(Bloomberg) — Blue Pool Capital, which manages part of the fortunes of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. co-founders Joe Tsai and Jack Ma, bought a New York penthouse previously owned by Dan Och.
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Blue Pool paid $188 million for the 220 Central Park South property, according to New York registry documents. The firm took out a $71.5 million 30-year mortgage through JPMorgan Chase & Co. for the property on the 73rd floor, the filings show. The purchase included a maid’s room on a lower level.
A representative for Hong Kong-based Blue Pool didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment outside of office hours.
The purchase signals how the world’s ultra-wealthy are still attracted to Manhattan real estate, with many taking advantage of cheap loans to finance their acquisitions.
Michael Daffey, the former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. executive who bought Jeffrey Epstein’s Manhattan mansion last year, obtained a $30.6 million loan in May from Citigroup Inc. Earlier in the year, hedge fund manager Israel Englander secured a $25.6 million mortgage from Morgan Stanley for an Upper East Side townhouse.
Tsai, who is Alibaba’s executive vice chairman, bought two full-floor condo apartments at 220 Central Park South in two transactions last year totaling $157.5 million. The Robert A.M. Stern-designed, Vornado Realty Trust-developed building is situated on Billionaire’s Row and has set multiple real estate records. In 2019, Ken Griffin closed on an approximately 24,000 square feet (2,200 square meters) penthouse at the building costing $238 million.
Och paid about $95 million when he purchased his apartment in 2019. A spokesman for Och declined to comment on the sale, including the identity of the buyer.
A Canadian citizen born in Taiwan, Tsai is worth $7.4 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He quit a job at an investment firm earning $700,000 a year to join Alibaba on a salary of $50 a month. He soon started raising money from investors around the world, helping the e-commerce company become the giant it is now.
Tsai acquired a 49% stake in the Brooklyn Nets basketball club from Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov in 2018.
(Adds other NYC buyers in sixth paragraph.)
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