{"id":154827,"date":"2026-03-06T01:07:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T01:07:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/154827\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T01:07:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T01:07:19","slug":"inside-the-a-list-nyc-condo-building-home-to-chelsea-clinton-that-jeffrey-epstein-secretly-funded","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/154827\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the A-list NYC condo building home to Chelsea Clinton \u2014 that Jeffrey Epstein secretly funded"},"content":{"rendered":"

A boutique Manhattan condo building that drew celebrity buyers including Chelsea Clinton, NASCAR champion Jeff Gordon and Jennifer Lopez also had an unlikely early investor: convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.<\/p>\n

Documents from the recently released Epstein files reveal that the disgraced, and deceased, financier quietly backed the luxury conversion of 21 E. 26th St. in NoMad, a historic property overlooking Madison Square Park later marketed as the Whitman.<\/p>\n

The five-story Neo-Georgian building was transformed into just four full-floor residences and a duplex penthouse, a design that helped lure a roster of high-profile buyers when sales launched in 2013, according to the Real Deal<\/a>, which first reported this news.<\/p>\n

Behind the scenes, however, emails show developer David Mitchell offered Epstein an unusually favorable entry into the project years earlier.<\/p>\n

\"Jeffrey<\/p>\n

Jeffrey Epstein quietly invested in the luxury condo conversion at 21 E. 26th St. in NoMad. Brown Harris Stevens<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is attractive because most of the risk of approvals and asbestos removal is behind,\u201d Mitchell wrote in a 2011 email pitching the deal. \u201cNo guarantees but should be good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Epstein ultimately committed roughly $920,000 through a stake in the project\u2019s sponsor entity and a smaller limited-partner investment \u2014 a structure that gave him access to profits typically reserved for developers.<\/p>\n

The financier appeared to move quickly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m closing today on your deal, with no due diligence. I am merely relying on your representations. thanks and good luck,\u201d Epstein wrote in a message to Mitchell.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

An organization chart for the building, as seen in the Epstein files. Department of Justice<\/p>\n

\"Jennifer<\/p>\n

Jennifer Lopez purchased the penthouse unit in 2014 for $20 million. Brown Harris Stevens<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

An email exchange between Epstein and Mitchell. Department of Justice<\/p>\n

Emails show Epstein even floated taking the building\u2019s penthouse instead of a profit payout.<\/p>\n

\u201ci would like to do a similar soho house type deal, take the penthouse instead of profit but only if convenient,\u201d he wrote in one email reviewed by The Post.<\/p>\n

Mitchell responded that the arrangement would be difficult because the deal had already closed and other investors were involved.<\/p>\n

Financial projections circulating among investors at the time suggested the roughly $32 million project could generate more than $54 million in total sales, helped by a roaring Manhattan luxury market recovering after the financial crisis.<\/p>\n

The units quickly found buyers once sales began.<\/p>\n

\"Documents<\/p>\n

Documents show developer David Mitchell offered Epstein unusually favorable terms, allowing him to buy a 30% stake in the development entity AdvanceStar for $700,000 and invest another $220,000 as a limited partner, giving him access to insider-level returns typically reserved for developers. goerie.<\/p>\n

\"Chelsea<\/p>\n

Chelsea Clinton still owns a full-floor unit in the building. GC Images<\/p>\n

Gordon purchased the second-floor residence<\/a> for $10 million in 2013. He later sold the unit<\/a> in 2023 for $13.5 million, according to StreetEasy records. Meanwhile, Chelsea Clinton snapped up another full-floor apartment<\/a> in the building she purchased alongside her husband, Marc Mezvinsky, for $9.25 million in 2013.<\/p>\n

Mark and Chelsea\u2019s apartment \u2014 which they still own, and was once marketed as a \u201cluxury fortress\u201d \u2014 is expansive by any Manhattan standard. It has been described as one of the city\u2019s longest residences, stretching the length of an entire block. The roughly 5,000-square-foot home includes four bedrooms, five bathrooms and a powder room, along with soaring ceilings that rise more than 12 feet.<\/p>\n

The crown jewel was the duplex penthouse, the one Epstein previously expressed interest in, which is a sprawling residence with roughly 6,000 square feet of interior space and thousands of square feet of terraces. It eventually sold to Jennifer Lopez for nearly $20 million. She would go on to sell the unit for $23 million <\/a>in 2024 after nearly seven years on the market.<\/p>\n

Internal deal summaries show Epstein\u2019s investment was projected to return more than $1.6 million \u2014\u00a0an almost 80% return, though the final outcome depended largely on the sale of the penthouse.<\/p>\n

\"Jeffrey<\/p>\n

Jeffrey Epstein. Patrick McMullan via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A copy of the invite. Department of Justice<\/p>\n

Other documents from the Epstein files also show the building serving as a social venue before the condos even hit the market.<\/p>\n

A 2012 invitation circulated by Jamie and David Mitchell promoted an election-night party at the address \u2014 the night Barack Obama won his second term in office.<\/p>\n

\u201cJamie and David Mitchell invite you to celebrate the 45th presidential election! LIVE FREE DANCE FREE,\u201d the invitation read, scheduling the event for Nov. 6, 2012 at 7:30 p.m. at 21 East 26th Street.<\/p>\n

However, the documents don\u2019t make clear if the building ever hosted that party. That election was held in the wake of Superstorm Sandy; the area where this building stands was in the \u201csouth of power\u201d zone \u2014 and the property likely faced a lengthy blackout, as many other downtown buildings did.<\/p>\n

Still, emails indicate Epstein remained loosely involved as the project progressed. In one brief reply to Mitchell, he simply instructed: \u201cCall my cell.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A boutique Manhattan condo building that drew celebrity buyers including Chelsea Clinton, NASCAR champion Jeff Gordon and Jennifer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154828,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2448,16582,64120,383,56503,34520,6769,7689,9,56,63,65,64],"class_list":["post-154827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-brown-harris-stevens","tag-chelsea-clinton","tag-david-mitchell","tag-department-of-justice","tag-east-26th-street","tag-epstein-files","tag-jeffrey-epstein","tag-jennifer-lopez","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}