A historic mansion in New York City is currently for sale on the open market. The James F. and Harriet Lanier house, a dazzlingly ornate townhome on the East Side of Manhattan, is available for $33 million. The seller, Kuwaiti businessman Bassam Alghanim, is no stranger to luxury real estate. Back in 2019, he purchased a Bel air home for $8.7 million, which seemingly increased the value of his compound in the area to over $100 million.
The outgoing Lanier House is located in Murray Hill. It was designed in the Beaux-Arts style, and completed in 1903. The building’s façade features a limestone first level, with red brick covering the upper floors; Ionic pilasters, an ornamental balcony, carved stone, casement windows, a copper-clad mansard roof, dentils, and stone and iron balustrades dress up the exterior.
The property’s 11,600 sq. ft. are distributed across five levels. The home begins with a vestibule; the entrance hall, with its barrel ceiling, stone tile floors, leaded glass window, columns and moldings, chandelier, and marble fountain and statuary, is indicative of things to come. As the house progresses, the opulence accumulates, with the style full-blooded French through and through. Original details are the overwhelming rule of thumb; the residence has been carefully tended for decades, and any revisions have been extremely sensitive and more or less invisible.
Individual spaces in the house include the ground level’s club room—which features a marble wet bar and fireplace—a formal dining room with a crystal chandelier, a primary living room with parquet floors, and main and auxiliary kitchens. Amenities include a fitness room, an oak-paneled library, a wood-paneled elevator, a breakfast room, a five bedroom suites, and a three-bedroom staff wing.
Alghanim’s net worth is reportedly north of $1 billion.