$29M Historic Townhouse Looks to Take Back the Title of Most Expensive Sale on the UWS

On Monday, the New York Times reported about the listing of an Upper West Side house at 24 West 71st Street – “a historically significant granite-and-iron-spot-brick townhouse with fanciful terra-cotta embellishments and distinctive interior millwork.” The stately residence sold for $4.3 million back in 1996, setting a record for the neighborhood. Now, 20 years later, it’s back and is looking to reclaim its title of most expensive townhouse sale on the UWS. The home is asking $29 million, more than the current record holder 247 Central Park West, which sold for $25 million earlier this year.

The 7,134-square-foot house was built in 1892 by architects Lamb and Rich, and it underwent a $1 million renovation in 1988 that turned it from a ten-unit apartment building back to a single-family mansion, surely helping seal the record-breaking sale in ’96 to current owners Arrien and Robin Schiltkamp. According to the just-launched listing, “Immaculately maintained, the six-bedroom, six and a half-bath townhouse has retained the gorgeous original details that infuse every corner, while augmenting them with opulence by Jonathan Rosen Interiors.” Some enviable features of the home include six bedrooms; an elevator; a private, south-facing back garden; top-floor terrace; almost all of the original woodwork; stained glass windows; a 400-pound original door; ten gas fireplaces; and a Japanese-inspired spa.

The garden level functions as a home office and conference room and comes complete with an auxiliary kitchen (one of three kitchens, may we add). The parlour floor, with its nearly-13-foot coffered mahogany ceilings and inlaid butternut hexagon parquet floors, can accommodate a gathering of up to 200 people. In the rear of this floor is the dining room that boats 24 karat gold leaf on the ceiling, as well as the main kitchen, which has under-lit petrified wood and agate counters. The entire third floor functions as the master suite; in the front is a library/den and black marble powder room, and in the back is the bedroom and incredible master bath. There are two more bedrooms on the fourth floor, and the fifth floor has been recently used as a private suite for the owners’ parents. There’s also a fully-furnished basement with laundry, recreation space, and bike storage.

Arrien Schiltkamp is the president of Schiltkamp International Consultants, and he owns a telecommunications firm in Paraguay and several Planet Fitness franchises. He told the Times about buying the townhouse, “We’d been looking for a townhouse for about a year. We needed something where we could live with our family, but we also wanted to include our parents, who often visited on an extended stay. And the house had to be friendly for a home office, with a separate entrance.” Now that their children are grown, the couple plans to split their time between New Hampshire and Florida.

Do you think they’ll get the record-setting $29 million?

[Listing: 24 West 71st Street by Dexter Guerrieri of Vandenburg]

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• Brooklyn’s Most Expensive Listing Ever: A $40 Million Mansion with a Mayoral Past
• $100 Million Condo Sale at One57 is NYC’s Most Expensive Ever

Photos via Vandenburg