Rupert Murdoch to Buy $57 Million Manhattan Penthouse

Rupert Murdoch is investing in Manhattan high-rise living. 

In a deal that’s set to close next week, the News Corp chairman bought four floors — levels 57 to 60 — for $57.25 million in the One Madison building, according to a real estate column in News Corp’s flagship paper, The Wall Street Journal.  

A Murdoch spokesperson confirmed the penthouse purchase to The Hollywood Reporter. One Madison is one of the most exclusive high-rise residences in Manhattan, located at 23 E. 22nd St. Sales for the building began last September. 

The luxury skyscraper “is the ‘It’ building downtown without a question based on all the residents already and yet to be announced,” Dolly Lenz, the listing agent for the property, told THR.

The agent noted that the 57-60 levels, which were purchased immediately upon release, have never previously been occupied. Italian designer Domenico Dolce, who Lenz had represented, had been interested in buying the penthouse levels roughly five years ago, she said. 

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Levels 58, 59 and 60 comprise the building’s penthouse, which features “nearly 7,000 square feet of open interior space and soaring ceilings with dramatic full-height windows that offer cinematic 360-degree skyline and river views,” according to the One Madison site. 

On June 13 of last year, Murdoch filed for divorce from his third wife, Wendi Deng, after 14 years of marriage.

A little more than two months later, the 82-year-old media mogul closed on a $28.8 million purchase of Moraga Vineyards, a 13-acre estate in Bel Air. The media mogul had learned of the estate in the pages of the Journal, a source told THR last February. 

In September 2013, Murdoch listed his six-cabin, 56-meter luxury yacht Rosehearty, which first sailed in 2006, for $29.7 million. 

Related Companies, which operates the 60-story One Madison building, issued a news release on Thursday touting the sale of levels 57-60. Buyers have “the ability to step foot in their exact residence today,” stated senior vp of Related Sales Leslie Wilson.

Related notes that neighboring floors in the luxury building have yet to be sold. “Interest continues to soar and there are still enviable homes available, including the gracious duplex residence on the 55th and 56th floors,” Wilson said.