Why A $33 M. Park Avenue Townhouse Is Like A $5,000 Madison Avenue Dress
In my Manhattan Tranfers item today on gold watch guru Benny Shabtai’s townhouse at 870 Park Avenue, I tried to figure out why someone who couldn’t sell his house in 2006 for $19.9 million would try selling it now for $33 million.
The Brown Harris managing director John Burger, who isn’t involved with the listing, gave me this explanation for why Upper East Side buyers might actually like the $13.1 million difference: “A $5,000 dress in a window on Madison Avenue is much more interesting to a woman than a $1,000 dress,” he said. “It’s true.”
(There are some other things to consider too, like the fact that the house was designed by Robert A.M. Stern, whose stock is inanely high now thanks to his drooled-over building 15 Central Park West.)
As for Mr. Burger’s theory about ladies’ fashion and real estate, he said that 1920's co-op architects like Rosario Candela are the vintage couture, and designers like Robert A.M. Stern are the modern. Yet, oddly, in an interview late last year, Mr. Stern told me that Candela isn’t all he’s cracked up to be. “I think he was not the most brilliant designer of the builders,” he said. “I sometimes think he is falsely credited with the exterior expression of the buildings, which he often worked with other architects in collaboration.”
42 Jane Street
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It seems improbable that this house could fetch the current listing price, in light of the spiraling downward economy.
Surely the Manhattan saliva glands are drooling a little less now. Cashing out a Bear Stearns' stock portfolio would have most peoples' tear ducts flowing like a river. Forget the saliva glands.
From my observation, an ostentatious display of wealth may have a down side in the future, especially when so many families are hurting financially. Who knows?
Today, I do think super rich folks have to be somewhat sensitive to other peoples' financial pain. It looks like there's going to be a lot of financial pain in the future. Many of us have been lulled into the good life, and that false sense of security may be history.
A house is not is car, but owning a big Hummer today is not in one's best interest. Personally, I would not own a Hummer under any circumstances. It may have been cool to own a Hummer five-years ago, but it's certainly not cool to own a Hummer today. I have witnessed one Hummer owner being greeted by "the bird" while filling his vehicle with gas.
Well I don't know what Hummers have to do with the article.
Robert Stern means nothing. It's a mania just like Cabbage Patch Kids were in 1983, or Tickle Me Elmo was in 1996.
I'd like to see the idiot who buys this property at 33 million try to turn around and sell it for that much. It won't be worth that much until the next century.
Since Robert Stern designed the house, the stratospheric price is directly linked and connected to the legendary architect. If not for that fact, the house might not command such a lofty price. That's my interpretation of the article.
Hummer's are mentioned in the context of ostentatious displays of wealth. I think a $33,000,000 house is an ostentatious display of wealth.