Peruvian billionaire Carlos Rodriguez Pastor has sued the estate of Monique Uzielli, demanding that he be released from his $27.5 million contract to purchase the late Swiss aristocrat's enormous Fifth Avenue penthouse and that his $2.5 million deposit be returned. And what that means is that Maureen Klinsky is winning.
After Uzielli's death at 98 last year, her apartment, which features 4,870-square-feet of wraparound terraces, was listed for $29.5 million. Klinsky, who lives in the apartment below the penthouse (which is pretty amazing in its own right) and also happens to be the co-op board president, must have long coveted those terraces. When the penthouse hit the market, she made an offer of $21 million, which was rejected in favor of Pastor's 31 percent higher offer. And that was when the fun started. To date, Klinsky's alleged attempts to sabotage the sale have included getting the board to vote to build a shared roof deck above the penthouse, which would only be accesible via the penthouse's awesome terrace and, later, deciding it was time to do a long-planned repair project that would limit the new owner's access to the terraces. She needn't have bothered with the second one, though, as Pastor has no interest in letting his new neighbors traipse all over his private terrace and he wants out of the deal. Co-ops: they're just like high school except nobody graduates unless they die.
· Billionaire sues seller of $27.5 million upper East Side penthouse over nonprivate terrace [NYDN]
· 1107 Fifth Avenue coverage [Curbed]
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