Photo: Michael Nigro/Pacific Press/Shutterstock
Andrew Cuomo is dreaming of Gracie Mansion from a 1,200-square-foot, two-bedroom, two-bath at the Oriana, according to his voter registration and a few chatty neighbors. “I saw him standing outside the door with his suitcases and his shirts and all of his stuff,” says a resident who caught him in front of his apartment on Saturday having a “very vigorous” phone call. The neighbor was actually a little surprised to see the former governor out in the open like that. “I don’t know that a candidate for mayor, or any position really, would want people living in a high-profile building to know that you’re there. To me, it’s a little strange.”
The Oriana is the rebranded River Tower, Harry Macklowe’s free-standing high-rise on East 54th Street that opened in the early 1980s. (Macklowe reportedly lived in the penthouse for decades before selling the building in 2010.) In 2017, the aging rental tower underwent a $60 million renovation in an effort to compete with new luxury developments. The pricey facelift added a 39th floor above the existing penthouse to make room for a gym and sun deck while chopping up apartments on the lower levels to create dozens of more units, The Wall Street Journal reported at the time. What developers couldn’t fix: the eight-foot ceilings. (A director at the leasing firm protested that the windows made the ceilings “seem higher.”) Today, rents for two-bedrooms run between $6,643 and $9,275 a month.
Residents are a typical spread of lawyers, diplomats, and other professionals living alongside the building’s high-profile residents, including, at one point, Venus Williams (an apparent “OrianaPartner”) and former Real Housewife of New York City Dorinda Medley, another “OrianaPartner” who reportedly scored a three-bedroom, 2.5-bath around 2018 in exchange for posting pictures of her apartment’s skyline views, per “Page Six.” Medley, for her part, thinks the building is a perfect fit for Cuomo. “They have that great circular driveway, so you don’t have to be dropped off on the street,” she says, adding that she felt the Oriana was “well run” and “very discreet” while she lived there. Plus, it’s Sutton Place: “It’s dignified, it’s old-school New York, it feels secretive.”
Cuomo can wind down from plotting how to pummel his opponents in June’s Democratic primary with river views, or make use of his unit’s Gachot Studios–designed bathrooms, custom Italian oak kitchen cabinetry, and a Bosch washer and dryer. In addition to 24-hour concierge service, the building also includes an on-site “pet spa,” meaning Cuomo could have brought his Northern Inuit, Captain, which he reportedly tried to foist onto his former staffers when making his exit from the Governor’s Mansion in 2021. (Cuomo denied the claims, tweeting at the time, “Captain and I are a man and his dog.”)
What may have truly drawn him to the location, however, is the proximity to his 93-year-old mother, Matilda, who is living across the street. His sister Maria Cuomo Cole and her husband, fashion designer Kenneth Cole, meanwhile, reportedly also have a spot nearby, according to the New York Post. The couple listed their nearly 12,000-square-foot, seven-bedroom mansion in Purchase for $22 million this past summer. Cuomo was previously registered to vote at that address, where he also reportedly stashed his possessions after he technically became homeless following his resignation as governor.
So how long has he been at the Oriana? Cuomo, who was previously rumored to have been crashing with friends in the Hamptons, told Fox 5 New York’s Rosanna Scotto in December 2023 that he was splitting his time between Westchester and an apartment in New York City, which also happens to be shortly after his unit was taken off the market.
Much like the enduring mystery of where Eric Adams really lived leading up to his 2021 mayoral victory, Cuomo’s neighbors speculate the apartment might not be his full-time residence. The place is nice, they say, but maybe not spacious or ritzy enough for the former governor. Door men “really don’t” bring packages or dry cleaning up to resident’s units, one neighbor tells me, adding, “I feel like this is more of a secondary, tertiary address. Maybe he has a girlfriend or somebody who lives there.”