Israeli Brothers Help Qatar Buy $100m Manhattan Townhouse

Oren and Tal Alexander

Two brothers with an Israeli father have negotiated the sale of a commercial townhouse on New York’s Upper East Side to the Arab Gulf emirate of Qatar.

Oren and Tal Alexander of the Douglas Elliman real estate brokerage represented Qatar in its purchase of the property, at 19 East 64th Street, for $100 million. Elliman announced the sale. 

The sellers were the Wildenstein family of international art dealers, which used the buildings as its headquarters and art gallery.

“Besides the location and width, it’s a turn-key property, which is what I think struck the state of Qatar,” Oren Alexander told  the New York real estate website The Real Deal. “Foreigners especially don’t want to come to the States and go through the headache of hiring contractors and building something.”

Qatar is expected to turn the townhouse into its New York consulate, while maintaining one of the property’s current uses by exhibiting art.

Even before last week’s record-breaking deal, Oren and Tal Alexander had a reputation for brokering sales of ultra-luxury properties, even though they have only been real estate agents for a few years and are only 26 and 27 years old, respectively.

“In the past six months, we have traveled to Hong Kong, Moscow, London, Istanbul Tokyo, Paris, Aspen, Tel Aviv and St. Tropez – all for work,” Elliman quoted the brothers as saying. “And next month, we head to Qatar, Dubai and Sao Paulo.”

They hold the record for the most expensive home sold in Miami – $47 million for the Indian Creek mansion built by their Israeli-born father, Shlomi Alexander, who has made a career as a property developer in Florida.

The Alexanders are currently selling a full floor in Manhattan’s Sherry Netherland for $95 million, a $58 million listing in the Hamptons and two Long Island Gold Coast estates, listed for $15 million and $8 million.