What’s with Joe Tsai’s latest real estate purchase?

Back in July, the New York real estate market was shocked by Joe Tsai’s purchase of a two-story condo at 220 Central Park South, known as “Billionaires Row”. Tsai paid $157.5 million for an apartment spanning the 60th and 61st floors of the spectacular residential tower, as well as a maid’s quarters on the 18th floor. It has been reported as the third most expensive home deal in US history.

Now it’s the fourth.

Bloomberg News and other financial media reported Thursday that Tsai, through his private investment vehicle Blue Pool Capital, had paid $188 million for the penthouse in the same building… 13 stories above the condo he bought last year…

Blue Pool paid $188 million for the 220 Central Park South property, according to New York registry documents. The firm took out a $71.5 million 30-year mortgage on the 73rd-floor property through JPMorgan Chase & Co., filings show. The purchase included a maid’s room on a lower level.

No one is saying that Tsai and/or his partner at Blue Pool, Alibaba’s co-founder and former CEO Jack Ma, plan to do the penthouse, or for that matter the two stories, in the ’60s. Is all this high-priced real estate an investment? The previous owner doubled his investment in three years. Will Tsai live in one apartment and Ma in the other? Ma ran afoul of Chinese authorities in 2020. One thing seems to indicate that Tsai is fully Committed to New York. You don’t spend a third billion dollars on two apartments without making a real commitment.

Tsai and his wife Clara Wu Tsai maintain residences in Hong Kong and LaJolla, a toney neighborhood of San Diego. It appears the couple will be living in New York for the first time since they left the city 25 years ago to help found Alibaba.