Everyone needs a fresh start after a breakup, and Amazon boss Jeff Bezos is clearly no exception.
The billionaire founder of the mammoth online retailer is reportedly buying up some premium New York real estate as he sets up a new home following his split from ex-wife MacKenzie Bezos.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Bezos is on the cusp of clinching the purchase of three adjacent New York apartments for a cool $80 million, buying a penthouse and two units directly beneath it at 212 Fifth Avenue, located near Madison Square Park.
If all three apartments were combined into a single-family home, the resulting property would total more than 17,000 square feet and could have as many as 12 bedrooms, the Journal reports.
The former factory was redeveloped into apartments five years ago.
Of course, some would question why Bezos feels the need to buy the properties underneath the main penthouse when that pad already spans three floors and boasts a private elevator and large terraces.
Then again, when you are by most estimates the world’s richest man (Bloomberg Billionaire’s Index says his net worth is $106 billion, even after his record $35 billion divorce payout, which made his ex the third-richest woman in the world), why not?
The city’s real estate agents will no doubt be relieved that Bezos does not appear to have been deterred from setting up home in the city by the failed plan to headquarter Amazon in New York’s Long Island City.
The Journal reports the deal is the priciest real estate transaction ever closed south of 42nd Street and second in overall dollar value this year, pipped to the post by hedge fund honcho Ken Griffin’s eye-watering $238 million purchase of a penthouse at 220 Central Park South.
Bezos, who has reportedly been home hunting in New York City for some months now, reportedly toured that property earlier this year. The Journal reports he also looked at a the penthouse at XI, a new two-tower condo project in West Chelsea, before finally settling on the Madison Square Park address.