Hardware czar Eric Smidt is the latest buyer in Robert A.M. Stern’s 220 Central Park South, joining Ken Griffin and Sting, among other recognizable figures, in the two-building limestone complex in the heart of Manhattan.
Griffin started out the year by buying into the building with gusto, draining $238 million from his considerable coffers to acquire the be-all-and-end-all of pied-a-terres, and set a record for U.S. residential sale in the bargain.
Griffin’s condo is the top penthouse unit in the ‘Tower’ building in the complex, a triplex of about 24,000 square feet; he supplemented the January purchase with two more in October, a pair of 20th-floor condos presumably earmarked as staff quarters that added $4 million to the tally. Sting and Trudie Styler picked up a penthouse in the complex’s less vertically ambitious ‘Villa’ building for $66 million this summer.
Smidt’s unit closed in September, according to public records. He bought into the Tower building as well. The condo is on the 47th floor, and likely contains 5 bedrooms and 6 baths in 6,600 square feet. The property joins Smidt’s West Coast residence, his primary home, which is called ‘The Knoll’, and located in Beverly Hills. It is valued in the mid-$50 million range.
A Los Angeles native, Smidt founded Harbor Freight Tools in Calabasas in 1977, when he was 17 years old. His net worth is $4 billion.
