A six-story Upper East Side townhouse that cost its owner over $16 million to buy and renovate is now on the market for just under $9 million — a staggering $7 million loss.
The seller, who requested anonymity, bought 238 1/2 E. 83rd St. in January 2013 for $2.6 million and spent $13.6 million tricking out the place — adding levels and installing custom-made marble floors, mahogany panels, an elevator, central air and a sophisticated security system.
“He did it knowing full well he likely wouldn’t get [his money] out,” co-listing agent Brown Harris Stevens’ Maggie Peters said during a tour of the property. “It was like a vanity project.”
His loss is a buyer’s gain.
“Anybody who’s buying it is getting an incredible bang for their buck,” Peters said.
Two major factors are driving the discount: width and location.
At just 14 feet wide, the 4,400-square-foot house is narrower than the city average of 18 to 20 feet, according to co-listing broker Barbara Fox of BHS.
“It’s width sends most people running, but yet it doesn’t read like a narrow, dark townhouse,” Peters said. “It really doesn’t.”
It is also situated between Second and Third avenues, well removed from the tony enclaves west of Lexington Avenue. The block features a psychic, a copy store, an auto repair shop and small residential buildings.
Inside, the owner, who primarily resides in Connecticut, spent $13.6 million completely transforming the property, converting it from a two-family building into a single-family mega-home. The gut renovation added three stories, six distinct outdoor spaces and entirely new mechanical systems.
The house, Peters added, “is a bit of an anomaly on the block.”
The home has three to four bedrooms, five bathrooms and three powder rooms, with a separate ground-floor apartment with its own street entrance.
Upon entering the foyer at the stoop entry level, there is a distinctive patterned inlaid marble, which some potential buyers have deemed “too visually busy,” Peters said.
There is a huge eat-in kitchen with a wall of windows and a balcony overlooking a garden.
The highly customized layout has required some creative staging to appeal to traditional buyers. For one thing, there is no formal dining room.
And on the second level, it was originally configured “like a man cave,” Peters said. “There was no proper living room. [The room] was like a video screening room. So we had to rejigger it to make it practical.”
That meant staging the media room, which has a drop-down screen and previously had six reclining lounge chairs with individual controls, as a living room. The other side of that floor has a copper-top bar with seating, a fireplace, a TV, a powder room and a terrace.
On three are two spacious bedrooms and two marble bathrooms, plus a laundry room.
The fourth level houses the double-height primary bedroom suite with a floor-to-ceiling cathedral window and a private balcony. It has a walk-in closet and a large bathroom with a soaking tub and walk-in stall shower.
On five, there is a fully equipped gym and balcony office with a built-in desk and storage overlooking the primary bedroom, plus a marble bath.
There are two large roof decks on six, one with a fully equipped kitchen and dining room, and one for sunbathing.
The owner outfitted the ground level under the stoop with a living-dining room, a kitchen and one bedroom and one bathroom.
In the finished basement, there is a wine storage unit with a floor that looks like cork, full-size laundry equipment and a dog-washing sink.
