- A 20,000-square-foot mansion on New York City's Upper East Side is back on the market for $79 million after a $9 million price cut, Beckie Strum reported for Mansion Global.
- The 18-room townhouse, the most expensive in Manhattan, has been on and off the market with several price cuts since 2013.
- The 20,000-square-foot mansion includes a panic room, a saltwater pool, and a Versailles-inspired dining room.
- The owner, billionaire Florida Panthers owner Vincent Viola, and his wife reportedly did significant restoration work on the historic home.
- The opulent home was initially listed for $114 million in 2013.
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The most expensive townhouse in Manhattan, a 20,000-square-foot mansion with a panic room and a Versailles-inspired dining room is back on the market, this time asking $79 million, Mansion Global reported.
Its billionaire owner, Vincent Viola, who owns the Florida Panthers, has been trying to offload the home for almost seven years. Originally asking $114 million in 2013, the opulent New York townhouse has been on and off the market with price chop after price chop.
"The scale of the interior rooms is beyond belief and without compare, as there are four of the most remarkable rooms ever seen in a New York mansion," listing agent Paula DelNunzio of Brown Harris Stevens told Business Insider.
In 2017, a buyer was in contract to buy the home from Viola for $80 million, The Real Deal reported. But the deal fell through, so the house went up for rent for $175,000 a month before being relisted for $88 million.
Here's what the Manhattan mansion, now asking $79 million, looks like inside.
A townhouse on New York City's Upper East Side that belongs to billionaire Vincent Viola is back on the market for $79 million after a $9 million price cut, Mansion Global reported.
Last listed for $88 million, the home has been on and off the market with several price cuts since it was first listed for $114 million in 2013.
The six-bedroom townhouse is 40 feet wide and "totally renovated," according to the listing agent, Paula DelNunzio of Brown Harris Stevens.
Four windows span both the front and the rear facades, "providing remarkable light at all times," according to the listing.
It's half a block from Central Park.
"There is no other renovated 40-foot-wide mansion available right now between Fifth and Madison Avenues," the listing says.
Vincent Viola, the CEO of Virtu Financial, bought the house in 2005 for $20 million, according to The Real Deal.
The opulent six-level home spans more than 20,000 square feet. The floors in the entry hall are heated onyx marble, the listing says.
The formal entry hall has 14-foot ceilings.
As the listing specifies, there's water filtration throughout the house. It also comes with a security system with cameras, not to mention a "heated sidewalk for automatic snow removal."
It opens to a rotunda with 28.5-foot ceilings.
The home's "interior design concepts are typical of the great mansions of Europe and of Stanford White in America," DelNunzio told Business Insider.
"The original architect of this mansion, William Bosworth, worked on the Rockefeller family estate, Kykuit in Tarrytown, and under the auspices of John D. Rockefeller Jr., Bosworth was commissioned to restore the Palace of Versailles, France," she continued.
A hidden door off the main hallway leads to the double-height library and office with 24-foot ceilings.
The house was commissioned for an international silk trader in 1883 and then renovated into its neoclassical style in 1913, the listing says.
A colorful mural is painted on the library's ceiling.
On the garden level, an additional entrance to the library offers private access to the office.
"The scale of the interior rooms is beyond belief and without compare, as there are four of the most remarkable rooms ever seen in a New York mansion," DelNunzio told Business Insider.
Viola, the owner, collected art, furnishings, and decoration ideas during his world travels"to combine the very best of the classical tradition with every modern technological convenience," according to the listing.
"As there is no other property like this available in New York, it is for the person who seeks the rarest of the rare," DelNunzio said.
The home almost sold to a Chinese buyer for $80 million in 2017, but the deal fell through, The Real Deal reported.
The house then went up for rent for $175,000 a month before being relisted for $88 million, according to The Real Deal.
The home's third floor includes the 40-foot-wide kitchen, where four windows bring in bright, natural light.
The kitchen comes with "almost every cooking appliance known to a chef," according to the listing.
On the same level is the formal dining room, which was inspired by the Palace of Versailles in France and can accommodate more than 40 people.
Bosworth, the home's architect, was also commissioned to restore Versailles, according to DelNunzio.
The house includes two bedrooms on the fourth level, and a master-bedroom suite with a large sitting room and two full baths on the fifth level.
The two 40-foot-wide bedrooms on the fourth floor "could be converted to four or more bedrooms," the listing says.
The fifth-floor master bedroom also includes two dressing rooms and a separate guest suite.
One of the master bedroom's dressing rooms "is wired as a panic room," the listing says.
The bathroom pictured in the listing looks like it belongs in a palace.
Like much of the apartment, it's decorated opulently. The apartment has a total of nine bathrooms.
On the home's lower level is the saline swimming pool, as well as two saunas and a full bath.
In the rear of the pool is the lower entrance to the split-level home movie theater.
The movie theater spans two levels and includes 12 plush velvet chairs.
In total, according to the listing, the apartment spreads across six floors, culminating in a 2,650-foot rooftop that has a garden — and views of Central Park.