Feb 25, 2009 7:14 pm US/Eastern
Mayor Mike Expands NYC Home Into Super Mansion
Secretive 12,500-Square Foot East 79th Street Townhouse Now Dwarfs Home Of Media Mogul Murdoch
Billionaire Buys 4 Of 6 Apartments In Adjacent Building
Realtor Says Type Of Home "Completely Insane For NYC"
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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If it's space and privacy Michael Bloomberg wants, it appears it's space and privacy he will have. NYC's mayor recently bought up several apartments in an adjacent building, expanding his townhouse home to approximately 12,500 square feet.
Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty Images
Just call Mayor Michael Bloomberg an expansionist. In his thirst for space he's bought up most of the building next door to his East Side townhouse.
Bloomberg thinks big. Big buildings projects, big budgets ... and a bigggggg home.
The man who refused to move into Gracie Mansion has expanded his posh East 79th Street townhouse, quietly buying up four of the six apartments in the building next door.
So why does he need so much space?
"They all want something that is completely … 'wow,' that is completely out of the norm and completely insane for New York City," said Jacky Teplitzky of Douglas Elliman Realty.
Bloomberg's decorator, Jamie Drake, does have a taste for the dramatic. He's decorated many townhouses, but listen to this: the mayor's place has been described in published reports as "like Louis the XIV on hallucinogens."
"Is it going to have marble? Is it going to have stone? Is it going to have gold? You know, those are the things I'd die to know," Teplitzky said.
So how does Mike's place rank among other billionaires? Media mogul Rupert Murdoch lives on Fifth Avenue ... in 8,000 square feet.
Private equity king Stephen Schwartzman has a 20,000-square foot pad on Park Avenue. Bloomberg's the man in the middle with an estimated 12,500 square feet, but he has something the other two moguls don't.
"Privacy. A lot of people who buy townhouses are people who basically don't want anybody to know if they are coming or going," Teplitzky said.
Mayor Bloomberg also owns property in Bermuda, London, Vail and Westchester County.
The two townhouses are also on the NYPD's list of sensitive buildings. That means no one can find out any information about them.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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