Giving It All Away

I’d love to see a big family living here,” Michael Osheowitz announces in the master bedroom of 23 Gramercy Park South. It would be a fitting new life for the 23-room Greek Revival, where he chairs the Edwin Gould Foundation for Children—and which has just gone on the market for $16.9 million. That’s not the only instance: The Hineni Heritage Foundation is soliciting buyers for its $6.75 million West End Avenue mansion. The Synergos Foundation’s neo-Georgian manor at 9 East 69th Street just went into contract for an undisclosed price (it was listed at $25 million), and last November, the New York Academy of Sciences’ building at 2 East 63rd Street sold for $31.25 million.

Why now? The market’s become harder to read lately, but it’s clear that townhouses are as coveted as ever. “Demand for townhouses is incredibly high,” confirms 23 Gramercy Park South’s listing agent, Corcoran’s Erin Boisson Aries. Cashing out now means philanthropic groups can boost their endowments and continue their work. Charitable institutions are often in prime locations, allowing them to command impressive asking prices, says townhouse expert Jed Garfield, who brokered the sale last year of Richard Avedon’s home, the proceeds of which benefited his foundation. (If it goes for anywhere near its listing price, 23 Gramercy Park South will set a per-square-foot record for a townhouse in the area.) “Even after the operating costs, we will still net $13 million or so,” says Osheowitz, a tidy sum the group will funnel toward its educational programs that support fledgling nonprofits, New York high-school students, and foster children who age out of the system. “They don’t lose anything, and the gain is tremendous,” says Prudential Douglas Elliman’s Suzanne Sealy. So where do they go from here? Like others, Edwin Gould—which has made a lot of money in real estate, this being the third townhouse office it’s selling at a profit—is headed to more modern offices in the financial district.

It’s doubly ironic that the houses are coming full circle: Built by industrial barons and now owned by organizations focused on the needy, they’re being sought primarily by high-net-worth types who don’t care for co-op-board scrutiny. In short, they’re headed back to their nineteenth-century function. “They’re wonderful relics,” says Elliman’s George W. van der Ploeg, whose clients have toured both the Gramercy Park and Academy of Sciences buildings. “They have amazing provenance.”