Deeply Discounted Upper East Side Townhouse Sells For $11 M. to Ziff Brothers Boss

Although the listing created a compelling vision of the grand life that one would lead in the townhouse 59 East 77th Street, inviting potential buyers to imagine “ascending upstairs via the wide striking main staircase to be greeted by a gracious landing,” or installing your art collection in a living room that “awes you with its incredible wood-sculptured ceiling,” it was not enough to net $18.7 million.

The house, which has been listed with Corcocan since May 2011, sold for only $11 million, according to city records. But then, buyer Wui Yen Liow, a principal at Ziff Brothers Investments LLC and a managing director of ZBI Equities, has had ample opportunity to master the art of spending wisely. It also helped that the owners dropped the home’s listing price to $14.9 million in October.

Mr. Liow purchased the much-discounted six-story, six-bedroom townhouse through the Liow Family Trust. His wife Eeling Lim is listed as trustee.

“It was a beautiful house. I’m not surprised it would sell,” said broker Thomas Wexler, who shared the listing with his Corcoran colleague Lisa Fitzig. Mr. Wexler would not confirm any details about the buyers other than to say the home had been purchased as a private residence.

Besides the striking staircase and the awe-inspiring living room, the house also features a current pool, “abundant oversized windows that invite showers of natural light” and a very large gourmet eat-in kitchen with a dumbwaiter (less an amenity than an oddity to scare and delight the children).

And while the sellers, telecommunications entrepreneur and champions of Tamarind art Kent Charugundla and his wife Marguerite, didn’t get the $18 million they had hoped for, they still made a tidy profit, given that they purchased the home for $6.8 million in 2004.