By Mark Moffa
A four-level condominium at New York City’s 220 Central Park South reportedly is poised to sell for around $250 million. The deal would be the most expensive ever in the United States, and worldwide would be second only to the sale last year of Château Louis XIV in France for $301 million.
Anthony Noto, writing for the New York Business Journal, mentions in a recent column that the 23,000-square-foot unit is “currently under contract.” Noto’s report was confirmed yesterday by Joyce Rey, the executive director of Coldwell Banker Previews International, in her emailed newsletter. “I’ve just returned from the Coldwell Banker / Corcoran Real Estate Summit for the top agents in the country and I’m very happy to be bringing you some very positive news!” Rey reports. “The biggest news from the summit is the pending escrow of a penthouse at 220 Central Park South. At $250 million — achieved without any marketing efforts — this will be the highest sale in U.S. history.”
According to The Real Deal, “the new quadplex is a combination of an 11,000-square-foot duplex on the 50th and 51st floors that was asking $150 million, plus three other smaller (but by no means small) apartments. Units 52A, 52B and 53B were each asking between $26.3 million and $43 million.” The $250 million manse, therefore, it is not actually the penthouse, as the building (which is still under construction) is slated to rise close to 70 floors.
Conflicting reports surfaced last year of pending deals to buy the $250 million condo, one involving a hedge fund founder, the other a Qatari mogul. It is not clear whether these newer reports of a pending deal reflect the deal allegedly struck last year, or a new one. Regardless, the new mention from Rey, a respected industry titan, lends credibility and suggests validity.
The current record for the most expensive residential sale in the U.S. is believed to be held by an 18-acre estate in East Hampton, N.Y., which sold for $147 million in 2014.
220 Central Park South is designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects. It is one of at least eight new condominium towers planned, under construction or completed on or around 57th Street between 8th and Lexington avenues, near the southern end of Central Park in Midtown Manhattan. The stretch has become known as Billionaires’ Row, although recent reports of a slowdown in ultra-high-end sales in the city have many second-guessing whether the moniker was given prematurely.
“Billionaires’ Row is really just shorthand for a real estate phenomenon, one that now looks like it may be short-lived,” The Real Deal recently reported. Yet, it notes, 220 Central Park South seems to have bucked the trend. “While other super luxury towers which aren’t close to completion have struggled to sell units, in early 2015 the developer, Vornado Realty Trust, announced that half the building’s 150 units were in contract.”
Photo courtesy Skylinerider, Wikimedia Commons.
