Ex-con investor puts $138M of enormous trophy penthouses up for sale in NYC and Miami

It’s not often a single investor owns one of the city’s top trophy penthouses in both New York and Miami — and puts them both on the market at the same time for a combined $138 million.

William Duker, a former lawyer turned investor, has listed his Miami penthouse triplex at the Apogee, 800 South Pointe, for $78 million.

At the same time, he’s put his Tribeca penthouse at the Sky Lofts, 145 Hudson St., on the market for $59.5 million, Gimme Shelter has learned.

“I’m 72, and I’m just beginning to organize this next phase of my life. The last thing I need now are two apartments of this size,” Duker tells Gimme Shelter.

The Miami unit spans the 22nd to 24th floors of the Apogee — 8,271 square feet inside with another 13,146 square feet of outdoor space, four bathrooms, three powder rooms and a private rooftop pool. The listing brokers are Dora Puig of Luxe Living Realty and Carlo Gambino of Douglas Elliman Florida.

The Tribeca penthouse has three to four bedrooms and four and a half baths across 7,500 square feet, plus a 4,500-square-foot wraparound terrace.

Its facade — “sheathed in UV-coated, high-performance, museum-quality insulated glass” — floods the interior with light while shielding it from the elements. The listing is co-held by Jim St. Andre and Trevor Stephens of Compass, and Adam Modlin and Andrew Nierenberg of the Modlin Group.

Duker’s career has been as unusual as his real estate portfolio.

As a lawyer, he helped recover hundreds of millions of dollars stolen during the savings and loan scandal of the 1980s and ’90s, which ultimately cost taxpayers an estimated $125 billion.

But while working for the FDIC and the Resolution Trust Corporation, Duker overcharged the government by $1.4 million. In 1997 he pleaded guilty to four felony counts, including making false statements and obstructing a federal audit, and was sentenced to 33 months in prison. He was disbarred.

The judge in the case, Sonia Sotomayor — now a Supreme Court Justice — said at the time it was difficult to reconcile the two sides of the case: Duker had helped the government recover “hundreds of millions” of dollars even as he defrauded it.

After prison, Duker co-founded Amici, an electronic document discovery company, which Xerox acquired in an all-cash $174 million deal in 2006.

Duker bought the Tribeca penthouse for $30.5 million in 2009 from developer Stanley Scott, calling it an investment at the time.

“I think its uniqueness sets it apart from what is happening in the market,” he told The Real Deal then.

He bought both penthouses during the 2008-09 financial crisis. PH Design Studio Group, which restored Miami’s Versace Mansion, worked on the Miami unit; the New York-based PH Design handled Tribeca.

A key-locked elevator opens into a double-height great room with 18-foot ceilings and floor-to-ceiling windows framing One World Trade Center, anchored by a wood-burning fireplace with a two-story cerused oak and silver travertine surround.

In Miami, Duker bought a concrete shell for $16 million in 2008 and spent five years building it out. The finished unit has 270-degree views spanning the ocean, the bay and the skyline. He first listed it for $65 million a decade ago.

The new asking price reflects a shifting Miami market, as wealthy transplants — including tax refugees from high-tax states like New York and California — continue pouring in. Tech billionaires who’ve relocated to the area include Mark Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin, Larry Page and Alex Karp.

“We are running low on inventory for single-family homes, and affluent buyers — families, singles, couples, whomever — are now settling for large condos,” Puig said.

The home includes alfresco dining for 22 on the roof, alongside the pool, a spa, a Finnish sauna, a cabana, an outdoor shower, a summer kitchen, an open-air theater and a marble waterfall. Inside, a great room with 24-foot ceilings and glass walls is anchored by a sculptural glass staircase connecting all three levels, plus an interior elevator.

The primary suite, with a spa-like bath, is hidden behind a moving bookcase; three guest suites and a “midnight kitchen” are on the second floor.

The penthouse sits in a 14-story building dating to 1929 that once housed a printing factory before its 2000 conversion to condos. It was designed by sculptor James Carpenter, whose other work includes 7 World Trade Center, the “Ice Falls” at Hearst Tower and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem; PH Design handled the renovation.

Every room on the floor opens onto the terrace via sliding glass doors, with views stretching from the Hudson River to the skyline.

The layout also includes an eat-in chef’s kitchen, a den with a second fireplace, a formal dining room, a double-height library/media room and a game room with an ensuite bath that could serve as a fourth bedroom. A sculptural steel-and-glass staircase leads to three bedrooms above, including a corner primary suite with its own fireplace, two walk-in closets and river and skyline views. Three parking spots are included.

Duker’s real estate holdings stretch from upstate New York to Manhattan, Miami, Palm Beach and Italy — plus a 270-foot superyacht, Sybaris. With two fewer penthouses to manage, he may finally have more time to sail it.