MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Mexican billionaire buys 44 million USD townhome in New York

Just across from the Met, the style is French neo-classic

Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim real estate firm paid 44 million US dollars for a town-home on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue, adding to his property holdings in New York.

Slim, Latinamerica’s richest man according to Forbes magazine considers the house an investment and won’t live there, said his spokesman, Arturo Elías. The closely held firm that bought the building has co-investors, Elias said, declining to name them. The price was disclosed in New York property records.

Slim, who has invested in Mexican real estate for decades, snapped up the property as Manhattan housing prices climb. The median price for luxury apartments in New York, defined as the top 10% of the market by value, rose 12% to almost 4.1 million in the second quarter from a year earlier, according to data compiled by appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and brokerage Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate.

Inmobiliaria Carso SA, a closely held investment vehicle for Slim’s family, bought an office tower at 417 Fifth Ave. last month for 140 million USD. Inmobiliaria Carso is also the biggest shareholder in Saks Inc., whose properties include its Fifth Avenue flagship store. Slim, 70, has said he bought shares of the retailer because of the value of its real estate holdings.

Slim’s firm went into contract for the town-home on July 16, and the deal closed five days later, according to records on file with the New York City Department of Finance.

The house at 1009 Fifth Ave., known as the Duke Semans Mansion, was listed for sale in January for 50 million, according to listings website StreetEasy.com. The previous owner bought it in 2006 for 40 million, StreetEasy data show.

The townhouse was declared a city landmark in 1974, according to the property listing by brokerage Brown Harris Stevens. The Wall Street Journal reported the building’s sale on Thursday.

The mansion has a basement, five floors and an attic with a duplex, making up 12 suites, 14 bathrooms and eleven open chimneys. The architecture is French neo-classic and is in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The property originally belonged to Benjamin N. Duke a tobacco tycoon and was in the family until 2006

Slim’s real-estate investments follow in the footsteps of his father, a Lebanese immigrant who acquired property in downtown Mexico City after the Mexican Revolution. The billionaire’s properties in Mexico, held through Grupo Carso SAB, include shopping and office complexes, hospitals and educational campuses.