By Tom McGeveran and Deborah Netburn

November 18, 2001 | 7:00 p.m

he estate of murdered financier Ted Ammon

has removed at least one legal obstacle in the sale of his co-op apartment at 1125 Fifth Avenue, at 94th Street. According to an attorney for Ammon, Joseph Di Salvo of McCarter & English, the financier's $8.5 million lawsuit against the building has been dropped. Another source involved with the co-op said the apartment would be back on the market soon for the amount of the suit. Almost a month before Ammon was found beaten to death in the bedroom of his weekend home in East Hampton on Oct. 22, he had filed suit against 1125 Fifth Avenue for what he said was the co-op board's failure to review a purchaser for his 10th-floor apartment in a timely manner. In fact, on the day of his death, responses were due in New York County Supreme Court from Ammon's neighbors at 1125 Fifth Avenue, including actor Kevin Kline and Phyllis Louis-Dreyfus, mother of actor Julia; principals of the Insignia Residential Group, which manages 1125 Fifth; and Elizabeth Hobbs, the director of the co-op's board. A broker familiar with the failed deal said that a wealthy businessman who had signed a contract to buy Ammon's apartment for $8.5 million in July pulled out when the board took too long to review his application. "Apparently they couldn't be bothered to meet over the summer," the broker said of the board. According to several real-estate lawyers, clauses allowing for a buyer to pull out and keep his deposit if the deal takes too long to close are common, though not commonly invoked. Another broker said the board has been unwilling to consider applications from subsequent buyers while the suit was pending. According to Mr. Di Salvo, the suit was discontinued at the behest of Ammon's estate. The apartment is certainly worth some wrangling. Aside from the address' star power, there are the apartments themselves-full-floor residences with prewar detailing overlooking Central Park. Ammon's 5,500-square-foot apartment, perched high above all that on the 10th floor, has four exposures, four bedrooms, four and a half bathrooms, a den, an eat-in kitchen and a formal dining room. But it had taken eight months for Ammon to find a buyer. Originally marketed at $12 million in October of last year, his apartment went into contract for $9.85 million, until that deal fell through. Put back on the market Feb. 7 for $10.75 million, the last buyer signed a contract on the place for about $8.5 million in July. When he pulled out, the apartment was put on the market one last time at $8.9 million, and it was taken off the market 11 days after Ammon's death. However, Jed Garfield, who'd been representing Ammon and is still representing his apartment, has been showing it privately to interested parties all along. Brokers said Mr. Garfield is quoting a tentative new asking price of $8.5 million-the value of the suit, and the price at which the last buyer signed on. Sources said the estate, which has other legal issues to tackle, is anxious to liquidate the co-op. And even if the private viewings don't produce a potential buyer, the underbidder back in July is still hanging on, according to his broker, and ready to make an offer when the place comes back on the market. Further Lane Estate To Get $23 Million Investor Bernard Mardenhas signed a deal to sell his 11-acre oceanfront property at 252 Further Lane in East Hampton for about $23 million to a Wall Streeter, according to East End brokers. The property has been on and off the market for several years. In May 1999, Jerry Seinfeld toured the place, then priced at a mere $17 million. But the comedian's broker told reporters that he decided it was too "big, postmodern and Palm Beachy." In fact, Mr. Marden, who owns a multimillion-dollar home in Palm Beach, made headlines in Florida newspapers when he bought a 17,870-square-foot house there for $16.5 million in 1997. At the time, it was the most expensive deal that Palm Beach had ever seen. The house is on a 3.4-acre estate and has 292 feet of oceanfront. Rod Stewart and Ron Perelman have homes nearby. Mr. Marden, who has owned the East Hampton house for about 15 years, has famous neighbors there as well: art patron Adelaide de Menil, Bruce Wasserstein and … Jerry Seinfeld, who eventually wound up paying $32 million for a place right down the road. The house is 12,000 square feet and has a tennis court, a swimming pool and a putting green. John Golden of Sotheby's Realty is the broker on the deal.  upper east side 90 East End Avenue Three-bed, four-and-a-half-bath, 3,551-square-foot condo. Asking: $3.825 million. Selling: $3.75 million. Charges: $2,515. Taxes: $1,622. Time on the market: 20 weeks. RING AROUND THE PARK A couple from Caracas had a lot of trouble figuring out what it was they wanted to buy in New York City. "First they wanted only Upper West Side," said their broker, Karen Bressler of Insignia Douglas Elliman. Then the Upper West Side was too active for them. "At first they were drawn to the activity, but then they decided they didn't want to live around it," she said. Next, they wanted to be in a Fifth or Park Avenue co-op. "They decided they wanted a view of the park, but at that time those apartments were seven and eight million dollars," said Ms. Bressler. She showed them this three-bedroom apartment with oversize windows and river views on a lark, and although they liked it, they had, by that time, decided they wanted downtown lofts. So Ms. Bressler started showing them lofts in Soho. The couple was about to make an offer on a loft they liked down there when they changed their minds and decided to go back to this apartment. "It was really the best fit for them," said Ms. Bressler. "It is a loft-like apartment, but it is in a residential neighborhood, and it feels like a home."  midtown 120 Central Park South One-bed, one-bath, 850-square-foot co-op. Asking: $395,000. Selling: $380,000. Charges: $904; 42 percent tax-deductible. Time on the market: one year. YOU'RE GETTING WARMER In 1998, a young guy bought this one-bedroom apartment in the rear of the building for $245,000. When he decided to move on to bigger and better things last year, he figured he would make out. Central Park South was getting hotter, right? Well … maybe not hot enough. The guy tried to sell the place for $550,000, which even his brokers, Jesse Temple and George Nicholson of Gumley, Haft, Kleier, considered too steep a price. (The apartment looked out over a pretty courtyard, but that isn't too impressive when you consider that the people across the hall are looking out over Central Park). Finally the seller agreed to lower the price to $395,000, and Mr. Nicholson brought in a young woman who decided to take it. "The sale is still a record for the building," said Mr. Temple.  west village 136 West 13th Street One-bed, one-bath, 550-square-foot co-op. Asking: $349,000. Selling: $343,000. Charges: $752; 50 percent tax-deductible. Time on the market: three days. THE WEST VILLAGE IS FOR MODELS This apartment, on a tree-lined block between Sixth and Seventh avenues, has almost everything: quaint views looking out on a former church, high ceilings, wood-paneled closets, a renovated kitchen and a working fireplace. The only thing missing is … well … space. At only 550 square feet, "it's a very nice petite apartment," said listing broker Nicolas Bustamante of Bellmarc Realty Downtown, "a nice beginner's apartment." Regardless of the lack of space, the sellers-who'd realized there was nowhere to put the baby they had on the way-hardly needed a broker to sell the place. An acquaintance of theirs manages a model who was looking for an apartment. He put her in touch with Mr. Bustamante, and she signed a contract almost immediately. But even though the model was psyched to buy the place, Mr. Bustamante said she's already talking about buying the place next-door. upper East side sister townhouses get all gussied up A pair of rare adjacent Queen Anne–style townhouses on Park Avenue, both currently undergoing massive renovation, are getting very different treatments inside from their new owners, while both façades are receiving immaculate restorations. Nos. 709 and 711 are rare enough for being townhouses on Park Avenue, a street lined with large limestone-and-brick apartment houses. Built between 1882 and 1885 and designed by Bassett Jones, the two buildings, between 69th and 70th streets, are characterized by their ornate masonry moldings, detail work in the buildings' gables, and a series of setbacks and bay windows that variegate the frontal façades, with their brownstone bases and red-brick upper stories. Until May 2000, they were owned by Robert Tobin, the Texas-based art collector and benefactor who stayed in 711 when he was in town and rented out apartments in 709. That month, 711 Park Avenue was bought by renowned Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava for $7.2 million. Just two months later, real-estate broker and developer Alf Naman of the eponymous brokerage firm spent $2.8 million on 709 Park. On the outside, the brownstone-and-brick façade of 711 Park, loaded with cornices and masonry details, appears untouched and in good condition-and it will stay that way, according to documents filed with the Landmarks Commission. But the rear façade of the five-story building is another story. Mr. Calatrava, an ultra-modern architect as well known for his discourses on foldable furniture as for the stunning footbridge he built a stone's throw from the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, Spain, is adding significant square-footage to his new home. Mr. Calatrava's plans call for extending the basement and first floor of the structure to the back of the lot, and decking the roof of the first level, outside the parlor floor of the building, effectively raising the backyard one story up. He is also adding a sixth story to the building, which will have a skylight and a rear deck, but will be invisible from the street. He's enlarging all of the rear windows and adding a glass-enclosed room to the third floor where there has been just a roof. At 709 Park, city documents show that Mr. Naman is doing extensive restoration work on the façade and has contracted Edson USA-a contractor whose motto reads "Good as new is easy. Good as old takes talent"-for the job. The entire street level of the façade with its brownstone cladding is going to be stripped down to the brick and reclad to better match its next-door neighbor. A contractor on the site described the aesthetic of the building's interior renovations as "very traditional." Mr. Naman intends to maintain the eight-apartment use of his building, but sources said that Mr. Calatrava is renovating his all for himself.