Photo: Theodore Parisienne/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service/Getty Images
It took two years and a $1.55 million price cut, but Rudy Giuliani has finally sold his Upper East Side co-op, his attorney told Crain’s. The former mayor and Donald Trump crony — who listed the 45 East 66th Street apartment after a number of legal cases, most of them stemming from his dealings with the Trump administration, left him “close to broke,” according to his lawyer — sold the Lenox Hill three-bedroom for $4.95 million, only a smidge more than the $4.7 million he paid in 2002. Shortly before the sale, city records show he paid his ex about half of that, or $2.5 million, to take sole ownership of the apartment.
The co-op’s wood-paneled library, as seen in listing photos: perfect for smoking cigars, watching baseball games, and recording Cameo videos.
Photo: Sotheby’s International Realty
The sale marks an anti-climactic close to a career trajectory that was at its peak when he moved in. Giuliani bought the co-op shortly after his second mayoral term ended, when his leadership during 9/11 was still fresh in New Yorkers’ minds and he was at the height of his golden “America’s mayor” era. It was, his ex-wife Judith Giuliani told the New York Times, a kind of luxe man cave where Giuliani could kick back in his wood-paneled library (later seen in the background of countless Cameos), smoke cigars, and watch his Yankees games from his lair atop the Gothic-inspired brick co-op building.
It was also, apparently, “extremely important” to Giuliani that he live in a penthouse, according to his ex-wife. In 2014, he fought to stop another 1,000-square-foot apartment from being built above his own. His lawyer told the Landmarks Preservation Commission that “a penthouse on top of a penthouse on top of a penthouse” was too much (adding another nonexistent penthouse in his zeal to make a point). Some members of the LPC were sympathetic, but in the end, the board voted to allow the addition, which met its requirements for being minimally visible from the street.
The living room, as shown in listing photos, is spacious and has nice bones, but a buyer will probably want to update the older renovation.
Photo: Sotheby’s International Realty
But in subsequent years, as Giuliani’s reputation and finances plummeted amid numerous lawsuits and legal cases — at one point, his lawyer told the court Giuliani had $57,000 in unpaid phone bills, which doesn’t even seem possible — he was forced to off-load his real estate to raise cash. His most recent divorce didn’t help matters either (Judith got their house in the Hamptons). And that was before he lost the defamation suit brought by two Georgia election workers, a mother and daughter whose lives he upended by falsely claiming they’d been involved in election interference. He lost his collection of baseball memorabilia, 1980 Mercedes, Florida condo, and this apartment as a result but eventually wrested them back in a settlement.
While an association with a former mayor might once have been a selling point, any kind of glamour the place once had has surely fallen by the wayside in recent years. The FBI raid can’t have helped either. The place has additional issues from a sales perspective: While there are some nice historic details, as a place redone more than 20 years ago, it looks pretty dated. And the maintenance, at $10,934 a month, is steep.
The dining room, as shown in listing photos, has historic details like paneling from the landmarked building’s turn-of-the-century construction.
Photo: Sotheby’s International Realty
The listing broker, Serena Boardman, in addition to selling $20 million co-ops in the city’s top social buildings, has in the past moved the high-end real estate of other disgraced New Yorkers, including Bernie Madoff. But while Giuliani’s apartment wasn’t the site of any really unsavory activity (if you don’t count the Cameos), there’s nothing exceptional about it, either. In the co-op market, a dated apartment belonging to an octogenarian cigar aficionado selling for the same price as 20 years ago isn’t really surprising. While Giuliani ushered in New York’s real-estate boom, it appears he did not personally benefit from it. So where will he go now? To the only property he still owns, it seems: his condo in Palm Beach.