Panthers owner Vincent Viola has found a buyer for his Manhattan townhouse. According to the Wall Street Journal, billionaire financier Alan Howard recently paid $59 million for the property. Viola listed it initially in 2013, with an asking price a whisker over $114 million. The price trims began the next year, and the property almost changed hands at $80 million in 2017. By January of this year the residence’s open market ask stood at $79 million.
The extraordinary, 20,000 sq. ft. unit is dazzlingly ornate, with a contemporary baroque sensibility that weds varying historical periods and living styles. The kitchen looks Tuscan rustic, with a beautiful stone wood pizza oven, tile floor, a pair of islands with pale green cabinetry, and brick accents.
The kitchen may be the most attractively composed room in the home, but the great room and library take the prize for detail. In the former, the inlaid hardwood floors alone are worth the price of entry, but a grandiose stone fireplace and accent wall and gilded coffered ceiling add additional eye candy. As for the library, it’s a double-height with a wrap-around second-floor gallery, a spiral staircase, rail ladders, abundant wood paneling, and ceiling frescoes.
Viola’s net worth is around $4 billion; Howard’s is in the neighborhood of $3 billion.