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A boutique Manhattan condo building that drew celebrity buyers including Chelsea Clinton, NASCAR champion Jeff Gordon and Jennifer Lopez also had an unlikely early investor: convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Documents from the recently released Epstein files reveal that the disgraced, and deceased, financier quietly backed the luxury conversion of 21 E. 26th St. in NoMad, a historic property overlooking Madison Square Park later marketed as the Whitman.
The five-story Neo-Georgian building was transformed into just four full-floor residences and a duplex penthouse, a design that helped lure a roster of high-profile buyers when sales launched in 2013, according to the Real Deal, which first reported this news.
Behind the scenes, however, emails show developer David Mitchell offered Epstein an unusually favorable entry into the project years earlier.
“I think this is attractive because most of the risk of approvals and asbestos removal is behind,” Mitchell wrote in a 2011 email pitching the deal. “No guarantees but should be good.”
Epstein ultimately committed roughly $920,000 through a stake in the project’s sponsor entity and a smaller limited-partner investment — a structure that gave him access to profits typically reserved for developers.
The financier appeared to move quickly.
“I’m closing today on your deal, with no due diligence. I am merely relying on your representations. thanks and good luck,” Epstein wrote in a message to Mitchell.
Emails show Epstein even floated taking the building’s penthouse instead of a profit payout.
“i would like to do a similar soho house type deal, take the penthouse instead of profit but only if convenient,” he wrote in one email reviewed by The Post.
Mitchell responded that the arrangement would be difficult because the deal had already closed and other investors were involved.
Financial projections circulating among investors at the time suggested the roughly $32 million project could generate more than $54 million in total sales, helped by a roaring Manhattan luxury market recovering after the financial crisis.
The units quickly found buyers once sales began.
Gordon purchased the second-floor residence for $10 million in 2013. He later sold the unit in 2023 for $13.5 million, according to StreetEasy records. Meanwhile, Chelsea Clinton snapped up another full-floor apartment in the building she purchased alongside her husband, Marc Mezvinsky, for $9.25 million in 2013.
Mark and Chelsea’s apartment — which they still own, and was once marketed as a “luxury fortress” — is expansive by any Manhattan standard. It has been described as one of the city’s longest residences, stretching the length of an entire block. The roughly 5,000-square-foot home includes four bedrooms, five bathrooms and a powder room, along with soaring ceilings that rise more than 12 feet.
The crown jewel was the duplex penthouse, the one Epstein previously expressed interest in, which is a sprawling residence with roughly 6,000 square feet of interior space and thousands of square feet of terraces. It eventually sold to Jennifer Lopez for nearly $20 million. She would go on to sell the unit for $23 million in 2024 after nearly seven years on the market.
Internal deal summaries show Epstein’s investment was projected to return more than $1.6 million — an almost 80% return, though the final outcome depended largely on the sale of the penthouse.
Other documents from the Epstein files also show the building serving as a social venue before the condos even hit the market.
A 2012 invitation circulated by Jamie and David Mitchell promoted an election-night party at the address — the night Barack Obama won his second term in office.
“Jamie and David Mitchell invite you to celebrate the 45th presidential election! LIVE FREE DANCE FREE,” the invitation read, scheduling the event for Nov. 6, 2012 at 7:30 p.m. at 21 East 26th Street.
However, the documents don’t make clear if the building ever hosted that party. That election was held in the wake of Superstorm Sandy; the area where this building stands was in the “south of power” zone — and the property likely faced a lengthy blackout, as many other downtown buildings did.
Still, emails indicate Epstein remained loosely involved as the project progressed. In one brief reply to Mitchell, he simply instructed: “Call my cell.”
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