Upper East Side manse goes for $47M-plus

An Upper East Side townhouse has just gone into contract to an anonymous buyer for upwards of $47 million, which would make for the priciest single-family home sale in New York City since the collapse of Lehman Brothers. According to the Wall Street Journal, the five-story, 33-foot-wide townhouse at 16 East 69th Street, once owned by the Vanderbilts, wasn’t officially listed. And after three years of quietly showing the mansion to prospective buyers, the owners — author and cell phone heiress Sloan Lindemann Barnett and her husband, Beauty.com founder Roger Barnett — have found one, sans broker, meaning that no one will be taking home a commission on what will surely be one of the city’s biggest deals of the year. Earlier this year, Russian composer Igor Krutoy purchased a condominium at the Plaza Hotel for $48 million — the highest price ever paid for a single condo unit in the city. Last year’s priciest sale was of the Duke Semans Mansion on Fifth Avenue, which sold to billionaire Carlos Slim for $44 million. The record for a single-family home sale in New York City is currently held by financier J. Christopher Flowers, who paid $53 million for the Harkness Mansion at 4 East 75th Street in 2006. He’s currently asking around $40 million for the home, though it’s not officially listed. [WSJ]