7-Story Beekman Place Mansion Hits The Market For $50M

On paper, the seven-story mansion at 29 Beekman Place has all the fixings to be completely bonkers listing: a $50 million price tag, 11,5000-square-feet of living space, 15 rooms, eight wood-burning fireplaces, and some high-profile former owners. But our first thought when we saw the listing, which just went live, was "Blech. This is really ugly." The brokerbabble (which is so long, it doesn't even all fit on StreetEasy) says the house, built in 1910, was "completely renovated in 1996," but that is by no means a positive quality. The house looks old. There's a mirrored foyer, wall-to-wall carpeting, and the dining room features odd half columns slapped against some kind of metallic wall paneling. That said, the house does have its perks: a wood-paneled library, two terraces, a dumbwaiter, a sterling sliver safe in the kitchen, an elevator to all floors, and a wine cellar in the basement. There's no floorplan to inspect, but based on other sales on the block—most notably, the $35M sale of the Ellen Biddle Shipman mansion—we imagine this manse will be visited by the PriceChopper.

It's unclear who the current owner is—city documents list the anonymous "Wansdown Properties"—but in the past, the house was occupied by philanthropist Mary Lasker and William Paley, who founded CBS. Even if the place sold for $50 million, it would still fall short of the record for the most expensive house ever sold in Manhattan. That title belongs to the former Harkness Mansion, currently being remade by Larry Gagosian, which sold for $53M in 2006.
· Listing: 29 Beekman Place [BHS via StreetEasy]