Combine This Matched Pair of UES Townhouses for a $22M Mega-Mansion

Last year, three massive UES townhouses were marketed for megamansion potential and listed for $120 million, and Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich bought this sprawling townhouse combo for his own makeshift manse. Now, here’s an opportunity to combine a pair of more modest–though by no means small–late-1800s townhouses for an Upper East Side mansion of your own, albeit on–let’s call it a more human scale (forgetting for a moment that some lucky human gets to live in 6,700 square feet with 38 feet of frontage.).

When you first see this matched pair of houses side-by-side at 159-161 East 82nd Street, you’re struck by their charm and how much they epitomize the neighborhood’s tree-shaded, brownstone-lined blocks. The fact that both four-story homes are for sale as a package deal for $22 million presents a mind-boggling list of options. There are even alternate plans that show you where to put a cellar pool (plus a sauna and a gym)!

You could live in one townhouse and rent the other out for a small fortune–or use it as an office or entertaining space. Or you could turn both into a grand mansion. Plans have even been drawn up, as mentioned, for just such an urban estate, giving the house twice the width; in addition to a cellar-level gym with a steam room/sauna and pool, this version suggests a sprawling third-floor master suite, a roof deck with a kitchen for entertaining and what looks like a grand spiral staircase throughout–take a look in the gallery below.

In their current configurations, the interiors of each home are each both luxurious and livable in their own ways.

On the parlor level, one house looks to be more contemporary, colorful and funky; the other has a wealth of historic details from arches to moldings that frame its classic layout. Both are updated and renovated tastefully and with obvious care.

Here’s a kitchen–the listing shows only one–also completely renovated and gracious, with white marble-topped work surfaces and high-end appliances.

One house has a 40-foot roof deck; the other has a two-story garden bay window. Both have landscaped and elegant outdoor entertaining spaces. On the outside, both of the original facades have been preserved, featuring matched cornices and decorative moldings. It’s also no small detail that this is a stellar Upper East Side address, a few blocks from Central Park, Madison Avenue shopping and cultural institutions and museums galore. We’ll just be here thinking about all the possibilities…

[Listing: 159-161 East 82nd Street, by Daniela Kunen for Douglas Elliman]

RELATED:

• $120M UES Townhouses-to-Mansion Combo Officially Hits the Market
• Russian Billionaire Roman Abramovich Buys Up Three UES Townhouses to Build a Makeshift Mansion
• Makeshift Mansions: How Today’s Filthy Rich are Creating Homes of Epic Proportions
• This $14.8M UWS Townhouse Does Not Have a Pool in the Back Yard

Images courtesy of Douglas Elliman.