They're the Top: The City's Biggest Residential Real Estate Deals of 2015
Featuring Beth Benalloul's penthouse sale at 1355 First Avenue, Upper East Side; Cathy Franklin & Alexis Bodenheimer's sale at 1 Central Park West, Upper West Side; and Hilary Landis and Danielle Pessis' sale at 737 Park Avenue, Upper East Side: http://observer.com/2015/12/theyre-the-top-the-biggest-residential-real-estate-deals-of-2015/
The city's biggest residential real estate deals show that, in Manhattan at least, the money still flows north
THERE HAS BEEN A WHOLE LOT OF FUSS OVER THE innumerable downtown developments this year, with each new condo decked out even more than the last, and each declared to be signaling the true arrival of the neighborhood into the real estate community. The real money, however, has remained right where it has always been: uptown.
In fact, only two of the 20 most expensive deals of 2015 were located south of 5th Street: Jon Bon Jovi's beleaguered 158 Mercer Street penthouse, and a Greenwich Village town¬house at 16 East lOth Street-and neither made the top 1O.
One57 has reigned supreme, with six units in the Extell tower making the list. The legendary $100.4 million sale of a duplex penthouse at One57 actually closed in December 20I4, hitting public record the following month, but it led the way for the multitude of other over-the-top, seemingly endless Ones? sales in 2015.
Another One57 penthouse topped the list for 2015, at $91.54 million. Maybe we'll see it again next year, since it's allegedly going to be back on the market at some point in the near future-it purchased as a "fun" investment.
While only four of the most expensive deals this year were co-ops, the second and third place spots were both taken up by Fifth Avenue co-ops. Both sold, surprisingly, to foreign buyers, perhaps signaling something of an adjustment in the attitudes of co-op boards.
10) 1355 First Avenue, Penthouse One $37.94 million
Yet another record was set when a mystery buyer (shocking!) bought a three-apartment penthouse combo spanning the top four floors of The Charles, in the most expensive sale ever for a home on the Upper East Side east of Third Avenue. Corcoran's Beth Benalloul represented the American buyer, known as CRE Acquisition LLC, which is planning on creating a custom configuration of an eventualll,740-square-foot quadruplex with 1,300 square feet of private terraces, a dozen bedrooms, and 12.5 bathrooms, as well as a private elevator. Oh, and lest the buyer get lonely, developer Ramin Kamfar said that a relative, Charles NCP LLC, has purchased the two apartments immediately below for $20.7 million.
14) I Central Park West, No. PH51B $33 million
One of the first big deals of the year was this penthouse at the Trump International Hotel and Tower. Listed by Corcoran's Cathy Franklin and Alexis Bodenheimer after being "transformed" in a two-and-a-half-year renovation by SLC Interiors and Hottenroth & Joseph Architects, the four-bedroom, four-and-a-half-bath was sold by an LLC called Endicott Holdings, to a mystery buyer known as DLNH and Bean LLC (yawn). The master suite with two bathrooms and a 19-foot-long dressing room, however, sounds quite nice, as do the floor-to-ceiling windows with views of Central Park.
15) 737 Park Avenue, Penthouse, $32.66 million
The top floor of Harry Macklowe's ritzy rental-to-condo conversion was sold as a "white box," without any interior walls or finishes, to French-born financier Raymond Svider, the co-chair and co-managing partner of BC Partners. Mr. Svider, who bought a $14.4 million summer home in Water Mill in 2013, plans to make the 6,oo3-square-foot Park Avenue abode his primary residence, though he has quite a bit of work to do before he can move in. Corcoran's Hilary Landis and Danielle Pessis shared the listing, which does, however, already have a wood-burning fireplace, an 8-by-34-foot skylight, and (approximately) 11-foot ceilings, and the 2,271-square-foot wraparound terrace.