Giuliani’s UES Co-Op Listed For $6.5 Million Could Take Up to a Year to Sell

Rudy Giuliani, who put his Upper East Side co-op on the market laate last month for $6.5 million amid mounting legal woes, could see it languish on the market for up to a year, one real estate pro tells Our Town.

That likely means a sale won’t happen in time to offset some of the growing legal bills connected to his indictment in Georgia, where Giuliani, former President Donald Trump and 17 others were indicted under the state’s RICO laws charging a criminal conspiracy to overturn the former president’s 2020 election loss in the state.

If the co-op sells, it means the man who was one of the most admired politicians in the country in the days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks –when he was dubbed “America’s Mayor” –would no longer own a home in the city where he was a two term mayor. He still owns a sprawling home in Palm Beach, FL. He lost his Hamptons home in Water Mill to his ex-wife Judith Nathan and earlier sold his Park Ave. penthouse apartment.

His ballooning legal fees from a series of defamation cases and disbarment proceedings associated with Giuliani’s actions after the 2020 election, and a sexual harassment suit, have hobbled the 79-year-old ex-mayor.

Dolly Lenz, a veteran real estate broker in New York City, said an apartment like Giuliani’s stately three-bedroom townhouse in a landmarked building could still take “over a year” to sell.

“The apartment is beautiful. There’s one library room that’s wood-paneled and gorgeous,” she told Our Town. “But it’s a little tired and needs some work.”

“What is selling is everything that is mint, move-in, turn-key, not anything that needs work,” she said. “People just aren’t into it,” she said. “They just want instant gratification and this apartment does not provide that.”

The apartment’s high asking price—listed by Sotheby’s for $6.5 million in late July—could hamper its sale. And the in a tight real estate market, the former mayor’s association with America’s indicted former president likely won;t help. The last sale in the building was in 2022 for $3.7 million, Lenz said.“It was in better condition. A very similar unit.” Giuliani’s apartment is listed at close to $3 million more. “I’m not sure how the broker came up with that number,” said Lenz, speculating it has to do with “notoriety or fame.” A spokesperson for the office of Serena Boardman, the Sotheby’s broker handling the sale, said she would not comment on the listing. Giuliani, who bought the 10-room co-op in 2002 with his then-wife, Judith Nathan, is not in the same financial shape he was then.

“He’s drowning in lawsuits and investigations,” said Giuliani biographer, Andrew Kirtzman. “It’s gotten to the point where he’s trying to represent himself in some of these cases,” he pointed out. Giuliani was indicted last week in Georgia with Trump and 17 other defendants, for allegedly conspiring to overturn his loss in the 2020 presidential race. Giuliani, Trump’s former personal lawyer, is accused of making and soliciting false statements of voter fraud and seeking to illegally appoint a slate of pro-Trump electors. The ex-mayor is also facing multiple defamation suits for propounding unfounded claims of election fraud by two Georgia election workers and the voting machine companies, Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic. In recent court filings in the civil election worker case, Giuliani’s lawyer’s said, “He is having financial difficulties...Giuliani needs more time to pay the attorneys’ fees and would like the opportunity to seek an extension from the Court.” Giuliani’s law license was suspended in New York and he is fighting disbarment proceedings in Washington, D.C. related to his conduct in 2020. In May, Noelle Dunphy filed a sexual harassment complaint against Giuliani, accusing him of coercing sex and owing her $2 million in unpaid wages, when she worked for him as a consultant from 2019 to 2021. Giuliani acknowledged that he and Dunphy “dated” at one point buy denies there was sexual abuse involved.

“It must be taking a terrible toll on him both personally and financially. He’s completely awash in these lawsuits,” Kirtzman said. “There are the legal bills in the seven figures and he’s a person who had already exhausted most of his wealth.”

In the aftermath of September 11th, Giuliani saw his coffers grow astronomically, mostly through his new consulting firm, Giuliani Partners, where in the early aughts he made roughly $100 million in five years, according to Kirtzman.

“He was stratospherically wealthy. It has now all come crashing down.” Much of that fortune was spent on his lavish lifestyle where, with his now ex-wife Judith Nathan he owned six houses and enjoyed private jet rides and 11 country club memberships, according to Kirtzman.

In Kirtzman’s recent biography, “Giuliani: The Rise and Tragic Fall of America’s Mayor,” Nathan said at one time the two were spending $250,000 a month on “sheer fun.” There was also his disastrous 2008 presidential bid, where he left the race having received one delegate at the Republican National Convention and racking up millions in debt.

Giuliani got the Upper East Side apartment, just a block from Central Park on East 66th and Madison, as part of the 2019 divorce settlement with Nathan, who walked away with their sprawling house in the Hamptons. He frequently records his nightly livestream show, “America’s Mayor Live,” from the home, including an episode on August 14, in which he provided live commentary on the unsealing of the Georgia indictment. In 2021, the FBI raided the apartment as part of an investigation into whether Giuliani had illegally lobbied Ukrainian officials on Trump’s behalf in 2016, before dropping the case.

Associations with Trump have not helped other high end New York properties.

The six-story Upper East Side townhouse of Ivana Trump, the former president’s late ex-wife, has been on the market for nine months, according to Streeteasy.com. When her children, Eric, Ivanka, and Donald, Jr. put it up for sale last November, it was listed at $26.5 million.

“If the buyer is the average New York Democrat, clearly that is not a good thing,” Lenz said of the Trump connection to Giulani. “But if the buyer is somebody from China who doesn’t care, doesn’t know, maybe likes the association...then it either could have zero or positive effect.”

“You know, people like all kinds of things,” she said.