Top lawyer William Zabel and his venture capital exec wife, Deborah Miller Zabel, liked an apartment so much they paid $1 million over its asking price.
The sprawling five-bedroom unit is at 10 Gracie Square, which is an under-the-radar Upper East Side luxury building that was briefly reported to be where Barack and Michelle Obama were looking at post-White House apartments last year.
The seventh-floor apartment, which overlooks the East River, was asking $6.99 million, but it sold for $7,865,981, according to city property records. It comes with a private elevator landing, a chef’s kitchen with a windowed butler’s pantry, a library — and a hefty $10,674-a-month maintenance fee.
One million dollars may seem like a lot to pay over ask, but Zabel is also the lawyer who wrangled a historic $7.2 billion settlement for the estate of Jeffry Picower, who was bilked by Ponzi scammer Bernie Madoff. It was the largest civil forfeiture in US history.
Zabel first made the history books in 1967, when he wrote the brief for the Supreme Court’s decision in Loving vs. Virginia, which ended the prohibition on interracial marriages.
Today, Zabel is best known for representing high-profile clients including disgraced TV personality Matt Lauer, billionaire philanthropist George Soros and Howard Stern.
Zabel has also served as chairman of the Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights; a director of both Doctors of the World and Human Rights Watch; worked with Soros’ Open Society Foundations and has been a life trustee of New York University.
He is also the author of “The Rich Die Richer and You Can Too.”
The pre-war co-op comes with 11-foot ceilings, original herringbone floors, three woodburning fireplaces and two staff bedrooms in addition to the five bedrooms.
The listing brokers were Corcoran’s Cathy Franklin, Alexis Bodenheimer and Marion Smith.