Natural History Museum Sells Co-ops Donated by Eliot’s Old Man for $2.63 M.

It’s been a tough few weeks for the governor’s dad, Bernard Spitzer. A month ago, the octogenarian real estate mogul received a nefarious phone call, allegedly from G.O.P. veteran Roger J. Stone Jr., threatening arrest and assailing his son.

But here’s cause for the patriarch to celebrate: City records show that out of 11 apartments he charitably sold for zero dollars to the American Museum of Natural History in 2004 and 2005, the museum has now flipped more than half for a tidy profit.

At the Spitzer-developed 200 Central Park South, a curvy co-op, the museum just sold a 21st-floor place for $1.67 million, plus an 11th-floor co-op for $959,000. All told, apartments donated by Mr. Spitzer have yielded $6,255,000 for the natural historians.

“Bernie is a very philanthropic guy,” said his lawyer Jeffrey A. Moerdler, who returned a press inquiry. “He’s supported quite a few charities over the last few years, and this has been a method he’s used with a number.”

There was some familial charity in the building, too, though it’s been more scandalous. When 200 Central Park South went co-op in 1984, young Eliot’s share in the building became eight apartments. Those properties were at the center of a modest controversy over father-son loans surrounding the attorney general races in 1994 and 1998.

(That phone message to elder Spitzer last month said, in part, “Bernie, your phony loans are about to catch up with you.”)

Meanwhile, the Museum of Natural History first flipped a Spitzer-donated apartment in April 2005. Back then, a low-floor apartment went to buyer Barbara Marino for $1.2 million. Ms. Marino upgraded to a higher $2.695 million apartment this June, buying from ex–New York Post executive editor Colin Myler.