The Kleeberg Residence at 3 Riverside Drive off of 72nd Street is going up for auction this month as the owner faces the possibility of foreclosure. The five-story 37-foot wide mansion was designed by architect C.P.H. Gilbert and built in 1898. It’s 11,000 square feet, has eight bedrooms, 10 bathrooms, and was once listed for as much as $40 million. It’s expected to go for $13-$16 million.
“It is as close as a Manhattanite can come to living in a European castle,” Dexter Guerrieri, president of Vandenberg Inc.—the Townhouse Experts, told the Wall Street Journal.
But the owner, a real estate developer who bought the mansion in 1996 for $2.64 million and restored it, wasn’t able to sell it and faces foreclosure on a $4 million mortgage, according to the Journal. So it’s going up for auction at a live event on Dec. 20 at noon at the Trump Soho New York.
I’m no real estate expert, but it seems like a very odd mix of décor – some of it very original, some of it overly modern. I think the new owner will end up still doing a lot of work.
Whoever listed it for $40 million clearly had no idea what they were doing if it is now going for $13-16 million.
Could the change in price indicate the end of the insane luxury market here in the city? The bubble had to burst eventually…
LOL……..😂. Don’t hold your breath!
does it come with a royal title?
Isn’t that Rapunzel up in the top-most window ? Is she part of the deal? Don’t get too excited; she’s probably older than Dickens’ Miss Havisham.
But, should you see her, you might want to sing her these wonderful “Agony” lyrics from Sondheim’s “Into the Woods”:
High in her tower she sits by the hour
Maintaining her hair
Blithe and becoming and frequently humming
A light-hearted air
Ahh…
Agony, far more painful than yours
When you know she would go with you
If there only were doors
Agony, all the torture they teach
What’s as intruiging or half so fatiguing
As what’s out of reach….
This reminds me of the ads I have to watch at AMC Loews Lincoln Square before the movie previews where some Sotheby’s real estate agent shows $4 million dollar condos for sale.
Which elementary school is this building zoned for?
PS double naught 4
Very amusing.
I have a feeling this property will end up selling as “bank owned” for only $4M, if there is no sale at the auction, and they proceed with foreclosing on it. This property is sandwiched in between two tall buildings, not good. The structure to the right looks like it belongs in a neighborhood in Brooklyn, not Riverside drive. Perhaps the Islamic society two doors away will buy it, and expand their community.
Yup. That’s exactly what we need – the Islamic center to become even larger.
As it is you can hardly find a parking space on Fridays.
Make it expand and the yellow cabs will stretch all the way to 79th street.
This building looks really out of place with respect to the other buildings that have obviously been built after it.
Bldg. looks like it was shoe horned into that space.
And, boohoo, poor little developer is losing money on building. I would shed a tear for him/them if I wasn’t laughing so hard. LOL.
Developer Regina Kislin and her husband, photographer Anatoly Siyagine purchased and began restoration of the house while living there with their children. So it isn’t so much as someone buying a property on spec and then trying to make a killing.
Family is selling in part because the children have grown/left, and they find it too large for present needs.
https://ny.curbed.com/2015/9/27/9917148/gorgeous-riverside-drive-mansion-gets-13m-price-chop
Im thinking of buying it.
Gotta due a little research first though to make sure it’s not haunted.
Maybe I’ll donate it to the Salvation Army or that charity on TV that wants your car…and even real estate donations. Isn’t that nice of them? And that SONG!!!! the stuff my nightmares are made of. Forget waterboarding, that’s what you want to use.
Maybe i’ll just live there by myself and walk around with a big chalice and a couple of dobermans.
In all seriousness though, someone should really buy it and turn it into a nice neighborhood brothel. A business that this neighborhood could really use…I mean enough with the nails and the Thai food already people.
We need to stimulate the local economy. At least i’m offering ideas.
LOL….Add a parking spot and it might be worth it!
Riverside Drive once was lined with beautiful mansions such as the Kleeberg Residence. There once was a huge mansion built by Charles Schwab (yes, that one) on Riverside Drive/West End between 73rd and 74th streets.
Just as with the great mansions along Madison, Fifth, and other avenues as time and tastes changed these properties were often sold, demolished and apartment housing built. That and or they themselves were chopped up into multi-family housing or at worst became boarding houses.
We can thank the vision of Mr. Henry Clay Frick that his mansion remains and is preserved.
History of Kleeberg Residence is not a happy one and the property has ping ponged back and forth between several owners since Mr. Kleeberg first sold it William Guggenheim. In fact Mr. K ended up buying the building back at one time and creating apartments.
https://www.realtor.com/news/nyc-historic-kleeberg-residence-listed-for-30m/
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/11/realestate/exclusive-3-riverside-drive-gargoyles-and-gaslight.html
Issues with the property are perhaps several. First it is landmarked and all that comes with such a designation.
Next as noted it is sandwiched between a rather down market low rise apartment building to the right, and a high rise (if a bit more upmarket) to the left. Neither invoke the sort of area anyone willing to pay nearly 40 million much less 20. For that kind of money they can (and are) snatching up multiple townhouses in Greenwich or West Village and creating one mega mansion.
There is no exclusivity, onsite parking, …
Not an ideal location! An elevator building is next door and then the next brownstone is a Muslim house of worship. People going in and out all day and taxi’s line the Street. I wouldn’t want to live next to any house of worship so this isn’t a Muslim thing!
“” There once was a huge mansion built by Charles Schwab (yes, that one) on Riverside Drive/West End between 73rd and 74th streets.””
actually incorrect.
The mansion was bult by Charles Michael Schwab, 1862 to 1939, wealthy steel magnate.
Schwab brokerage was founded in 1975 by Charles R Schwab, born 1937 and still alive.
Sorry, for the misinformation. Had my “Schwabs” mixed up.
Charles M. Schwab apparently blew through much of his fortune, and then was finally “ruined” by the Great Depression. He moved out of *Riverside* to a small apartment on Park Avenue.
Tragic thing is if Mr. Schwab had lived a few more years his fortunes would have reversed. Bethlehem Steel did brisk business with war orders during run up and length of WWII.
https://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2011/07/lost-1906-charles-m-schwab-mansion.html
https://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/social-diary/2013/charles-m-schwab-and-his-mansion
Though Riverside is long gone, Charles M. Schwab’s summer estate “Immergrun” in Loretto, PA, which still stands. The place is now used by the Franciscan Friars.
https://www.post-gazette.com/life/homes/2011/07/16/Loretto-estate-s-restored-garden-simply-stunning/stories/201107160194
By the way, Charles R. Schwab (of Schwab brokerage fame) was once asked if he had any relationship to Charles M. He said no, not that he was aware of.
Needs a pool then I would buy ir
Read the listing again carefully; there is a pool. https://streeteasy.com/sale/1224154
Will you be paying with cash or by check?
Aside from the “unfortunate” hot mess of a building to the right which replaced the Booth mansion, main thing killing this property is the Islamic cultural center at One Riverside Drive, the former Prentiss mansion.
The main mosque is on Third Avenue IIRC, but this location acts as a secondary space. What this translates into is that at least once or more times per day hundreds of taxis (often parked illegally) descend upon the area as the drivers arrive for prayers. Then you have near constant foot traffic of people going in and out of that “cultural center”. Again not exactly exclusive nor something many paying > 10 million for a residence want to put up with.
Have friends who live on West 29th just off Fifth where there is another Islamic “cultural” center or whatever. At times (especially around evening) you cannot drive nor really walk across 29th towards Sixth. There are taxis (again many illegally double or otherwise parked) everywhere and the men hang out on street having beverages/snacks and (often loud) conversations.
As of 2015 the average townhouse price in Manhattan was 5.25 million. On UWS the average price per square foot (townhouse) was $1,911 in 2015, up 18.6 percent from 2014, and increased about 102 percent from 2006.
Being all this as it may and what people are paying for townhouses in suspect parts of areas of Harlem and LES or EV, this property will sell. Sadly it may end up being chopped up into apartments again instead of a private residence.
20 Rooms
8 Bedrooms
9 Baths
4 Terraces
3 GasLit Fireplaces
Spa with a Gym
Elevator
Ritzy Address
3 Riverside and 1 Riverside Drive are so nice — who put that hideous brick building in between them?
One needs a score card to keep up with the doings of those whacky Gilded Age New York society people.
But the following lay things out pretty nicely.
https://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-kleeberg-mansion-no-3-riverside.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/05/realestate/upper-west-side-streetscapes-houses-designed-for-millionaires-and-musicians.html
Lot for #2 Riverside Drive remained empty until 1964, then a developer put up that hot mess we see today. Of course by then the “gilded age” of Riverside Drive had long vanished. Quite frankly not long before WWI Riverside Drive began to “decline”. It was developed in hopes of drawing the “one percent” from their mansions in Mid-Town and or as an alternative to the UES (Fifth and Madison avenues), but never really took hold with the wealthy. Probably the only place that truly worked out was along CPW.
In any event #2 RSD was likely kept undeveloped for several reasons.
First the block was infested with deed restrictions and covenants. Many lots would not see these smashed until well after Ms. Booth (owner of #2 RSD) died in 1922. By the 1930’s you had the Great Depression, then came WWII. That last event brought saw the introduction of rent control laws to New York.
It is almost certain #2 RSD at one point had some type of deed restriction/covenant which obviously was smashed because the building that went up (and type of housing provided) likely would have violated one or more clauses. The Booth Estate did finally smash the deed restrictions/covenants for lots 4,5,and 6 which is why you see that large apartment building .
https://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2016/09/the-lost-angie-booth-mansion-no-4.html
Though hard to look at in context of buildings on either side of #2 RSD, plenty of similar buildings went up all over Manhattan in the 1960’s. If you walk around the UES, UWS, Yorkville, Chelsea, etc… you’ll see more of such buildings.
With RC and later RS laws these sort of buildings were “cheap” to put up, and units could be rented at rates that would bring in a return even with control laws.