Big Ticket: On Park Avenue, Dizzying Views for $44.8 Million
A triplex penthouse at 137 Riverside Drive, known as the Clarendon, between 85th and 86th Streets, sold for $20 million, the second highest sale of the week. The apartment was once part of the publisher William Randolph Hearst’s palatial home.
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The financier Bennett S. LeBow paid $44,833,408.54 for a spacious aerie on the 64th floor of 432 Park Avenue, the tallest residential tower in the Western Hemisphere, reaching 1,396 feet, a transaction that was the most expensive closed sale of the week, according to city records.
On the other side of town, at 137 Riverside Drive, a century-old apartment building on a far smaller scale — but, some might say, with comparable cachet for its time — was the next biggest sale. A sprawling triplex penthouse that was once part of the publisher William Randolph Hearst’s palatial home sold for $20 million.
Mr. LeBow, who, like Mr. Hearst, founded a business empire with numerous holdings — his company is the publicly traded Vector Group of Miami — bought the sponsor unit 64A, two-thirds of the way up the 96-story 432 Park, paying just over $11,000 a square foot.
A spokesman for the concrete-and-glass condominium building, which was completed a year ago, said he was not permitted to disclose any information about the sale.
However, the building’s original floor plans show that Mr. LeBow’s apartment has three bedrooms, four bathrooms and a laundry room and is over 4,000 square feet. There is an enormous master suite that includes two baths, two large walk-in closets and a sitting room.
And like all the 104 residences at 432 Park, on “Billionaires’ Row” between 56th and 57th Streets, the apartment has 12.6-foot ceilings and 10-by-10-foot windows, which provide an abundance of light and dizzying park, river and cityscape views. Each apartment also has a private elevator landing.
The building was designed by Rafael Viñoly Architects and developed by Macklowe Properties and the CIM Group.
Mr. LeBow is the chairman of Vector, which has real estate and tobacco holdings. Vector’s real estate investment subsidiary New Valley Realty is a majority owner of Douglas Elliman Real Estate; Douglas Elliman Development Marketing is handling sales for 432 Park.
The week’s runner-up, the triplex at 137 Riverside Drive, known as the Clarendon, between 85th and 86th Streets, was sold by the investor Benedict Silverman, according to property records. Like Hearst, Mr. Silverman and his wife, Jayne Bentzen, an actress, are avid art collectors, and they decorated the apartment’s 7,000 square feet with some of their varied collection, including Art Deco and German Expressionist works.
The apartment, which has 10,000 square feet of terraces that provide striking Hudson River views, has a monthly maintenance of $10,098. It entered the market two years ago with a $38 million price tag; its most recent price was $24 million. Joy Handler and Fabienne Lecole of the Corcoran Group were the listing brokers. Adam D. Modlin of the Modlin Group represented the buyer, the A.H. 2012 Family Trust.
Mr. Silverman and his wife moved into the apartment after the 12-story limestone-and-brick building, with a copper mansard, converted to a co-op in the mid-1980s. They commenced a top-to-bottom renovation of the space, which had remained empty since the Hearst family left in 1938. Hearst took over the top three floors of the Clarendon in 1907, just after the building opened, and about six years later, he bought the entire building.
Much of the apartment’s grandeur remains. A private landing leads to a formal entrance hall with a sweeping staircase and a Tiffany chandelier. The walls are paneled in lacewood, and the floors are embellished with inlaid marquetry designs. The living room has 17-foot ceilings and curved windows, as well as a carved Art Nouveau mantelpiece.
There are seven bedrooms and six and a half baths. The master suite has its own terrace, along with a dressing room and walk-in closets. The glass-enclosed solarium on the top floor has a 2,000-square-foot deck.
Copyright © 2016 The New York Times Company. Reprinted with Permission. Pablo Enriquez/The New York Times.