Sherry-Netherland apartment once asking $86M gets big discount

Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui has been trying to sell the place since 2015

The saga of the Sherry-Netherland's enormous 18th-floor residence just keeps on going; the apartment has been on and off the market for years, and its owner, Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui, is currently embroiled in a corruption scandal (which he says is actually retaliation for his outspokenness about the Chinese government—you can read all about that in the New York Times).

Now, Guo is trying again to sell: It returned to the market this week with a $68 million price tag, a significant decrease from the $86 million Guo originally wanted for the place. Kathy Sloane of Brown Harris Stevens has the listing.

To briefly recap: Guo bought the apartment for $67.5 million back in 2015, though it was, at one point, asking an absolutely ludicrous $95 million. He then tried to flip the place just a few months later, first listing it for $86 million, and then pricechopping it to $78 million in 2016. Now, after three years on the market and no takers, it's been chopped again to little more than what Guo paid for it.

But the plot thickens: Last year, a Hong Kong-based hedge fund, Pacific Alliance Asia Opportunity Fund, asked a New York judge to seize and block a potential sale of the apartment, claiming that Guo had defaulted on an $88 million loan from the company. Guo filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, which was upheld, and then reversed earlier this year—what happens next remains to be seen.

It also remains to be seen if the apartment will actually net close to $68 million, particularly since there have been only a handful of co-op sales for north of $50 million in the past couple of years (the most expensive co-op sold in 2017 went for $55 million).

• Listing: 781 Fifth Avenue #18 [BHS]