Manhattan Townhouse With Pool Lists for $29 Million

A 131-year-old Manhattan townhouse that has its own pool and looks directly out onto Central Park West has hit the market for $29 million.

The Queen Anne mansion built in 1887 is one of only three remaining townhouses on the west side of Central Park, according to the home’s listing. Its owners, Matthew Geller, managing director of investment bank Geller Biopharm, and his wife, Janet Geller, have given the six-story sandstone house a 21st-century makeover that include a home theater, gym and 50-foot lap pool.

"You’re part of New York history, but you have all of the amenities of 21st century living," Mr. Geller told Mansion Global.

Mr. Geller bought the townhouse, which was subdivided into apartments and in disrepair, in 2004 for $7.5 million, according to property records. He launched a multi-year renovation that cost around $10 million, according to The New York Times, which first reported the listing.

The Gellers set about adding the home’s modern conveniences while maintaining period interior details. They added hundreds of square feet in decorative quarter-sawed white oak, installed floor to ceiling in the home’s library, kitchen and winding staircases, and decorative plasterwork, according to the listing with Michael Sieger of Sotheby’s International Realty.

One of the most arduous updates was the marble natatorium in the cellar floor that involved digging into Manhattan bedrock to install the swimming pool, Mr. Geller said.

They also added a bedroom and bathroom, which they use as a guest room, to the top floor. It leads out onto a roof terrace, from which the owners can see to the Central Park reservoir and over to the skyscrapers of Midtown.

In total, there are 16 rooms spanning nearly 10,000 square feet, including seven bedrooms. The home also has an elevator.

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The owners have spent much of their time in a third-floor study off of the master suite. The room is lined in bay windows that look out onto the trees of Central Park—giving the illusion of living in the countryside, Mr. Geller said.

"I can walk to work in Midtown, but I can also look out the window of this study and feel like I’m miles away from the city," he said.

The Gellers are selling because they’ve moving to California, where they have family and Mr. Geller has clients.