Former Morgan Stanley chief’s East 70th Street carriage house lists for $80 million

The Upper East Side townhouse at 165 East 70th Street hit the market last week with an $80 million asking price. Its owners are Christy Mack and her husband, John Mack, who once served as chairman and chief executive of Morgan Stanley. A sale at that figure would make it the most expensive residential townhouse ever sold in New York City.

The Macks bought the landmarked limestone building for $13.5 million in 2009. It measures 33 feet across and holds close to 16,000 square feet on six floors.

From Gilded Age stable to Upper East Side mansion

In 1902, the bankers Henri Wertheim and Jules Bache hired the architect C.P.H. Gilbert to design two stables side by side at 163 and 165 East 70th Street. Like other Upper East Side blocks, this one was built for carriage houses, where wealthy families nearby kept their horses and servants without having the smell next door. In 1920 the building became a garage with quarters for Stephen C. Clark’s chauffeur. Later, Paul and Bunny Mellon used it as their private garage.

Once their children were grown, the couple left Westchester and came back to Manhattan, hoping for a house they could move straight into. What they bought instead was the old stable, and a six-year renovation turned it into a 20-room single-family home. “It still had the horse ramps and stalls, like a barn,” Christy Mack said.

Inside the $80 million townhouse

Sawyer Berson handled the architecture, and Eleanor LaSota designed the interiors. A staircase of limestone and wrought iron climbs 46 feet up to a skylight, and two elevators reach every floor. From the street, a curb-cut driveway runs into a limestone-floored garage that doubles as space for entertaining. The same level holds a screening room plus a guest suite equipped with its own complete kitchen.

One flight up, a living room with a wood-burning fireplace looks out on the street. That floor also has a formal dining room, a wet bar and a butler’s pantry, along with an eat-in kitchen built around a quartzite island with Sub-Zero, Miele and Wolf appliances, and a landscaped terrace. On the third floor are a library paneled in Sapele mahogany, a den and the primary suite, which has three dressing rooms and marble baths. The fourth floor has four more bedrooms, each with a full or half bath, and a 600-square-foot irrigated terrace. On the fifth floor, soundproof his-and-hers offices sit next to a solarium with automatic UV shades. At the top is a 480-square-foot roof terrace with city views and landscaping by Verdany NY.