Benazir’s jinxed New York apartment

The apartment of Benazir Bhutto in Manhattan, the city’s most expensive area, has a dark and mysterious history. For a visitor, it is a beautifully furnished penthouse, with panoramic views of the East River. But it has often been unkind to its buyers.

The story goes that whoever has tried to buy it has died, either before the purchase or afterwards. One potential buyer dropped the idea of buying the apartment at the close of the deal, only because he felt afraid he would meet a tragic end, the apartment’s ex-owner Seema Boesky has said.

Two persons decided to finally buy it, one after the other. The first died before buying the property and the other — Benazir Bhutto — was killed a year after buying the penthouse, Seema Boesky said.

Belair Apartments, a 42-storey building that houses the Bhutto-Zardari penthouse,is located on 524-E, 72nd street between York Avenue and the FDR drive. In October 2006, a plane carrying a famous baseball player, Cory Liddle, crashed into this building, leaving Liddle and his co-pilot dead.

“My first buyer dropped dead at the closing,” Seema writes in the April issue of The Wag magazine. The second, with contract in hand, bolted down 47 flight of stairs, never to be heard from again, she further writes in her article titled: “The Cursed Apartment.”

Mentioning the final buyer of the apartment, who had bought it last year, she writes that one year later, newspaper headlines proved those who feel there is a curse on the apartment were right. “The sale has left me feeling sad ever since. My buyer? Benazir Bhutto!”

She said even her real estate broker was forced to believe that the apartment’s “karma” (luck) was questionable. Recalling her deal with Benazir Bhutto the final buyer, she said she was sick of meeting potential buyers but her real estate broker said that this time the client was some important person who preferred anonymity.

Before Ms Bhutto, Asif Ali Zardari went to visit the apartment. “The husband came alone for the early meetings. He was charming, attractive, in his 50s, and extremely chatty while his crew took measurements and photos,” she writes drawing a sketch of Zardari, the PPP’s co-chairperson.

He mentioned this was their first home in New York, and that his wife was a workaholic who travelled constantly, Seema writes recalling her conversation with Zardari who was by that time living in New York’s Manhattan area, first in a hotel and later shifting to the apartment of a friend, Mona Shah.