Home sweet home? It would be — if a buyer could live there.
Luxury developer Harry Macklowe, whose portfolio includes 432 Park Ave. on Billionaires’ Row in Manhattan, has slashed $5.5 million off the sale price of his Hamptons home. It’s now on the market for a hefty $32.5 million — down from its initial $38 million asking price last March.
But the four-bedroom, five-bathroom perch at 64 West End Ave. in East Hampton still lacks a certificate of occupancy, which means that if someone with deep pockets bought it today, they still wouldn’t be allowed to live there.
However, its current listing broker Shawn Elliott, of Nest Seekers International, who is co-listing the home with Bespoke’s Cody Vichinsky, said the house does have a certificate of occupancy (C of O).
The only problem is that is from 1987.
“Then Harry went and renovated the house without permits. He needs a new C of O — and he can’t get it,” said another broker familiar with the deal.
“If you went with that old C of O to match up the house to the way it is now, you wouldn’t be able to match it because it’s not the same house,” the broker added. “If I went to buy that house, I couldn’t move in until I had an updated C of O.”
Macklowe declined to comment on the situation when reached by Gimme Shelter. Brokers and insiders interviewed by Gimme said the home is worth around $10 million to $15 million — not $32.5 million. “That’s not even considering the damage he’s done to the wetlands, and he doesn’t have the money to restore them,” an insider said.
The debt-riddled developer was planning on using the sale of the East Hampton home to pay off some of an $89.5 million debt he owes a lender, according to a letter written by one of his attorneys, as reported by the Real Deal on Tuesday. He also owes at least $46 million to another lender, the source added.
Macklowe is now in default on that $89.5 million debt and he is suing a lender, Israel Discount Bank of New York, to stop it from collecting the assets he pledged as collateral. In his complaint filed in the state Supreme Court, Macklowe argued that if the bank collected on the assets he pledged, the result would be “financially devastating — beyond the mere value of the collateral itself.”
Macklowe “is f–ed,” an inside observer said. “He negotiated to borrow money. If you can’t pay back the money, don’t borrow it. All the harm he’s done; he’s done it to himself.”
In addition, the insider said the assets pledged as collateral are closer to $12 million, not the $20 million Macklowe claimed.
Ironically, Macklowe also accused the bank of acting “out of vindictiveness.”
The 5,500-square-foot Hamptons home sits on 2.71 acres.
It’s located by Georgica Pond, an often dangerously algae-infested pool of water and ultra-1-percent ‘hood where neighbors include Steven Spielberg.
(The runoff of pesticides sprayed on the wealthy homeowners’ unnaturally green lawns have, in the past, poisoned the water during part of the summer seasons.)
When Macklowe first listed the home last March, East Hampton building inspector Thomas Preiato told Gimme that Macklowe “can sell the house, but no one can occupy it.”
Elliott said that Macklowe never made “interior” changes to the home since the 1987 C of O. Other brokers who have been inside the home, however, disputed this claim, telling Gimme that there have indeed been changes since 1987. Regardless, the home is uninhabitable until Macklowe obtains a new C of O, officials and other brokers said.
In addition, Macklowe also cleared land on the Hamptons property and built additions without permits, endangering the wetlands and garnering fines, East Hampton Village officials told Gimme.
A source close to Macklowe said they had “no idea” why the developer did not pay the fines in a timely manner, but says they will be paid.
In any case, that didn’t stop Macklowe from renting the home out, according to a source. He has also been spotted there from time to time.
It’s not the first time Macklowe ignored building codes.
In 1985, Macklowe infamously hired a mob-run company to blow up four buildings on West 44th Street in the middle of the night without city permits — putting people’s lives in danger, officials said.
Macklowe paid a $2 million fine, but escaped indictment and jail time because “criminal intent” could not be proven, the Manhattan District Attorney said at the time.