The Upper East Side mansion seized from former Penthouse magazine publisher Bob Guccione has been sold by his creditors for a very sexy price.
According to city transfer records, the 27-room townhouse on East 67th Street, between Fifth and Madison avenues, has just sold for $49 million to Wall Street financier Philip Falcone.
The sprawling 22,000-square- foot, double-wide vintage home has every possible amenity that Guccione could imagine, including a massive full-floor master bedroom with a study, solarium and private terrace, an indoor pool, a theater, wine cellar, “dance” room, garden with greenhouse, sauna, and servants’ quarters.
Also featured are 11 bathrooms, four additional bedroom suites, large public rooms with high ceilings, eight fireplaces and an elevator.
“It’s got everything but the girls,” laughed one broker who toured the imposing palace.
When Guccione’s financial problems first surfaced, he listed the digs for $40 million in 2002. For the next several years, the price yo-yoed from $29 million to the last asking price of $59 million.
The house had most recently been marketed as the Milbank Mansion, name after an owner who combined the double-wide house in 1919.
Guccione eventually vacated the premises in 2006 after the present note holders, listed as P.H. Realty Associates LLC, called in his high-interest loan.
Falcone runs Harbinger Capital Partners hedge fund, which, together with another partner, holds the highest percentage stake in The New York Times Co., the parent of the slumping newspaper, and is seeking to replace four of its directors.
The substantial price paid by Falcone and wife Lisa falls short of the $53 million record townhouse price paid by Christopher Flowers for a like-sized pad seven blocks away.
Sources say the Falcones, who have just completed the restoration of a nearby townhouse, will begin a two-to-three-year renovation on their new purchase.