Salvation! 834 Fifth Co-op May Nab Close to $30 M.

If the fall of high-end Manhattan real estate has had a soundtrack, it hasn’t been the slapstick screech of gears grinding to a halt, just the hubbub of expensively dressed brokers fretting over how long this frosty flatness will last, how far we’ll have fallen from those old bubbly peaks, and when there will finally be a comfortingly tectonic deal again.

Take heart. According to a source, the 13-room, two-bedroom, four-fireplace co-op on the 13th-floor of 834 Fifth Avenue has found a buyer to pay close to its $30 million asking price, even though the apartment was officially listed less than a month ago.

The place belongs to the estate of Araxia M. Buckhantz, who died late last year at age 101. Her cousin was the legendary playboy and oil kingpin Nubar Gulbenkian (pictured), the man Time wonderfully called a Mephistophelean Santa. Her apartment has “a lovely 18th-century George II pine paneled library” according to its listing, but also “paneling from the George III period” in the living room.

When the deal closes, it will be more soothing than the recent news that former Merrill Lynch executive Peter Kraus and hedge fund manager John A. Griffin both paid more than $30 million for co-ops, because both those deals had been cooking for months.

It’s not clear who the potential buyer is. Brown Harris Stevens listing broker Ann Jeffery would not comment, and a relative of Buckhantz told
The Observer, “I’m not talking to you.”

mabelson@observer.com