The Blackstone Group LP

This Monday, The Observer broke the news that Donald Trump had finally sold his last three units at the monolithic Trump World Tower on First Avenue, for the tidy sum of $33.654 million. The three-unit penthouse duplex went to a limited liability corporation, according to city records, and a source said the buyer was an "Asian-American moneyman."

Indeed he is. According to a very delicious real estate gossip site called Big Time Listings, the buyer is Blackstone senior vice president Chu Chinh, a maestro of the corporate equity biz. He'll have the tower's 89th floor to himself, plus half of the 90th.

Three years ago, Mr. Chu had half an hour to save Blackstone’s two-year takeover of a chemical maker called Celanese. It took a few sweaty phone calls for Mr. Chu to pull off the $3.8 billion deal, the largest public-to-private buyout ever in Europe-- which is why he gets to own a Trump duplex penthouse with 34 rooms, 14,864 square feet, 12 bedrooms and 16.5 bathrooms.

But, sadly, that all amounts to just one and a half floors at the top of Trump World Tower! Mr. Chu tried to buy out the neighbor that shares the 90th floor, two sources told The Observer on Monday, but his efforts to claim the apartment failed. He’ll have to make due with his 16 (and a half) bathrooms.

Last month, The Post reported that Calvin Klein's daughter Marci (who's also a Playboy/Saturday Night Live producer) had sold her West Broadway penthouse for $9.9 million.

But there was no mention of who had bought the nine-room American Thread Building duplex. According to city records, the lucky guy is Lawrence Guffey, a senior managing director of the monolithic Blackstone Group.

On the sales deed, Dreamworks mogul David Geffen happens to be listed as one of Ms. Klein's trustees. Maybe Mr. Geffen and Mr. Guffey are friends: the exec "leads Blackstone's media and communications investment activities." Reached through his office, Guffey had no comment.

Click here or here to read about his colleagues' Manhattan homes.  read more »

- Max Abelson

Blackstone Group's likely takeover of Equity Office Properties, the nation's largest office landlord with Manhattan holdings that include 1095 Sixth Avenue and Park Avenue Tower, would be the biggest leveraged buyout in history at $36 billion.

Equity's board approved on Sunday night the buyout by Blackstone, which includes the assumption of debt. But Equity's shareholders still have to sign off on the deal, a reality that could hold everything up, as SL Green and Reckson know well.

- Tom Acitelli

A triplex penthouse that once belonged to incarcerated ImClone co-founder Sam Waksal has been sold t  read more »