Short-term rental giant Airbnb has shelled out a whopping $81.5 million for an infamous New York City building that gained widespread attention when scammer Anna Delvey tried to lease it as the headquarters for her so-called social club.
The San Francisco–based company has revealed itself as the buyer of the historic property at 281 Park Avenue South, which it will use as its first owned office in New York City—despite the fact that the Big Apple has taken significant steps to ban Airbnb and other short-term rentals from operating in the city.
Airbnb worked with Serhant founder Ryan Serhant and global real estate advisor Avison Young on the purchase of the Beaux Arts landmark, which was described as “one of Manhattan’s most recognizable assets in an irreplaceable location.”
The six-story building, which spans nearly 39,800 square feet, is situated on the corner of Park Avenue South and East 22nd Street in the heart of Gramercy Park.
The building became familiar to many viewers after it was prominently featured on Netflix’s “Owning Manhattan,” when luxury brokerage Serhant marketed the storied property.
However, it is perhaps better known as the “Anna Delvey building,” a nickname that it earned after it was revealed that fraudster Anna Sorokin—who famously posed as a German heiress with the name Anna Delvey—had used forged documents to try to take out a $22 million loan so she could lease the property.
At the time, she claimed that she wanted to use the building as the headquarters for her Anna Delvey Foundation, which was described as a private social club and arts center, according to the New York Post.
It was widely reported that her failed attempt to secure the loan led to the downfall of her scam, for which she was convicted and sentenced to four to 12 years in prison. She served close to four years before being released—and is living in New York City once again.
That history aside, the property boasts an illustrious heritage, having also served as the headquarters for premier photography museum Fotografiska.
Built in 1894 as the Church Missions House, the property was commissioned by a group of influential financiers, who included Cornelius Vanderbilt and J. Pierpont Morgan.
The property was designed by prominent architects Robert W. Gibson and Edward J. Neville, who created its distinctive steel frame and a medieval-inspired façade modeled after historical civic buildings in Haarlem and Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
The building’s architectural significance has long been recognized. It was designated a New York City landmark in 1979 before being listed on the National Register of Historic Places three years later.
The seller, real estate investment firm RFR, was represented by Serhant and his colleague Bernadette Brennan, alongside Avison Young’s James Nelson, Alexandra Marolda, Brent Glodowski, and Lea Voytovich, who arranged the multimillion-dollar transaction.
The property at “281 Park Avenue South is a truly special asset with a rich history and a character that cannot be replicated,” Nelson, principal and head of U.S. investment sales at Avison Young, said in a statement.
“Throughout the marketing process, it was important to identify a buyer who recognized the property’s significance, appreciated its unique architectural heritage and was committed to being a thoughtful steward of its next chapter,” Nelson added.
Brennan, executive director of Serhant Commercial, echoed Nelson’s sentiment, noting that opportunities to purchase a Manhattan landmark of this caliber are few and far between.
The landmark building “commanded serious attention from the moment it hit the market, and the level of interest reflected just how singular this property is,” she said. “We’re proud to have brought this sale across the finish line for such an extraordinary piece of the city’s architectural fabric.”
Airbnb’s purchase signals a new chapter for one of Manhattan’s most recognizable historic buildings, swapping its infamous connection to one of New York’s most notorious fraud scandals for a future as the company’s permanent home in the city.
Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news of the deal, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky noted that the company’s purchase of the building is a clear sign of its “long-term commitment to the city,” despite New York City’s near-ban on short-term rentals, which went into effect in 2023.
Airbnb is continuing to campaign against the legislation, urging city officials to loosen the regulations that have essentially prevented it from operating in New York City for the past three years.
The outlet noted that the company had previously been leasing a property in lower Manhattan but wanted to secure a “roomier gathering spot for its employees.” Airbnb currently has around 600 staff members who are based in the New York area.
“Owning Manhattan” documented Serhant’s battle to find a suitable buyer for the iconic property, with the celebrity real estate mogul previously explaining that he’s been using his residential sales techniques to try to offload the Park Avenue building.
Serhant previously told Realtor.com that 281 Park Avenue South will be on “Owning Manhattan.”
“We’ve been filming the deal process for that and so using a lot of the same sales techniques that we use to source unique purchasers in residential, we’re now able to do on the commercial side, which is wild to me,” he said.
Serhant noted that dealing with prospective commercial sellers and buyers has been a very different experience, explaining that the marketing methods they use to raise interest in residential properties is somewhat foreign to those buying and selling commercial buildings.
“On the residential business, we meet sellers all the time and they’re used to marketing,” he explained. “On the commercial side, we meet these landlords and these big institutional investor owners, and we start talking about all the marketing we do, and they’re so confused.
“They’re like, ‘Why would you do that? Don’t you just have a list of people that you send out the proforma to and the prospectus?’ And I’m like, ‘We’ll do that, too, but don’t you want to market it?’
“Don’t you think the buyer who’s willing to pay the absolute most for your property is probably someone who doesn’t even know they want it? How do we find that buyer? How do we find that institution?”
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