Rich Caplan
A prominent Russian banker is the buyer of Russian airport billionaire Valery Kogan’s palatial spread — a residence ornately dressed in a Versailles style — at New York’s famed Plaza, Gimme Shelter can reveal.
Vladimir Stolyarenko who once chaired one of Russia’s largest commercial banks, Evrofinance Mosnarbank, paid $21 million for two units — 1007 and 1009 — at the famed Central Park-facing edifice. The over-the-top lair — with trimmings including 24-karat gold and Venetian plaster — first asked $50 million following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Listing broker Charlie Attias, of Compass, declined to comment.
Stolyarenko’s new dwelling spans 5,302 square feet and features Central Park views. Its foyer spills into a great room with high ceilings and paneled walls — while the main bedroom suite has a bathroom clad in floor-to-ceiling onyx.
At the same time, Stolyaranko and his wife, Alfiya, have listed another unit in the Plaza for $10.49 million. What’s more: Their brokers, Jessica and Burt Savitsky, of Brown Harris Stevens, are offering a $7,500 American Express gift card to any broker who brings in a buyer to unit 1503, according to the listing.
The Savitskys also declined to comment.
That unit, as of press time, has been on and off the market for more than 2,000 days. The couple purchased it for $10.37 million back in 2007. They first listed it for $12.8 million in 2008, according to StreetEasy.
Come 2019, Vladimir sold a Plaza unit, No. 1903, to Alfiya for $10 million, according to property records.
The Stolyarenkos are also the owners of a now-dilapidated Palm Beach property that they bought from fashion titan Tommy Hilfiger and Dee Ocleppo for $35 million in 2018 — when Christian Angle, of Christian Angle Real Estate, had the listing.
At that time, the mansion, at 100 Casa Bendita, looked good but needed a renovation, sources told Gimme.
Last summer, the Palm Beach Daily News published shocking photos showing the mansion in extreme disrepair, with construction workers finally on the property to fix water and termite damage, rusted storm shutters, rotted doors and more. The paper has also chronicled neighbors’ frustration with the owners of the run-down oceanfront estate, and the flooding on the charming cul-de-sac, allegedly caused by the home’s “backed-up drainage system.“
“There was a bit of a ruckus about it, because they let it deteriorate, and the town forced them to continue with the renovation,” an inside source told Gimme. “It’s been years and it eventually became an eyesore.”
The source added: “It’s been a mystery. The buyer has been unreachable.”
Added another inside source: “It became horrendous.”
When reached by phone, the Stolyarenkos’ lawyer, Glenn S. Krutoff, declined to comment at press time.
(Hilfiger and Ocleppo also once owned the Plaza’s penthouse. They bought it for $22.5 million in 2008, and then tried to flip it for $50 million a few months later. It was on and off the market for the next 11 years — including in 2013, when it asked a staggering $80 million. It ultimately sold for $31.24 million in 2019.)
While many ultra-rich Russians fled New York following Russia’s war on Ukraine in 2022, some are itching — and beginning — to return, several sources told Gimme.
“The ones who are returning have lived outside Russia for decades and were often educated in the United States,” a source said.
The Plaza itself has its own unique history. Built in 1907, the French Renaissance-inspired chateau-style building was designed by Henry J. Hardenbergh — the legendary hand behind the Dakota.
In 1986, it was listed as a National Historic Landmark. Two years later, in 1988, now-President Donald Trump bought it for $390 million and put his then-wife, the late Ivanna Trump, in charge — saying he paid her in dresses and $1 a year. He lost the hotel four years later.
It’s now owned by the government of Qatar, via Katara Hospitality, which was formerly known as Qatar National Hotels Co.