UES Mansion Sold for $7.7M by Estate of Late Owner of Graceland Estate

By: Dusty Wolfe

The New York Post is reporting, “a limestone mansion once owned by the late entertainment mogul Robert F.X. Sillerman — the former owner of Graceland who consolidated radio stations and concert ticket sales — has sold for $7.7 million. That’s $4.3 million less that what Sillerman and his wife Laura had paid for the residence at 151 E. 72nd St. when they bought it for $12 million in 2013.”

According to The New York Post, “the prior owner, ex-HBO CEO Richard Plepler — now founder and CEO of Eden Productions — had once listed it for $18.5 million in 2008 after buying it for $2.33 million in 2002. The five-story home, between Lexington and Third avenues, is 5,885 square feet and was built in 1920. It comes with five bedrooms and 5½ bathrooms.”

Sillerman had bought Elvis Presley Enterprises from Lisa Marie Presley in 2005, but later sold it to a private equity firm. In 2017, he almost lost the home after defaulting on a $12.5 million loan, The New York Post reported at the time. According to his Wikipedia bio, “Sillerman was the owner of a range of television and radio stations during the 1970s and 1980s, In 1993 he formed SFX Broadcasting, and then built SFX Entertainment—a concert and stage performance promoter that was sold to Clear Channel in 2000 for $4.4 billion. He refounded SFX Entertainment in 2012 as a promoter of electronic music festivals; that company is now known as LiveStyle. He is also the founder of Viggle and the namesake of The Sillerman Center for the Advancement of Philanthropy at Brandeis University. Once on the Forbes 400list, he also briefly owned the WLAF’s New York/New Jersey Knights.”

An account of Sillerman’s legal troubles on Wikipedia states, “In May 2009, Credit Suisse filed a request for summary judgment in New York State Supreme Court, alleging Sillerman had failed to pay the outstanding balance due under a credit agreement with Flag Luxury Properties LLC and that Sillerman defaulted on a series of payments due since April 2008, totaling $21.4 million. In a July 2009 interview with The New York Post Sillerman admitted failure, stating with reference to the Flag project: “I’m not very knowledgeable about real estate.”

According to his The New York Times obituary, “after selling SFX Entertainment, Mr. Sillerman pursued various entertainment projects. He was one of the producers of “The Producers,” the Broadway hit, written by his friend Mel Brooks, that ran for six years and pushed the limits of ticket prices on Broadway. He also acquired a majority of the Presley estate, with the right to operate Graceland, the Presley home in Memphis; took over the company behind the long-running television hit “American Idol”; and acquired the rights to Muhammad Ali’s name and likeness. Sillerman spent his last years with his wife in New Hampshire.