Tina Fineberg for The New York TimesThe building at 995 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan is across from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is an apartment fit for a king, or, perhaps, a Goldman Sachs chief executive.
J. Michael Evans, a Goldman Sachs vice chairman and a leading candidate to become the bank’s next chief, bought an apartment at 995 Fifth Avenue for $27 million, according to a person with direct knowledge of the purchase.
Spanning the entire 16th floor, the 14-room apartment is 8,360 square feet and has 10-foot ceilings. There is a six-room master-bedroom suite, and nine-and-a-half bathrooms, according to the real-estate Web site StreetEasy.
Who needs that much space? Well, if anyone does — and has the money to afford it — it’s Mr. Evans. He and his wife, Lise Evans, have eight children (each has three children from prior marriages, and they have two children together).
The apartment is in the former Stanhope Hotel across from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Mr. Evans paid $27,376,940, about 9 percent less than the $30 million listing price, according to real estate records. Extell Development converted the Stanhope into a residential building several years ago.
Nikki Field, an executive at Sotheby’s International Realty who had the listing, declined to comment. The New York Post reported earlier on Mr. Evans’s purchase.
Mr. Evans, who for many years was based in Hong Kong, where he led the bank’s push into Asia, recently moved back to New York. Last year, he was given the newly created post running the bank’s emerging-markets business across the globe. He joined Goldman in 1993 from Salomon Brothers and was named partner the following year.
Mr. Evans and his twin brother, Mark, rowed on the Canadian men’s eights team that won the gold medal at the 1984 Olympics. Mark was also a partner at Goldman but retired shortly after the bank’s 1999 initial public offering.
Lloyd C. Blankfein, Goldman’s current chief, has run the firm since 2006. Living comfortably across the park from Mr. Evans at 15 Central Park West, said he has no plans to step aside.
But he has begun to bump up against the average tenure for Goldman’s chiefs, leading to speculation about his successor. One logical candidate is Gary D. Cohn, the bank’s president who is close to Mr. Blankfein.
Another possibility is Mr. Evans, who recently served as co-chairman of Goldman’s business standards committee, which the bank formed after it came under criticism for its conduct during the financial crisis. One of four vice chairmen at the bank, Mr. Evans owns about 700,000 Goldman shares, which, at the bank’s current stock price, are worth about $75 million.