Demi Moore’s Central Park Penthouse Sells for $45 Million
Featuring Carrie Chiang's sale at 19 East 64th Street, Upper East Side
The actress Demi Moore finally closed on her triplex penthouse atop the south tower of the landmark San Remo. It took two years to reach a deal, and a $30 million reduction from the original asking price, which had included a two-bedroom maisonette.
The $45 million sale of PH26C last month, minus the additional apartment, was still the highest price ever paid for a residence at the twin-peaked, Emery Roth-designed building at 145-146 Central Park West, between 74th and 75th Streets. The previous record, $26.4 million, was set in 2014.
Ms. Moore’s sale was also the priciest for an Upper West Side co-op, according to CityRealty, which tracks apartment transactions.
But it wasn’t the biggest closing in April. That status went to 19 East 64th Street, a limestone mansion that served as a gallery and home for the Wildenstein family of art dealers over the past eight decades. The $79.5 million price shattered the record for a city townhouse.
In other notable transactions last month, the director Oliver Stone acquired a waterfront apartment in Battery Park City, the sports anchor Mike Greenberg bought a new condominium near Madison Square Park and the model Petra Nemcova sold her terraced unit in TriBeCa.
MS. MOORE’S SAN REMO PENTHOUSE was first listed in April 2015 for $75 million, with unit 1H, a two-bedroom two-bath lobby-level apartment, thrown in. With no takers, the price was slashed to $59 million last June, and the additional unit removed. Adam D. Modlin, founder of the Modlin Group, was the listing broker; Roger Erickson of Douglas Elliman Real Estate represented the unidentified buyer. The monthly maintenance is $19,322.
Ms. Moore and her former husband, the actor Bruce Willis, acquired the San Remo triplex in 1990; the purchase price was $7.73 million, according to the appraiser Jonathan J. Miller. The other unit was bought for $485,000 in 1992, he said. The penthouse underwent significant renovations. Bold new windows were installed in each of the 14 main rooms, and the interior was designed in a Southwestern mission motif with cherry wood. Some of the original architectural features remained, like the plaster rosette molding and bas reliefs in the ceiling of the library.
The best features perhaps are the spectacular views. Wraparound terraces provide 1,500 square feet of panoramic park, river and cityscape vistas from the 28th floor.
Ms. Moore declined to comment on the sale.
THE FIVE-STORY WILDENSTEIN MANSE on the Upper East Side, a block from Central Park, was sold to a limited liability company linked to Roy Liao, the chief executive of HNA Property Holdings, an affiliate of the Chinese conglomerate HNA Group. The previous record for a city townhouse was the Harkness Mansion, at 4 East 75th Street, which sold in 2006 for $53 million.
The 21,072-square-foot townhouse on East 64th Street had been home to the Wildenstein & Company art gallery since 1932, and at various times, family members had lived there. The building, designed by the architect Horace Trumbauer in the Beaux-Arts style, has 20-foot ceilings, along with a paneled elevator and sweeping staircase, according to an August 2016 listing with Cushman and Wakefield that carried a $100 million asking price.
It was not known what Mr. Liao or HNA planned to do with the property, which is actually zoned for commercial use. HNA did not respond to a request for comment. The Wildensteins’ broker, Carrie Chiang of the Corcoran Group, declined to discuss the deal, which appeared to have been done privately.
The closing was years in the making. In 2014, the nation of Qatar agreed to buy the house for $90 million. It later backed out of the deal and was sued by the Wildensteins in federal court; both sides reached an out-of-court settlement. The Ukrainian-born billionaire Leonard Blavatnik, the owner of Warner Music and an investor in the Broadway musical “Hamilton,” also wanted the house. Last year, he filed a state lawsuit, which was recently dismissed, accusing the Wildensteins of reneging on an agreement to sell the building.
MR. STONE’S NEW APARTMENT is at the Riverhouse, at 2 Riverside Terrace, where Tyra Banks and Leonardo DiCaprio own homes. Mr. Stone, a three-time Oscar winner, paid $4.35 million for 24D, a 1,982-square-foot apartment with three bedrooms, four baths and floor-to-ceiling windows that look out onto New York Harbor and the Statue of Liberty.
The residence bought by Mr. Greenberg, best known as a host of the ESPN “Mike and Mike” morning show, and his wife, Stacy, was at 212 Fifth Avenue, near 26th Street. The building, which faces Madison Square Park, is a conversion of a neo-Gothic office tower. The price for their apartment, a sponsor unit with three bedrooms and three and a half baths over 2,693 square feet, was $6.67 million.
Ms. Nemcova, who has graced the covers of numerous magazines, sold 8D, as well as a storage unit, at 200 Chambers Street for nearly $3 million. The 1,400-square-foot apartment has two bedrooms, two baths and an 837-square-foot terrace.
Copyright © 2017 The New York Times Company. Reprinted with Permission. The New York Times.