This $75M ‘Frankenmansion’ could set a downtown NYC record

Two more Lower Manhattan townhouses have united in holy mega-mansion matrimony. 

A $75 million, six-story mansion crafted from two townhomes is hitting the market, the Wall Street Journal reported. The megawatt 105-107 Bank St. listing, if sold at asking, would set a new downtown record.

The offering adds to a rising tide of interest in fused-together properties for a growing number of ultra-wealthy, space-hungry buyers.

Combining units is nothing new in NYC, but the city’s strong luxury market has increased demand for standalone, spacious homes.

Enter the “Frankenmansion.”

With ultra-wealthy homebuyers increasingly shopping downtown, width matters. Shorter lot depths in downtown nabes like the West Village contrast with the 100-foot-deep Upper East Side homes that traditional townhome buyers are used to.

“Width is where you get the square footage,“ explained Jonathan Miller, president of the real estate and appraisal consulting firm Miller Samuel.

“A double-wide, if you want to call it that, creates the ability to have a much larger home.”

Combining two homes also allows buyers to skirt landmark restrictions on altering the facades. The Post picked up on the mega-mansion micro-trend back in 2017, and noted a downtown bent in 2021.

Developer RoundSquare Builders tapped luxury architecture firm Robert A.M. Stern for this latest ambitious flip.

The 20-month project transformed two century-old walk-ups into a 40-foot-wide mansion, the Journal reported. Matthew Lesser, of the brokerage Leslie Garfield, holds the listing.  

The Bank Street townhouse enjoys roughly 13,000 square feet of space, the Journal reported.

The city’s buyer pool capable of considering a $75 million home remains small, but increasingly mighty, and the past five years have seen a spike in fortunes among the wealthiest Americans.

Miller told The Post that ultra-luxury buyers have become a legitimate, unique market segment, rather than a blip in the broader luxury market. 

Miller declined to dub “Frankenmansions” a full-blown trend, however.

“It’s more a statement about the expanding wealth gap than it is about a neighborhood trend,” Miller said. Transactions of this magnitude are outliers in any neighborhood. 

“There’s just more of them, and they’re spreading out,” he said. 

Early adopters of the combo approach included Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick, whose $34.5 million mega-mansion on West 11th Street is the result of two fused townhomes. One street down, Facebook co-founder Sean Parker shelled out for two five-story townhouses in 2016 to add to his carriage house.

The “Frankenmansion” wave isn’t confined to downtown.

Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich’s four-property assemblage and Madonna’s triple-wide are both on the Upper East Side. Just last year saw an Upper West Side mega-mansion was listed for $85 million.

The seven-year construction reportedly made enemies of its neighbors.

Interest in width-maxing Manhattan properties hasn’t gone unnoticed by brokers and developers.

Two West Village townhouses listed this year for $15 million, with the possibility of crafting a 39-foot-wide mega-mansion as a prominent selling point. 

RoundSquare Builders acquired the Bank Street walk-ups in 2021 and 2022 for a combined $18 million, according to the Journal. They proceeded to gut the buildings – with the blessing of the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission – while preserving their 100-year-old facades.

Both buildings contained their own New York City histories. John Lennon and Yoko Ono once lived in a walk-up unit inside 105, the Journal reported.

The new townhome has the potential to make its own history with its price tag. The current downtown sales record of $72.5 million was set just last year by another West Village double-wide. 

The $75 million price belies the attention to detail and amenities that went into the project, chronicled by the Journal. Bathrooms are lined with handpicked Italian stone slabs, moldings were meticulously selected, and all 470 balusters on the floating staircase were hand painted. 

The staircase, lit up by a skylight, rises six stories, connecting the loft-like penthouse space to the 3,400-square-foot basement. The latter hosts a screening room and a gym, of course. 

The team preserved the spiral staircase that once resided in Lennon’s place, too. It now connects the terrace to the garden patio, the Journal reported.

Unless two townhomes were built together as row homes, Miller pointed out, they will likely differ in their floor levels and ceiling heights. Such an endeavor as the Bank Street townhouse is complicated – and expensive – by nature. 

RoundSquare Builders declined to share the construction cost of the 13,000-square-foot townhome with the Journal, but did reveal that such luxury townhome renovations can exceed $2,000 per square foot.