Big Ticket: 2 Condo Sales on ‘Billionaires’ Row’ Lift the Market

Featuring Robby Browne, Chris Kann & Jennifer Ireland's penthouse sale at 432 Park Avenue, Midtown East; and Corcoran Sunshine's new development at 56 Leonard, Tribeca, Manhattan.

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A flurry of pricey condominium sales, many of them at Manhattan’s newest ultraluxury developments, provided a strong finale to an already robust 2016.

The most expensive of these closed December transactions, according to New York City property records, was an aerie that encompasses the 88th floor of the 96-story 432 Park Avenue in “Billionaires’ Row,” between 56th and 57th Streets. The building is the tallest residential tower in the Western Hemisphere, topping out at 1,396 feet, or more than a quarter-mile.

Lewis A. Sanders, the founder and chief executive of Sanders Capital, a money management firm, and his wife, Alice, paid $60,893,873 for the apartment, which has monthly carrying costs totaling $32,289.

The runner-up sale last month, at $45.8 million, was unit No. 83 at One57, at 157 West 57th Street — a four-bedroom four-and-a-half-bath apartment that was first listed for $58.5 million in 2015.

Big purchases were also recorded at the new 551 West 21st Street, 150 Charles Street, 27 Wooster Street, One Riverside Park and Greenwich Lane, in addition to 15 Central Park West and One57.

 

And some other notable transactions involved the prominent sculptor Anish Kapoor, the British stage and film director Anthony Page and the African telecom mogul Strive Masiyiwa.

The Sanderses’ new apartment, unit No. 88 at 432 Park, was New York City’s second most expensive closed sale in 2016. The priciest, also at the building, was a full-floor penthouse at the pinnacle that sold in September for $87.7 million, one of a steady stream of sales last year at the tower.

Despite the sky-high price, Mr. and Ms. Sanders, who were represented by the Robby Browne team at the Corcoran Group, managed to get a 20 percent discount from the original asking price of $76.5 million.

Their unit, which officially closed in early December, has helicopter views of Central Park, the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island Sound, the highlands of New Jersey and the Manhattan skyline. The apartment’s 8,055 square feet includes five bedrooms, seven and a half baths, a library and a family room. And like the other 103 residences in the slim concrete-and-glass condominium, the apartment has 12.6-foot ceilings and 10-by-10-foot square windows. Each apartment also has a private elevator landing.

Richard Wallgren of Macklowe Properties Sales and Douglas Elliman Development Marketing represented the building’s sponsors, the developers Macklowe Properties and the CIM Group.

Other new-development sales included a penthouse at the Norman Foster-designed 551 West 21st Street, which overlooks the Hudson River in West Chelsea. At $34.6 million, the sale of this unit, PH18, was the third most expensive closing in December and among the top closings for 2016. The buyer used the limited liability company City House.

But not all the big sales last month were anonymous. The British sculptor Anish Kapoor, who was born in India, bought a four-bedroom four-and-a-half-bath condo at 56 Leonard, a new luxury high-rise in TriBeCa with a distinctive Jenga-like cantilevered design. The price for his unit, 47W — it has three balconies with cityscape and Hudson River views — was $13.6 million. The original list price had been $15 million.

 

Mr. Kapoor, who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2013, is best known for his large-scale sculptures, and one of his latest creations is about to be installed later this year at his new home in New York City: He designed a two-story, 40-ton piece for the base of 56 Leonard.

On the selling side last month, the director Anthony Page, who was also born in India and settled in Britain, sold unit No. 4 at 32 West 20th Street, a prewar building in the Flatiron district. The unit, which had been configured into two apartments, has 4,000 square feet. It was bought for $4.02 million by Vineet Seth, according to city records. It was first listed in 2015 for $6.5 million. Mr. Page has worked on numerous films and theater productions, including the Broadway revival of “Waiting for Godot.”

Last month’s biggest co-op sale was at the twin-towered Eldorado, at 300 Central Park West, between 90th and 91st Street, across from Central Park. The majestic building has had a long list of celebrity residents, including Faye Dunaway, Michael J. Fox, Moby and Alec Baldwin.

Strive Masiyiwa of Zimbabwe, the founder and executive chairman of the Econet Wireless Group, a telecommunications company based in Johannesburg, paid $24.5 million for a five-bedroom penthouse that encompasses the 29th and 30th floors of the Eldorado’s northern tower. The apartment, which has four terraces, had entered the market in early 2015 with an asking price of $29 million.

The sellers were Dr. John W. Rowe, a professor at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, and his wife, Valerie, a retired professor at Fordham University. Dr. Rowe was also the chief executive and chairman of Aetna from 2000 to 2006 and was the president and chief executive of Mount Sinai N.Y.U. Health from 1998 to 2000.

Copyright © 2016 The New York Times Company. Reprinted with Permission.

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