Can Ritz-Carlton Condo Go From $28.5 M. to $35 M. in Four Months?

Leighton Candler, the Corcoran mega-broker who has the listing for Brooke Astor's Park Avenue co-op, just listed a full floor, nine-room, three-bedroom, 5,894-square-foot apartment at the Ritz-Carlton on Central Park South for $35 million. It's an ambitious listing for three reasons, but mostly because it's hard to sell anything expensive nowadays (especially if there are $8,770 monthly maintenance fees and $8,770 monthly taxes.)

Then there's the fact that the Ritz-Carlton doesn't have the social cache of 778 Park Avenue (Astor's building) or 1040 Fifth (where Ms. Candler is listing the penthouse for $46.5 million).

But consider that the apartment was bought only three years ago by one of the building's developers, Christopher M. Jeffries, who paid $16 million. But he sold his terraced condo on July 31 for $28.5 million; no mortgages show up in city records, so it's likely the anonymous buyer paid in cash.

Three months and two weeks later, that buyer wants to sell for $6.5 million more.