderbilt died in 2019, at age 95.
The buyer, hidden behind an LLC, is domestic, sources say.
By 2019, the townhouse was on the market for $50 million but nearly went into foreclosure the next year, the Real Deal reported, after the owners stopped making a $17 million construction loan payment.
The mansion is currently divided into three separate condos, but could return to single-family mansion status.
Altogether, the 18,408-square-foot home comes with 11 bedrooms, 11 bathrooms, four powder rooms and 1,500 square feet of outdoor space.
The listing broker was Carrie Chiang of Corcoran.
The Mansion Global first reported the sale but not the price.
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