Abramovich buys new york city block to build mansion

Roman Abramovich is no stranger to extravagance: this is one of his five yachts Photo: Gillfoto

What do you get the man who already owns a football club and several yachts? The better part of a New York block, it seems, as Roman Abramovich reportedly plans to convert several townhouses into one big mansion.

The Russian oligarch "secretly purchased" number 11 on E. 75th Street in October last year, according to the NY Post. Only 21 feet wide and costing $29.7 million, the property appears harmless enough, but that transaction was followed by another in December 2014, for number 15, two doors down. On its own, the 17-foot-wide townhouse appears equally normal.

Between the two, though, lies number 13 - and owners Mark and Lori Fife are reportedly in talks with a "mystery Russian buyer" who wants to own it too. The gossip follows a near-miss deal for the football tycoon, which would have seen Roman pay $75 milloin for a co-op in the Berwing Mansion on Fifth Ave, if its owner did not refuse. Instead, he is apparently construction his own mega-mansion by combining the three properties together for his wife and kids.

Larry Gluck, the former owner of October's sold home, though, does not regret his actions, telling the post it was "super cool" for Abramovich to have bought his house. Neither he nor the neighbour two does down knew it ws the same purchaser, although an unnamed source says they "would have asked for a lot more", if they found out.