If this former NBA team owner can get the current, slashed-down asking price for his luxe home, it’ll be a slam dunk.
Leslie Lee Alexander, 79, is looking to flip his sprawling Manhattan unit for a dribble more than what he bought it for a decade ago, Crain’s first reported.
The New Jersey-born bond trader — who bought the Houston Rockets for $85 million in 1993 and sold the team 24 years later, in 2017, for a record-breaking $2.2 billion — paid $42 million for the duplex condo in 2013. Now, the 11.5-room penthouse at 18 Gramercy Park South is on the market for $43.75 million, its lowest ask yet in the years that Alexander has been trying to sell it. He first tried for $49.75 million in 2015, and most recently for $48.75 million in the fall of last year.
The apartment measures 6,329 square feet indoors with an additional 1,889 square feet of private outdoor space. There are four bedrooms, a direct entrance from the key-locked elevator and 40-foot living room with 63 multi-paned windows, according to the listing, which is held by Compass agent Jorge Lopez.
(Lopez declined a request for comment.)
The kitchen, located on the lower level, features hand-painted cabinetry, top-of-the-line appliances, an eat-in dining nook and, beyond it, a staff room with an ensuite bath, as well as three additional bedrooms.
Upstairs — accessible via a grand central staircase or the elevator — there’s a gas fireplace- and wet bar-equipped great room with a wraparound terrace and Gramercy Park views, as well as a windowed powder room, a private sun deck and a heated pool.
In the primary suite, there’s not one but two terraces (one of which has a hot tub), a “sparkling spa-like primary bathroom” with heated floors, a cast-iron bathtub and a steam shower.
Throughout, there are quarter sawn white oak hardwood floors, marble windowsills, beamed ceilings and central air.
Building amenities include a gym, wine storage, a “spa” and a common roof deck.
Ex-Brit turned Manhattan resident since 2008.