One of NYC’s most opulent UWS mansions asks $6.9M

With a massive $13 million price cut and more than 11,500 square feet within, this Gilded Age home should be Manhattan’s hottest commodity — but it’s taking years to secure a buyer.

A mansion at 323 W. 80th St. steps from Zabar’s and Riverside Park is back on sale for $6.9 million, Curbed reported, after years of discounted listings dating back to 2017.

Still, it may just be the best deal in the prime neighborhood right now.

Manhattan’s real estate market doesn’t see a 43-foot-wide mansion with a private garage and curb cut every day. The presence of nine apartments inside has complicated its sales history, however, defined by finicky buyers, prohibitive tenant protection laws and high taxes.

“It’s this Bohemian place that just doesn’t exist very much anymore,” listing representative Mark Jovanovic, of Compass — who shares it with Scott Hustis — told The Post. “It was just filled with all sorts of life and characters.”

“This is one of those properties where you feel the history the moment you walk in but it’s really about what comes next,” the two wrote in a statement. “It’s been in the same family for 55 years, and now it’s ready for its next chapter.”

The new price tag of $6.9 million is currently more in line with its turn-of-the-century, multi-family neighbors. Less pedigreed listings from the same era hover in the $5.8 to $6.1 million range, according to StreetEasy data reviewed by The Post.

The six-story home was built as a single-family residence in 1897. It last sold to Bill and Donna DeSeta in 1970 for just $170,000.

The brick and limestone facade belied the derelict, squatter-occupied units, Curbed reported, but the DeSetas doggedly pursued their “medieval castle fantasy” vision.

That vision included newly installed parquet floors, wood paneling, stained glass, Gothic arches and secret panels — some of which the DeSetas added by hand.

With the help of friends, the DeSetas turned the second and third floors into the opulent owner’s duplex, and the floors above and below into rentals.

The 3,000-square-foot owner’s duplex became the crown jewel of the home, decked out with jaw-dropping Gothic furnishings, original art and antiques. One of the one-bedrooms was converted from a loggia, Jovanovic said, with windows inside archways that were once wide open to the Hudson River views.

Practical additions included an elevator and a communal rooftop deck that overlooks the Hudson River.

Models, musicians and other creative friends of the DeSetas rented out the rooms, Curbed reported, including a young Mary Louise Parker and Joel Gray, the iconic Emcee in Bob Fosse’s “Cabaret.”

When it was time to sell in 2017, the DeSetas’ $20 million asking price was met with a $15 million offer, which they declined.

The Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019 saw the multi-family building’s value plummet, as any interested buyers were now required to buy out the mansion’s rent-stabilized tenants.

Potential buyers became more wary, Jovanovic said, “they never knew if they could buy the tenants out,” adding that the potential cost would’ve run buyers hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The already-discounted home was pulled off the market in 2019 and didn’t reappear until five years later, asking a more modest $11 million. A price cut to $6.9 million in March 2025 did the trick, attracting a bidding war and securing a buyer.

That list price took into account the residence’s considerable $200,000 annual tax bill. Despite it, that would-be buyer wanted the property to be a multi-generational compound, even bringing the mother-in-law to tour it.

However, that buyer failed to show up to the scheduled closing on Nov. 24, according to allegations documented in a Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit filed in December — one filed on behalf of the DeSetas aiming to keep the not-insignificant $785,000 that remained suspended in escrow. The documents add the closing was previously scheduled for Nov. 11 — with the litigants also alleging a breach of agreement.

That suit has since been resolved, which is how the listing returned this month.

The mansion is officially vacant as of July 2025, Jovanovic said. A buyer would still have to incur the price and paperwork of a singe-family conversion.

The DeSetas permanently moved to Florida last year, Curbed reported, and are understandably ready to sell.