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By: Serach Nissim
Billionaire investor Bill Ackman is looking to sell two side-by-side apartments at the Beresford, located at 211 Central Park West, between West 81st and 82nd St.
As reported by Crain’s NY, the founder and CEO of hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management has listed the two Upper West Side apartments for a total of $19.9 million, according to an ad which appeared on Friday. The billionaire is apparently bracing for a loss, as the asking price is well below the price he had paid to acquire the apartments in the summer of 2017.
Ackman’s apartments, unit Nos. 8E and 8F, are both three-bedroom apartments with roughly 2,900 square feet of space, and they were never formally connected, per Crain’s. The price for buying one of the apartments separately would be $8.4 million for No. 8E, and $11.5 million for No. 8F, which has a larger kitchen and a more open layout, per the listings. Ackman had purchased No. 8F for about $13.5 million, and a few weeks apart purchased No. 8E for $8.6 million, making his total investment $22.1 million, per the city register’s records. So his bundled offer price, shows he is prepared to take about a 10% loss.
The Beresford, a 22-story Cooperative building was completed in 1929 by famed Architect Emery Roth in the Renaissance Revival style. The ultra-luxury building has about 193 units in total, ranging from 1-bedrooms to 7-bedrooms. It offers great views of Central Park, an internal courtyard and is topped by three octagonal towers reminiscent of a majestic castle. The full service, white-glove co-op offers a 24-hour doorman and a state-of-the-art fitness center.
Why Ackman has decided to sell at the building is unclear. In 2006, he and his former wife, landscape architect Karen Ackman, had also purchased a duplex on the 17th and 18th floors of the building for $26 million. In 2016, Ackman separated from his wife and in the 2018 divorce, Ackman transferred the apartment, plus two staff rooms located elsewhere in the co-op building, to his ex-wife in a deal valued at $15 million, per tax records show. Ackman has since remarried.
Ackman does not appear to have lived in either of the Beresford apartments. Per Crain’s, he also owns other homes in New York. Most notable, is a six-bedroom condo on Billionaires Row at 157 W. 57th St. Unit No. 75, which Ackman had purchased in 2015 for a whopping $91.5 million, as per the city register. The unit owner is officially listed on its deed as a shell company, 57177 Co. LLC.
Ackman, who has a reported net worth of $8.95 billion as of Nov 2024, was recently in the news for being a vocal supporter for Republican President-elect Donald Trump, despite historically having been a Democratic supporter and donor. Ackman was also in recent news for having been one of the major driving forces behind the ousting of several prominent University presidents, who refused to curb antisemitism on campus. This included, Ackman’s alma mater, Harvard University, where president Claudine Gay was pushed to resign in January.
Ackman and Pershing Square’s press office did not immediately return Crain’s request for comment on the listing. Agent Deborah Kern with the Corcoran Group, and Vivian Fisher of the firm Sloane Square both declined to comment.
