Madoff former NYC penthouse gets US$1 million price cut

NEW YORK: The price of Bernard Madoff’s former penthouse apartment in Manhattan was cut by US$1 million (RM3.39 million) to US$8.9 million after almost two months on the market.

The 3-bedroom apartment, at 133 East 64th St, was reduced on Nov 9 and has been offered for sale for 59 days, according to StreetEasy.com, a property listing service. The US Marshals Service, which is in charge of the property disposition, confirmed the reduction.

“Based on the current market and out of the better interests for the sale of the property, it was reduced,” said Roland Ubaldo, a deputy US Marshal in New York.

The median price of Manhattan apartments slid 8.4% to US$850,000 in the third quarter from a year earlier, New York appraiser Miller Samuel Inc and broker Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate said in an Oct 2 report. Three-bedroom properties plummeted dropped 41% to US$2.25 million.

Serena Boardman, the broker for the penthouse with Sotheby’s International Realty in New York, didn’t immediately return a phone call for comment.

Madoff, 71, pleaded guilty in March to 11 counts of fraud and money laundering. He was sentenced to 150 years.

The Marshals Service is also selling a home seized from Madoff in Palm Beach, Florida. Madoff’s former home in Montauk, New York, near the summer resort communities of the Hamptons, sold for US$9.41 million. The asking price was US$8.75 million.

Steven Roth, the chairman of Vornado Realty Trust, bought that property, according to the Wall Street Journal. – Bloomberg LP