Sheik Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani had trouble finding a co-op that would accept him — and his 2 wives, over a dozen kids and security guards licensed to carry automatic weapons.
22 East 71st Street in the Upper East Side.
The Sultan has finally landed. After being turned down at a Fifth Ave. coop board and having faced resistance at a luxury condominium on W. 57th St., the Prime Minister of Qatar closed on a townhouse at 22 East 71st St. for $47 million.
The seller, mogul Aby Rosen, originally listed the property for $75 million. He paid $15.65 million for the home in 2004. His sister-in-law, Samantha Boardman of Sotheby’s International Realty, was the listing broker. Her potential commission comes to $1.4 million before taxes and with a normal 70-30 percent agency split. Neither Rosen nor Boardman returned calls. Rosen never lived at the home, purchasing the property as an investment and event space.
The 45-foot-wide townhouse built in 1922 measures approximately 21,000 square-feet. It housed the 2009 Kips Bay Boys and Girls Club Designer Show House. The original architect, C.P.H. Gilbert, was renowned for designing the top townhomes of his day. This home has a grand marble-arched entryway and curved main staircase.
Sheik Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani had a terrible time finding a New York City home. He was rejected by the co-op board at 907 Fifth Ave., where he tried to combine two homes for $31 million. Negotiations for the $100 million penthouse at One57 fell through over the handling of the Sheik’s entourage, which includes two wives, more than a dozen children, and security licensed to carry automatic weapons.
“A townhouse may have been the right move for this guy from the beginning,” said CORE vice president Jarrod Guy Randolph, who has a multi-million-dollar penthouse listing nearby. “The upper East Side townhouse market is strong, but it doesn’t have the cachet of a new condominium, especially among foreign buyers. We’re not even close to the $100 million townhouse sale.”