Bloomberg Spreads Out
The Times reports today that Mayor Bloomberg has been secretly expanding his lair on East 79th Street in recent years, since the 7,500 square feet of space on five floors that he already owned wasn't enough, clearly. In "transactions that have gone all but unnoticed," Bloomberg has been buying up space in the building next door, and has since acquired four of the six apartments at 19 East 79th Street, giving him a total of 12,500 square feet to run around in. Presumably this would be plenty of space for a bachelor mayor whose kids don't live with their parents (and whose girlfriend has a posh Park Avenue apartment of her own to go home to). But maybe not!
Real estate, after all, is often about ego, which might explain why the Times points out that although Bloomberg has a bigger spread than Rupert Murdoch—the billionaire tycoon has a mere 8,000 square feet at 834 Fifth—he still doesn't have the most spacious residence in town. Clearly, Bloomberg is going to have to shell out a lot more cash if he expects to give Steve Schwarzman's 20,000-square-foot triplex at 740 Park a run for its money.
