$37 M. and Still a Hike to the Bathroom

When The Observer reported last week that a 15 Central Park West penthouse had sold for $37 million, one of the biggest New York apartment deals ever, there were reasons to be genuinely gobsmacked. For one thing, there had been no sign that such a gigantic deal was brewing in the building, let alone anywhere in the city. And even if the seller didn’t get anywhere near his original $80 million tag, he’d paid only $21.5 million, which meant a staggering profit in a hugely dour year.

But what’s really shocking is that the apartment itself isn’t entirely stupefying.

For one thing, the floor plan shows that there’s not an oven or a dishwasher in sight. “It didn’t have a kitchen,” explained a broker who saw the apartment when it was first listed. And even if the master bedroom is bigger than this writer’s entire apartment, it’s not only petite for a big-money penthouse, but you have to walk down a hallway to get to the master bathroom. The humanity!

And remember that its anonymous buyer just spent $37 million on 5,276 square feet. A Russian oil oligarch, meanwhile, recently spent only $500,000 more on an 8,300-square-foot Time Warner Center penthouse. It has a kitchen. - Max Abelson