Johnson & Johnson heiress pays a record $48m for Vandebilt Mansion in New York

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Updated: 22:17 EST, 7 May 2011

Johnson & Johnson heiress Libet Johnson has paid at least $48million for the Vanderbilt Mansion at 16 E. 69th St.

The price is the most anyone has paid for a Manhattan townhouse since 2008, when 14 E. 67 St. sold for $49 million.

Real estate expert Jonathan Miller said: 'This is the highest reported residential sale of any type this year, and it would be the highest Manhattan townhouse sale since 2008 pre-Lehman.'

Five-storey luxury: The the Vanderbilt Mansion in Manhattan, New York, that Johnson & Johnson heiress Libet Johnson bought for $48 million

Miss Johnson, who has been married five times, is the sister of New York Jets owner Woody Johnson.

She also owns a stunning, 20,000 square ft triplex at the Trump International Hotel & Tower on Central Park West.

Her latest deal is unusual because it was made without a broker.

The five-story, neo-Georgian mansion, built in 1881, was previously owned by Roger Barnett, founder of beauty.com, and Sloan Lindemann Barnett, an author and heiress.

She is the daughter of billionaire George Lindemann, a cable TV and cell phone mogul.

Sloan Lindemann Barnett a friend of Miss Johnson, the New York Post reports.

Roger Barnett purchased the mansion in 2001 for $11million and then hired noted interior designer Peter Marino to do a full, multi-million dollar renovation.

The mansion is a generous 33 feet wide. At a roomy 12,100 square feet, it is considered by many brokers to be a major trophy property.

Major purchase: Libet Johnson bought the Vandebilt Mansion for around $48million, the most anyone has paid for a property in New York so far this year

It was once owned by Alice Gwynne Vanderbilt, widow of Cornelius Vanderbilt II, who headed the New York Central Railroad.

The Barnetts' renovation of the five-story brick townhouse focused on entertaining.

The entrance has a grand foyer, staircase, and giant kitchen built over most of the pre-existing garden, say sources familiar with the property.

There was also a staff kitchen. The second floor is a giant living room and a formal dining room.

The third floor is a master bedroom that 'spares no expense,' the source said.

The fourth and fifth floors are devoted to children's rooms.

According to The New York Observer, the Barnett family was originally asking an unbelievable $62 million – well above the record and far above what they actually sold it for.

The sale comes shortly after a Russian paid $48million for a condo at the Plaza hotel -- the highest price ever paid for a condo. But it was moneyman J. Christopher Flowers who plunked down the most money ever for a place to live in New York City: $53 million for an East 75th Street townhouse back in 2006.

The Vanderbilt family rose to prominence during the 19th century due to family patriarch Cornelius Vanderbilt's railroad and shipping empires. 

From the late 1870s to the 1920s, the family employed several of America's leading architects and decorators to build an impressive array of New York townhouses and East Coast palaces.