Abramovich desperate to buy out 'historic' Berwind mansion at Fifth Avenue

Russian billionaire and owner of Chelsea soccer club Roman Abramovich is close to owning all of 828 Fifth Avenue, the historic Berwind Mansion overlooking Central Park in Manhattan's posh upper East side and is just 23 million dollars away from it.

According to the New York Post, Abramovich, the owner of Britain's Chelsea soccer team and partner to socialite Dasha Zhukova, is in contract to buy three units in the building for 75 million dollars from the family of late real estate developer Howard Ronson.

However, others own two other apartments, and Abramovich is wheeling and dealing to buy them out, the report said.

The deals would leave him the townhouse's sole resident, with freedom to combine the units back into one gargantuan residence, the report added.

Coal magnate Edward Berwind built the grand property at East 64th Street overlooking Central Park in the 1800s but it was turned into apartments in the 1970s, when Ronson snapped up units including the rooftop garden, according to the report.