Joe Tsai, co-founder of Alibaba Group and the man who exchanged nearly $2.35 billion for the Brooklyn Nets (and another $1 billion for the Barclays Center), shelled out a cool $157 million for a couple of full-floor penthouses in the Robert A.M. Stern-designed building 220 Central Park South.
Tsai might be intent on building a combination unit that resulted in the nine-figure, one-building total cost. He also purchased a small, lower-floor residence for staff.
When combined, the unit’s total floor area comes in at about 12,000 sq. ft. 220 Central Park South is a complex divided into ‘Tower’ and ‘Villa’ buildings.
The list of celebrity names that have invested in the building is a lengthy one. Among the buyers of 220 Central Park South properties during 2019 alone: Capital Management Group founder Dan Och, who dropped $95 million to live in the complex; hardware billionaire Eric Smidt, who dropped $61 million on a condo in the Tower building; Sting and Trudie Styler, who purchased a penthouse in the Villa building; and hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin, who purchased the top penthouse in the Tower building for $238 million early in 2019, following up the acquisition with staff quarters purchases in the building later in the year that raised his total dollar expenditure in the complex another $4 million.
Tsai’s net worth is north of $10 billion, according to Forbes.