Whose Townhouse Is It Anyway?

Last week, former banker, current art dealer and all-around nice, rich guy Robert Mnuchin bought a gorgeously renovated townhouse at 14 East 95th Street for $14.25 million. But is the new home for him or his daughter, Valerie Mnuchin Rozen?

For starters, Mr. Mnuchin traded Park Avenue co-ops but three years ago, moving from a three-bedroom at 956 Park to a full-floor, four-bedroom at 944 Park, one floor below Barbara Walters. And while his name is on the $7 million mortgage on the new townhouse, Ms. Rozen served as the attorney on the deal. 

SLIDESHOW: How luxurious is LUX 74? Very! >>

Not an unusual arrangement, no doubt, but given this next bit of information, it begins to point to her as the new occupant of 14 East 95th Street: Ms. Rozen has just sold her full-floor combo at LUX 74, a two-year-old glass job a block from the river on East 74th Steet. It also happens that the listing agent, Douglas Elliman's Joan Swift, helped arrange the townhouse deal with colleague Sabrina Saltiel.

None of the three women responded to requests for comment.

Having already revealed the intimate, intricate details of the gorgeous limestone townhouse, which was renovated by master flipper Solomon Asser, it's time to have a look at what Ms. Rozen will be leaving behind.

The six-bedroom spread was assembled from two sixth-floor duplex units for $4.88 million in June 2009. Not only is there a deluxe kitchen stocked with all the usual suspects—Sub Zero, Miele, Viking, a wine cooler—but also the option to "dine alfresco after barbecuing in your outdoor kitchen with gas grill and fridge with east & west views," Ms. Swift boasts in her listing. Sounds almost as nice as the master bedroom "with a huge walk-in closet, oversized windows, three exposures, and doors that open onto a 252 sq ft terrace."

Why leave such a palace? Perhaps Ms. Rozen decided against "loft-like" living and wanted back in a townhouse. She left one only a year ago, when she and Michael Rozen, a fellow attorney, sold a beautiful red brick number just around the corner at 178 East 73rd Street for $13 million. Mr. Mnuchin was not listed on the deed for that building, nor its mortgage.

Investor Jonathan Copplestone and wife Lisa Pomerantz do seem to have a thing for lofts, though. Having sold their Chelsea spread to Red Bulls star Rafael Marquez for $6.4 million in December, they just picked up the LUX 74 pad for barely more than Ms. Rozen paid, $4.995 million, exactly the asking price of the home that had been on the market less than a month before it went into contract.

SLIDESHOW: How luxurious is LUX 74? Very! >>

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mchaban [at] observer.com | @mc_nyo