Biggest buy in residential history of the city: $44m

Real Estate Weekly, Dec 22, 2004

Senior executives at Brown Harris Stevens are selling the late Laurance S. Rockefeller's Fifth Avenue penthouse to media mogul Rupert Murdoch for a cool $44 million, setting the record for the highest price ever paid for a residence in Manhattan.

According to published reports, Murdoch, chairman of News Corporation, will pay the asking price for the triplex apartment at 834 Fifth Ave. It will be an all cash sale, as stipulated by the co-op's requirements.

When the deal is completed, the sales price will beat the $42.25 million record that David Martinez paid last year to convert two apartments at the Time Warner center.

Murdoch's new home is located on the most elegant stretch of Fifth Avenue, with 20 rooms, 8,000 s/f of living space and 4,000 s/f of terraces all spread over three floors.

Several well-known and well-to-do New Yorkers boast this address, including the former chairman of Sotheby's A. Alfred Taubman, philanthropist Carroll Petrie, Broadway producer Harold Prince and financier John H. Gutfreund.

Reports indicate Hall F. Willkie, president of Brown Harris Stevens is conducting the sale with colleague, Mary Rutherford.