Inside Olympic Tower, Where Foreign Billionaires Have Long Flocked

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In the late ’60s, the real-estate developer Arthur G. Cohen bought the land beneath the soon-to-be shuttered department store Best & Co. He didn’t have any specific ideas for the place until 1970, when he partnered with shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis. The two decided to create a multiuse building — they would rent the bottom half to retailers and offices and build out the top with super-luxury apartments.

“It was a pretty heavy crew that lived in there,” says former resident Cornelia Guest. “And when they had a party, it was a party.” There was Halston, who moved his atelier and offices into the building’s commercial 21st floor in 1978 and promptly began hosting runway shows and parties . Meanwhile, Khashoggi was throwing parties for hundreds at his duplex, which was reported to be 30,000 square feet.

After 9/11, there was less interest from foreign investors in Manhattan real estate. The building’s composition shifted a bit — a few more New Yorkers who wanted to actually live in these apartments and who liked its proximity to their offices in midtown. “All these GE board of directors across the street got Olympic Tower apartments,” says Jacobs. The Aokis — Rocky is the founder of Benihana — picked up some units.

JJ: We purchased an apartment from a Colombian business family. They’d used it as their pied-à-terre. My friend was the builder of the building, Arthur Cohen. His apartment was amazing. He had six or seven Rodin sculptures in there. We were both art collectors. His wife sat on the board of the Met, and they came over one time, and I showed them our stuff — our Chuck Closes, our Lichtensteins, our Warhols. He was a very nice man, very close with us.

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