Add The New York Post on Google Love may be priceless — but when it all falls apart, it certainly comes with a price.
The Upper East Side mansion at the center of one of New York’s most vicious divorce battles has emerged as the most valuable single-family home in the five boroughs, according to a Post review of the city’s potential pied-à-terre list. That massive data dump, released last last week, inadvertently outed the addresses of thousands of wealthy property owners — and, in certain cases, the big names who own them.
The eight-figure property at 9 E. 86th St., assessed at $75.8 million, now belongs solely to Jenica Paulson, who was awarded the property in her settlement with hedge fund titan John Paulson after years of courtroom warfare over hundreds of millions in trusts and real estate.
The address surfaced in Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s newly released Class 1 property roll, a document meant to identify one- two- and three-family townhouses that could be hit with the state’s incoming pied-à-terre tax. Instead, it splashed the names and addresses of hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers across the internet, drawing furious backlash from property owners and elected officials alike.
Only one property on the list carries a higher price tag than Jenica’s, a $112 million spread at 7 E. 72nd St. But that property is not privately held.
It is part of a combined megamansion assembled by the government of Qatar, which paid $26 million for the site in 2002 and fused it with the neighboring 9 E. 72nd St. to create a single royal residence, meaning the Paulson townhouse stands as the city’s most valuable home actually owned by an individual.
Jenica paid $30 million in May to keep the mansion as part of the final settlement, capping off an intense divorce saga since John filed to end the marriage in September 2021.
“Jenny Paulson and John Paulson have come to the decision to amicably settle their divorce and trust related litigations,” Jenny’s attorney Robert S. Cohen and John’s attorney Marilyn Chinitz said in a joint statement at the time. “They consider this settlement a private matter and neither party nor any family nor friends of the parties will have any further comment.”
The couple, married in 2000 after meeting when Jenica waited on John at the Bear Stearns cafeteria, spent years fighting over more than $100 million in real estate holdings stretching from the Hamptons to Aspen, Colorado.
In 2022, Jenica filed suit accusing her husband of quietly funneling assets into a trio of irrevocable trusts to keep them out of her reach during the split, seeking at least $1 billion in damages. John’s team denied the claim, arguing the trusts had been set up decades earlier for the couple’s two daughters.
A source with knowledge of the settlement talks said negotiations picked up steam after a judge pushed both sides toward the table.
“The talks began in earnest earlier this year,” the source said, adding that the resolution was “fair to everybody.”
John, whose fortune was built in large part on his legendary bet against the housing market ahead of the 2008 financial crisis, is now engaged to girlfriend Alina de Almeida, with whom he welcomed a daughter last year.
Whether the $75.8 million figure the city has assigned the Paulson mansion actually reflects its worth is another matter. One real estate appraiser, who reviewed the assessment on condition of anonymity, said the number looks inflated based on how the city measures square footage.
“It seems high, it’s about 28,500 square feet including the rear extension, at $1,900 per square foot that’s a little over $50 million,” the appraiser said. “However the city uses gross building area that doesn’t include the rear extension which gives it about 20,500 square feet. At $1,900 per square foot that’s about $40 million.”
“The $50 million is closer to the market value but I don’t know the condition. It was renovated years ago when last purchased. I might be a little low at $50 million depending on how it shows, but $75 million seems very high.”
The mansion’s outsized valuation is only one wrinkle in a document that has caused an uproar since its release.
The database, published by the city’s Department of Finance, lists more than 960,000 residences and owners, dwarfing the roughly 31,000 homes officials originally said would be subject to the new surcharge on non-primary residences.
Other marquee names swept up in the release include Jeffrey Epstein’s former townhouse at 9 E. 71st St., valued at $66.8 million and listed as one of the cities top 10 priciest homes. The properties listed go alongside prominent New Yorkers such as Woody Allen, Anna Wintour and Cynthia Nixon.
City Hall has defended the mass disclosure as a legal requirement.
“As per State law, a property roll was released for public inspection,” a Department of Finance spokesperson said. “From this list, DOF will identify properties that may be subject to the new non-primary residence property surcharge.”
Critics say the rollout has needlessly exposed ordinary homeowners alongside billionaires.
Council Minority Leader David Carr, whose own Staten Island condo appeared on the list, called the move reckless.
Steven Fulop of the Partnership for NYC warned it sets a troubling precedent for how the city treats successful residents, while Councilwoman Gale Brewer, whose Upper West Side brownstone has been her full time home for more than two decades, said her inclusion on the list proves the data cannot be trusted.
Mayor Mamdani has continued to defend the pied-à-terre tax as a matter of fairness. City Hall projects the levy could generate roughly $500 million annually, though the city comptroller’s office has pegged the more likely figure closer to $340 million to $380 million.
