Jeff Bezos already has a place in NYC. But it’s not super-close to Long Island City.
Amazon has plans to site a major new campus in Long Island City, but Amazon CEO (and world’s richest human) Jeff Bezos is already no stranger to New York City real estate.
In 1999, when Amazon was just an online bookseller incubating in still-dreamy Seattle, Bezos bought a pied-à-terre near Lincoln Center.
Located in an Art Deco luxury condo called the Century at 25 Central Park West, his three-unit spread was purchased from former Sony Music CEO Tony Mottola, who’d lost interest in plans to renovate the 4,400-square-foot duplex. That led Mottola to sell to Bezos for $7.65 million.
As the New York Observer noted, the property consisted of a duplex on floors 19 and 20, plus an adjacent unit on the 20th floor. Bezos planned to use it as a pied-à-terre for himself and his wife, as well as his parents.
It’s unclear whether Bezos followed through on Mottola’s plan to combine the duplex with the additional apartment. What we do know is that in 2012, Bezos spent another $5.3 million for a fourth unit on the 19th floor at the Century, enlarging his footprint in the building by an additional 1,725 square feet.
For both purchases, Bezos used an LLC called Jetima that boasts a Seattle-area address in Mercer Island, where Bezos owns a secluded 5.3-acre estate on Lake Washington. Bezos also owns a home in Los Angeles and a 300,000-acre ranch in Van Horn, Texas. In 2016, after he purchased the Washington Post, Bezos and his wife paid $23 million for the former Textile Museum in the Kalorama neighborhood of Washington, D.C. At 27,000 square feet, it’s the largest home in the city, and is now undergoing a $12 million renovation detailed in a Washingtonian article.
Live in Jeff Bezos’ Central Park West Building
Located between 62nd and 63rd streets along Central Park West, the Century condominium is one of New York City’s most notable residential buildings, with twin towers rising to 32 stories each. Originally there were 422 apartments, but many, like Bezos’ units, have been combined.
Sitting few steps from Central Park, the Time Warner Center and Lincoln Center, the building has one of the more enviable locations in New York City. Currently, there are 13 apartments for sale at the Century. The most expensive is a 30th floor unit (pictured below), which is just under 3,000 square feet and listed for sale at $13.995 million.
The least expensive listing at the Century is a 2-bedroom unit asking $1.85 million. The listing notes from broker Nan Schiff at Douglas Elliman include an inviting story from the owner about why she has to sell. Something about her son moving to the West Coast and the apartment being well priced. For anyone looking to live in near Jeff Bezos, here’s your chance.
Jeff Bezos’ Commute to Long Island City
Bezos’ longstanding base in Manhattan may not prove convenient to Amazon’s new home in Long Island City. Plans for the LIC site do include a helipad, despite a citywide ban on rooftop helipads since Sept. 11. But given the fact that the Century building doesn’t have a roof deck, it’s unlikely Bezos will be ‘coptering off to work from there. Maybe he’ll be a real New Yorker, and take the subway?
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