He may have missed out on acquiring Paramount. But Edgar Bronfman Jr. — media investor and billionaire heir to the Seagram liquor fortune — is still moving forward with one deal: an effort to unload his Park Avenue apartment.
Bronfman and his wife, Clarissa, a jewelry designer, have listed their triplex co-op at 812 Park Ave., No. PHA, for $22 million, according to a post that appeared last week, a few days before the movie studio Skydance snapped up the media conglomerate Paramount.
The five-bedroom spread at East 74th Street features six full and two half-baths, a primary suite that opens to a terrace and a living room with a fireplace, though the firm marketing the property, Corcoran Group, did not include a floor plan with the listing that might provide further details.
In 2011, the Bronfmans bought the unit, which sits atop a 14-story prewar building, for $15.9 million, according to the city register, and so could realize a decent profit, assuming Manhattan’s residential market continues to mend.
The living room
Still, among the four other units that are currently for sale at 812 Park is No. PHB, the building’s other triplex penthouse. That three-bedroom version also tried for $22 million when it came to market in January 2022, though its final price before going into contract last month was $16 million, according to its listing history on StreetEasy.
The co-op, which counts money managers and real estate executives in its ranks, was also once the home of Walter Noel, an associate of disgraced financier Bernie Madoff who ran a “feeder fund” that apparently channeled $7 billion to the Ponzi schemer, generating more than $1 billion in fees for himself, though Noel later claimed that he, too, was a victim of the scam.
Noel, who was never charged with any crime, sold his two-bedroom unit in the building, No. 2B, in 2022 for $2.4 million and died in April at 93.
Currently serving as the executive chairman of FuboTV, Bronfman emerged as a suitor in recent months for National Amusements, the parent company of Paramount, whose TV portfolio includes MTV, CBS and Nickelodeon. Barry Diller’s IAC was another contender.
But on July 7 Skydance, the upstart studio behind the smash "Top Gun: Maverick" backed by money from the software giant Oracle, announced it would buy out Shari Redstone’s majority stake in National Amusements. The move would allow it to control Paramount, with Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison kicking $6 billion into the deal, though regulators still need to sign off on it.
Bronfman is also chairman of the investment firm Waverley Capital, whose portfolio includes media startups such as Roku and sports website The Athletic. Previously, Bronfman was CEO of the Warner Music label.
The Bronfman family, meanwhile, has controlled Seagram, a Canadian company, since the 1920s. Originally known for spirits such as Crown Royal, it later branched out into investments in entertainment companies, including Universal Studios, though by 2000, Seagram, racked by in-fighting, had sold off all of its entities to Diageo and other companies and closed down.
Through a spokeswoman, Leighton Candler, the Corcoran broker handling the Bronfmans’ listing, said she had no comment.