When Clarissa and Edgar Bronfman Jr. bought a $15.9 million penthouse atop an old-school Park Avenue co-op in 2011, the triplex was filled with the status symbols of the Laura Ashley era: canopy beds, floral carpets, fussy wallpaper, and loads of spindly, stuffy armchairs.
The Bronfmans spent four years and millions of dollars updating the 13-room apartment into something more suitable for young Obama-era billionaires. Edgar Bronfman Jr., an heir to the Seagram’s fortune, was then the chair of Warner Music. Clarissa was a socialite who spent evenings funneling their cash into various philanthropic endeavors. (She now serves as a trustee at MoMA, a vice-chair at Carnegie Hall, and as co-chair of the Latin American Committee at the Guggenheim. He’s now the chairman of FuboTV; there’s speculation he’ll make an offer for Paramount.)
The foyer was gutted down to white walls and hung with a wire sculpture by an artist from Venezuela, where Clarissa was born. Rooms were filled with collectable modern furniture or custom designs so intricate that interior designer Amy Lau created a coffee-table book for the family about the process of working with artisans to build their furniture, according to Architectural Digest, which reported that 16 pages were devoted to the creation of a single yellow sofa.
Last week, the Bronfmans quietly listed the penthouse for $22 million. The listing, with Corcoran’s Leighton Candler, described “museum-grade lighting, perfect for an art collector.” If the Bronfmans want to get out, that may be because they designed the apartment as an “easygoing environment for raising four children,” according to Architectural Digest, and their four kids are now all in their 20s — plus, they also own a scrupulously designed, art-filled home in the Hamptons.
But finding the right buyer might take a minute. 812 Park Avenue once required buyers to pay entirely in cash, and the board reportedly requires them to show they have five times that amount in liquid assets. The last owners, before the Bronfmans, waited four years to find a buyer. But they could afford to wait. As one broker told The RealDeal at the time, “No one at 812 Park is really in desperate straits.”
