How a lot would you pay for an iconic Gold Coast mansion? The Oheka Citadel was the prize up for public sale on Tuesday in Manhattan, as seven unidentified bidders tried to reply the query.
Ultimately, the successful bid got here in at $72 million.
The neighborhood across the fortress shared combined feelings.
“Persons are unhappy to lose Gary,” native civic chief Gayle Snyder mentioned. “He is been an exquisite neighbor.”
Gary Melius purchased the deserted and crumbling mansion 42 years in the past for $1.5 million and spent tens of tens of millions to revive the construction first inbuilt 1919 by financier Otto Herman Kahn.
The Oheka Citadel served because the backdrop for a Taylor Swift music video, and numerous motion pictures and tv reveals. It is also served as the positioning for quite a few weddings all through the years.
Jo Von, a New York photographer, has coated roughly 100 weddings at Oheka.
“That was his house and he loved actually being a part of that fortress,” Von instructed Information 4 concerning the restoration of the mansion. “He was the fortress.”
In 2025, tens of millions in debt pressured Melius to declare chapter, which led to Tuesday’s public sale.
A longtime Oheka government took to social media with a message for the brand new proprietor.
“Oheka isn’t merely a property. It is the treasure that belongs within the hearts of everybody who has ever walked by its doorways.”
Snyder says she and her neighbors now oppose an authorized plan to construct 95 condos on the Oheka property.
That multimillion greenback venture appeared an enormous lure for bidders vying for the fortress.
“We might love if it could possibly be financially viable with out extra growth,” Snyder mentioned.
