As part of a plea deal with federal prosecutors, Paul Manafort, President Trump’s disgraced campaign chairman, forfeited his New York homes worth about $22 million to the government.
An 1890s Brooklyn brownstone with gilded details. A Soho loft with picture windows. A Lower Manhattan apartment with an automated garage. A house in the Hamptons with a pool, tennis and basketball courts — even a chipping green.
When Paul Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign chairman, reached a plea deal with federal prosecutors last month, he agreed to forfeit New York real estate worth about $22 million to the government.
It’s a list of resplendent homes, some purchased with ill-gotten gains, prosecutors said.
And one day, they may all be for sale. They might even go cheap.
“The government, they don’t like to wait years for the best price, they want to move it,” said David B. Smith, a former deputy chief of the Justice Department’s asset forfeiture office. “With a unique property, that may be stupid, but they want to do it.”
The United States Marshal’s Service will hire local brokers to sell off the properties, proceeds of which will go to Uncle Sam — after, that is, all debts are paid. (Mr. Manafort and his family borrowed heavily against the properties.)
Mr. Manafort has agreed to tell all he knows to the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III.
The deal was seen as a surrender by Mr. Trump’s former campaign chairman, who had vowed for months to prove his innocence.
It is too soon to know when the properties may come to market because formal forfeiture proceedings have not yet begun.
But here’s a sneak peek:
Manhattan: 123 Baxter Street, Apartment 5D
The property is attached to New York City’s first automated parking garage, where a robotic attendant puts away your car.
Apartments there are still a good deal because the building is on the border of Chinatown and Little Italy, said Ari Harkov, a broker with Halstead, who has sold two other units in the building. The price per square foot of comparable apartments in the area, he said, is significantly less than similar apartments just a few blocks north in Soho.
Still, Mr. Harkov said some liberal-leaning clients are unwilling to buy apartments linked to Mr. Trump — including 184 Kent in Brooklyn, which is owned by his son-in-law, the developer Jared Kushner. That could affect the price, he said.
“I have had people who will say no to that building because they don’t want to line his pockets,” Mr. Harkov said.
Manhattan: 29 Howard Street, 4th Floor
This Soho apartment has a wood-burning fireplace, more than 2,000 square feet of open loft space, a steam shower and a soaking tub — not to mention an elevator that opens directly into the home.
It cost Mr. Manafort $2.85 million in 2012, money funneled through a shell company to hide income from lobbying work on behalf of pro-Russian political factions in Ukraine, according to the indictment.
But wait, there’s more.
“The view is ridiculous,” said Meris Blumstein, a broker with Corcoran.
Though it is only on the fourth floor, the building sits where Crosby Street hits a dead end, giving it an unobstructed view.
“You’re looking north at everything, at the entire city,” she said.
Brooklyn: 377 Union Street, Townhouse
When Mr. Manafort’s family bought this turn-of-the-century townhouse on a wide, tree-trimmed block in Carroll Gardens, it still had all its original glamour, said Lindsay Barton Barrett, a broker at Compass.
She sold it to the family for just under $3 million in 2012.
There were encrusted mantle pieces, delicate plasterwork and stippled floral wall coverings spread across its more than 4,000 square feet.
It has since undergone extensive renovation, some of which began in October 2017 — just a few days after prosecutors accused Mr. Manafort of misappropriating a $5 million loan for construction to instead buy another property in California.
Long Island: 174 Jobs Lane, Water Mill, N.Y.
Ten bedrooms! A tennis court! A little patch of green and a sand trap to practice your putt!
Those amenities, plus its proximity to the Atlantic Ocean, make Mr. Manafort’s forfeited Long Island mansion a pretty desirable property, said Paul Brennan, Douglas Elliman’s executive manager for sales in the Hamptons.
But Mr. Brennan said the estimated $7 million value assigned by real estate websites like Trulia seems high.
“If you want a high price on a tainted guy’s house, you are not going to get it,” Mr. Brennan said.
For example, the house owned by Bernard L. Madoff in nearby Montauk sold for $9.41 million in 2009 after it was seized by the government.
Now, it is on the market for more than twice as much, perhaps as its criminal connection has receded with the past.
Manhattan: Trump Tower, Apartment, 43rd Floor
Mr. Manafort used his apartment in the building where his future boss lived, and from which the campaign was run, as a selling point when he pitched himself to Mr. Trump to work on the campaign. Mr. Manafort purchased it in 2006 for $2.6 million.
It’s 1,500 square feet on the 43rd floor (or is it the 33rd floor?).
Despite the pink marble lobby and plum location, apartments in the tower seem to have lost some of their selling power.
Mr. Manafort told prosecutors that it was worth $6 million during bond negotiations last year. In fact, it had lost a fourth of its value over the past two years, according to the most recent available data from the property site Zillow.
Sarah Maslin Nir covers breaking news for the Metro section. She was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for her series “Unvarnished,” an investigation into New York City’s nail salon industry that documented the exploitative labor practices and health issues manicurists face. @SarahMaslinNir