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The New York Times

A 16-Room Penthouse at the Pierre Sells for $44 Million

By: Vivian Marino
Published: 9/1/2017Source: The New York Times

Featuring Robby Browne and Chris Kann's sale at 45 East 89th Street, Carnegie Hill and Meris Blumstein, Kenny Blumstein and Sydney Blumstein's sale at 48 West 10th Street, Greenwich Village:

 

One of the city’s most expensive apartment listings — a rambling triplex perched atop the venerable Pierre Hotel overlooking Central Park — has finally sold after more than four years on and off the market.

But last month’s closing price was nowhere near the $125 million initially sought.

This 16-room penthouse co-op, which occupies the 41st, 42nd and 43rd floors of the Pierre, built in 1929 at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 61st Street, sold at a discounted $44 million. It was still, however, the most expensive transaction in August, according to city property records.

There were other big apartment sales last month, too, though at newer buildings.

A condominium on the 81st floor of 432 Park Avenue, the tallest residential tower in the Western Hemisphere, between 56th and 57th Streets, sold for $37.75 million; and a penthouse at the Jenga-like glass skyscraper 56 Leonard in TriBeCa sold for $26.5 million. Both purchases were of four-bedroom sponsor units and made through limited liability companies.

In other noteworthy transactions, the “NBC Nightly News” anchor Lester Holt sold his Fifth Avenue condo near Madison Square Park, while Geraldo Rivera, a correspondent at Fox News, sold an apartment near Central Park.

Danny Bennett, a son of the singer Tony Bennett and his longtime manager, sold a townhouse in Greenwich Village. Nick Kenner, the founder of the Just Salad restaurant chain, bought a townhouse, in Carnegie Hill, where the family of F. A. O. Schwarz once resided.

THE PENTHOUSE AT THE PIERRE has five bedrooms and seven baths, along with an enormous living room that once served as the original hotel ballroom. A grand staircase and a private elevator connect its three high-ceilinged levels. On the 42nd floor are four corner terraces that provide stunning panoramic views of the park, the Hudson and East Rivers and beyond.

The celebrated financier and author Martin Zweig, who predicted the 1987 stock market crash just days before it happened, had purchased the apartment in 1999 for the then-record-setting price of $21.5 million. He and his wife, Barbara Digan Zweig, filled the space with opulent furnishings and pop-culture memorabilia, including the guitars of major rock musicians, like Jimi Hendrix and Bruce Springsteen, and the team jerseys of sports icons like Michael Jordan and Wayne Gretzky.

Shortly after Mr. Zweig’s death, in February 2013, Ms. Zweig downsized to a smaller, $12 million unit on the 24th floor of the Pierre and put the penthouse up for sale for $125 million. With no takers, the sky-high price tag was lowered several times. In 2015, with the list price at $63 million, the property was removed from the market for six months and the apartment underwent a makeover. The most recent asking price was $57 million.

Mary Rutherfurd and Leslie Coleman of Brown Harris Stevens were the listing brokers. The monthly maintenance is $51,840, according to StreetEasy.com.

Not much is known about the buyer, whose identity was shielded under the limited liability company 795 Properties. Like all purchases in the building, it was all cash. The Pierre, which was once owned by J. Paul Getty, who bought it in 1938 and converted the non-hotel part of the building to a co-op in 1959, does not permit financing.

MR. HOLT’S APARTMENT, No. 2L at the limestone-and-brick 225 Fifth Avenue, also known as the Grand Madison building, sold for $6.4 million.

The 2,168-square-foot unit, between 26th and 27th Streets, has three bedrooms and two and a half baths, along with a spacious living-dining area and open kitchen that offers views of Madison Square Park, according to the listing with Town Residential. All of the bedrooms open to a 48-foot-long terrace. The buyer was listed as the Turhan Trust.

Mr. Rivera and his wife, Erica Rivera, received $6.1 million on the sale of their four-bedroom three-bath apartment on the 40th floor of 45 East 89th Street at Madison Avenue.

The unit, No. 40EFG, has stellar views from its oversize windows that include Central Park and the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir, according to the listing with the Corcoran Group. The buyer was Bruce Taragin.

THE TOWNHOUSE SOLD BY MR. BENNETT was at 48 West 10th Street, near the Avenue of the Americas. The sale price was $10.5 million; the buyer made the purchase through an LLC.

The Federal-style brick house with a mansard roof has 4,479 square feet of space over five levels and is about 22 feet wide. It includes five bedrooms and three full and two half baths, along with a large office space at the garden level. There are also three spacious terraces — one off the dining room and kitchen and two others off bedrooms — as well as a 22-by-29-foot rear garden, according to the Corcoran listing.

Mr. Kenner of Just Salads and his wife, Ashley Stark Kenner, paid $8.9 million for their townhouse at 8 East 93rd Street.

The house, which is close to Fifth Avenue and the Central Park reservoir, is around 19 feet wide and five levels high, with 5,700 square feet of interior space, according to the listing with the Leslie J. Garfield brokerage. It contains nine bedrooms, four full baths and one powder room. There is also a 19-by-39-foot rear garden and small terrace off a fourth-floor bedroom.

The seller was listed as the estate of Henry H. Cooper Jr.

 

Copyright © 2017 The New York Times Company. Reprinted with Permission. Jane Beiles/The New York Times.

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