Radio host Rush Limbaugh has closed on the sale of his lavish Fifth Avenue penthouse for $11.75 million — and he moved out of New York so fast that he left all his ornate and gilded furnishings behind, The Wall Street Journal’s Metropolis blog reported Friday, citing brokers familiar with the transaction.
Last year he announced on his radio show that he had decided to sell his apartment at 1049 Fifth Ave., with its four fireplaces and terraces overlooking Central Park, in order to “get out of New York totally.”
Limbaugh has long railed against high taxes in New York. He vowed to cut his ties when the state adopted a temporary income tax surcharge to raise more than $3 billion a year. His website published a transcript of his broadcast under the title “El Rushbo to New York: Drop Dead.”
He now lives and works in Florida. When it came time to close on his apartment, rather than packing up Limbaugh offered to let the buyers keep all the furnishings, cleanly cutting his ties to the space.
When Limbaugh’s broker, Haidee Granger of the Corcoran Group, listed the apartment for $13.95 million in February, it revealed a surprisingly baroque space with gilded moldings, elaborate drapery, ornate beds with tall wood bedposts and hand-painted murals on many ceilings and walls.
Many brokers said the idiosyncratic furnishings would make the apartment hard to sell, despite the four bedrooms in 4,661-square-foot space with a private elevator landing. Many wealthy buyers routinely bring in their own architects, who spend years completely rebuilding Fifth Avenue apartments, even if they have just been renovated.
But when the property closed on Thursday, several brokers familiar with the transaction said the international purchasers were especially attracted to the richly designed space and were considering keeping it as it is. They agreed to keep all the furnishings.
A broker familiar with the apartment said that, at one point, Limbaugh agreed to sell the apartment for considerably less than the final price but withdrew the offer when the final purchasers made a higher bid.
Limbaugh paid just under $5 million for the apartment, along with a maid’s room and storage locker, in 1994.