15 Central Park West

And then there was one.

What's a cash-flush corporate titan to do now? Penthouse 42, the second-to-last penthouse currently for sale at 15 Central Park West, has sold for $26.625 million, city records show, to a buyer listed as Martima Holdings LLC. As was the case with the last three penthouse sales we've reported on, the buyer of the final trophy unit in the Robert A.M. Stern-designed building is unknown.

That's the third trophy apartment in the trophiest of new Manhattan buildings to sell in a little more than two weeks.

Yesterday, a deed for a penthouse unit one floor below appeared on city records.  read more »

Another 15 Central Park West penthouse gone, leaving just two to go. A buyer dubbed on city records as Jnolva LLC has paid $10.7 million for penthouse 41B. Penthouse 42 has not been snapped up yet, and a few floors below, another penthouse on the 40th-floor has been on the market for a reported $80 million since early July, $58.5 million more than a buyer listed as Prominence Corp. paid for the four-bedroom condo about three months ago.

On July 22, an unknown buyer listed as 15 Central Park West Real Estate Holdings LLC paid $21.5 million for a 43rd-floor penthouse. LLCs have bought five of the six penthouse units sold in the building so far, but in the two most recent sales the identity of the new occupant has been hidden beneath layers of lawyers.  read more »

Fewer $1 million Manhattan apartments traded in the first half of 2008 than in the first half of 2007. Though the difference wasn’t titanic, it signals another hurrah for a housing market in full adjectival decline.

The total number of closings on $1 million-plus apartments fell from 3,569 in the first half of 2007 to 3,347 during the first half of this year, a 6.22 percent drop. Still, almost one out of every two Manhattan apartments sold in the first half of 2008 traded for at least $1 million. The numbers are based on analysis by research firm StreetEasy.

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We wonder if the staff of 15 Central Park West knows that New York City's swankiest new building will eventually have retail tenants like Best Buy and West Elm. Based on their reaction to a Starbucks cardboard coffee cup, we presume they may be in for a surprise.

Vanity Fair penetrated 15 Central Park West's limestone facade for its September issue, and architecture critic Paul Goldberger had no shortage of praise for the Robert A.M. Stern-designed building--"The striking thing was the extent to which the building attracted New Yorkers who were ready for a change and didn’t want to live in a tower of glass"--and for its developers.  read more »

The Time Warner Center often rightfully gets credit for sparking Columbus Circle’s renaissance and laying the groundwork for at least eight new condo developments in a five-block radius since it opened in 2003. So you can’t help but wonder if developer Related Companies ever gets peeved when the buildings it paved the way for come in and steal its thunder—that means you, 15 Central Park West!

The Zeckendorf-developed, Stern-designed condo appears to have done just that: Sportscaster Bob Costas and wife Jill Sutton have sold their 61st-floor Time Warner condo (and a storage unit) for $8.  read more »

The Plaza and 15 Central Park West better watch out, because a new ultra-luxe condo is coming to town and its developers are already claiming they will have the edge with an emergent, but increasingly lucrative, segment of the residential market: the Russians.

Earlier this week, Lev Leviev's Africa Israel Investments announced that it had contracted Versace to spearhead the interior redesign of the Clock Tower Building and convert the former MetLife headquarters at 5 Madison Avenue into a 55-unit condo.

Versace, of course, ranks high on the list of residential amenities, but we couldn’t help but feel a brief pang of déjà vu.  read more »

Even though the most expensive single residential deal ever documented in New York City is still a $53 million townhouse sale (though that’s unofficially been beaten by combined-unit spreads at the Plaza), and even though Manhattan real estate is slouching toward dreariness, the biggest real estate story of the summer has been potential $100 million sales at 15 Central Park West, where buyers who closed on their new condos just this year are putting the places back on the market at massive markups.

But most brokers, even the ones who are listing the biggest units in the just-finished mega-condo, say nine-digit apartments are a fantasy.  read more »

Another one of the most coveted trophy apartments in Manhattan has sold, leaving only three more penthouse units at 15 Central Park West up for grabs--one of which is on the market for nearly three times the price it sold for two months earlier.

A 43rd-floor penthouse has sold for $21.5 million to a buyer listed as 15 CPW Real Estate Holdings LLC, city records show. LLCs have bought five of the six penthouse units sold in the building so far, but in this case the true identity of the new occupant, hidden beneath layers of lawyers, is anyone's guess.

Whoever the mysterious titan is, neighbors will include Sandy and Joan Weil, who paid $42.  read more »

You'd think that the buyers of $100 million apartments in the stat-warping 15 Central Park West would want something a tad more highbrow--say, a Prada or a Harry Winston--occupying their ground-floor retail espace. Instead, the gilded tenants at the A.M. Stern-designed tower will have a Best Buy, a West Elm, and a JP Morgan Chase Bank.

William Lie and Arthur Zeckendorf, the developers of the building, made the official announcement today, though it was first reported in the New York Post on July 8. According to the release:

In an industry presently experiencing substantial turmoil, the JPMorgan Chase Bank lease represents the largest retail bank branch lease in Manhattan in 2008.  read more »

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Remember that rumored $90 million listing at 15 Central Park West? It was nothing.

Dolly Lenz, New York City's most gargantuan real estate agent, broke astounding news at Portfolio's Four Seasons get-together this morning: "There are a few apartments on the market at 15 CPW, a new development on Central Park West, asking somewhere between $80 and $125 million--three different apartments--and one quietly on the market at $150 million," she said.

Wowzah. Brokers have already made it known that two condos in the Robert A.M. Stern-designed blockbuster building are being offered at $80 and $90 million, so Ms. Lenz's quote not only means that there's a third apartment on the market in the building for somewhere between $80 and $125 million, but that there's a fourth spread whose owner wants $150 million.  read more »

These days we barely bat an eyelash when a Russian oligarch buys a trophy apartment in the Plaza or 15 Central Park West, but it's rare to encounter an expat whose personal fortune comes from anesthesiology.

A New Jersey-based pain management specialist, Dr. Anna Sokolova, has paid $5.8 million for a 30th-floor condo in the star-studded Upper West Side building, city records show.

Dr. Sokolova appears to have a penchant for high-profile properties on Central Park West. She also owns a $3.2 million, 2,206-square-foot apartment on the top floor of the literally palatial condo building in a former psychiatric hospital at 455 Central Park West in Morningside Heights; and a year ago Hollywood producers Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy bought a $2.  read more »

In what surely must be yet another brutal blow to the self esteem of Philadelphia, that cute Pennsylvania city that pretends to rival New York, its biggest sports mogul, Ed Snider, has paid $7,340,000 for a high-floor apartment at Robert A.M. Stern's 15 Central Park West.

The deal has been a long time coming. According to a deed filed in city records this morning, Mr. Snider signed his contract back in December 2005, and didn't close until April.  read more »

Trophy real estate has become a de-facto rite of initiation into India's ever-growing billionaires club, so it’s only natural that a relatively new entrant, Saurabh Mittal, would buy a condo in one of New York's marquis buildings.

The founder of one of India's fastest-growing companies, Indiabulls Financial Services, has paid $4.6 million for a 16th-floor condo at 15 Central Park West through the Kalawati LLC, city records show.  read more »

Even if the prospect of a $100 million apartment sale in Manhattan isn't wildly far-fetched, there are some good reasons to be skeptical about all the news lately on venture capitalist's Lindsay Rosenwald's 15 Central Park West spread.

On Sunday, The Times wrote that Dr. Rosenwald's 5,870-square-foot duplex in the condo, which he bought for $30 million in April, has gotten "five or six calls from brokers, offering as much as $100 million for his apartment." But the source for that information is the owner himself, and the only other tidbit to back up his numbers is a story exchanged between brokers in which Dr. Rosenwald "was said to have been offered $85 million." We don't hear who those brokers are.

On the one hand, anything is possible—remember the Bronfman brothers' extraordinary flips last year—but, still, Dr. Rosenwald comes across as a man who wants to stir up excitement (and a lot of money) for his apartment. Even though he said he was happy in the building, consider that his only direct quote in the piece is, "The only thing in my life that is not for sale is my wife and my kids.”

So it makes sense that there’s news this morning that a Brown Harris Stevens broker, Janet Gifford, just sent out a memo saying that the place is coming on the market: “As of now, we are asking $90 million.”  read more »

Florida developer Gerardo Capo has paid $3.5 million for a 12th-floor condo at 15 Central Park West, city records show, moving about as far from Miami's bottomless housing market as one can get--metaphorically speaking.

The chairman of the Capo Group lives in one of his own luxury condos in Miami Beach, just 48 miles east of one the biggest and most controversial projects in his portfolio, the $850 million Bimini Bay Resort and Casino in the Bahamas. On second thought, maybe he was trying to put a little distance between himself and the Capo Group's adversaries living on the 9.5 million-square-mile island.  read more »

At least a dozen people at 15 Central Park West have thrown out an extra $800,000 or so for a pied a terre for the help to complement their own palatial condos. Penthouse owner Sanford Weil even paid $950,000 for a second unit that we can only assume is a closet since it is not denoted by the S-prefix--supposedly the S stands for "suite," but we can't help but notice that it's also the first letter of the word staff.  read more »

When Joseph Betesh opened an Army-Navy store in the South Bronx in 1975 he probably never imagined he would become a full-fledged hip-hop clothing mogul with 19 branches of his Dr. Jay's store spread across the five boroughs. Now the Sephardic Jewish retailer who made a fortune selling "urban apparel" to 18- to 30- year-olds is moving about as far away from his retail roots as possible.

Mr. Betesh has paid $5.6 million for a 28th-floor condo at 15 Central Park West, city records show.  read more »

Compared to some of the other blue-chip investment banks in the city, Deutsche Bank was not well represented at 15 Central Park West. The lone Deutsche banker with a condo in the tower has been flying solo in a sea of Goldman and Lehman residents since he closed on a $9.9 million unit in February.

It seems he's finally gotten a buddy. Deutsche's Head of Trading for Emerging Market Debt, Kay Haigh, paid $5.3 million for a 24th-floor unit, city records show.  read more »

The first and only woman to gain entry into the 15-member boys club that is the Lehman Brothers’ executive board has now penetrated one of the city’s most exclusive buildings. Erin M. Callan, the recently appointed Lehman CFO, paid $6.5 million for a 31st-floor condo at 15 Central Park West, city records show.  read more »

It's a good year to be a top-notch, shiny-shoe, uptown real estate broker. Less than a year after Sandy Weill finally closed on his $42.4 million penthouse at 15 Central Park West, his agent on the deal has gotten a condo of his own in the multi-billion dollar building.  read more »

American retailers, as a whole, have seen much brighter days. But apparently some in the industry are faring better than others.

The president of New England department store chain Kids Town, Joseph Sutton, has purchased a $2.6 million pad on the 14th floor at 15 Central Park West, city records show, backed by a $1.8 million mortgage.

15 Central Park West has no shortage of accomplished residents. Pick a field and its leader might just have a condo in the building. There are dozens of Wall Street investors who’ve made (and in a few cases) lost billions of dollars, a Nascar star, a pharmaceutical executive, and even English teacher-cum-rockstar Sting.

The latest buyer might be the most dazzling professional hyphenate yet—M.D./Hedge Fund Manager. Dr. Lindsay Rosenwald, a one-time internal physician who made a fortune investing in bio-technology start-ups took out a $22.5 million mortgage to buy a $30 million duplex condominium on the 18th floor, city records show.  read more »

Sting has closed on his condo at 15 Central Park West, city records show. The former English teacher signed the property deed for the $26.5 million, 16th-floor condo with his proper name, Gordon Sumner.

Sting signed the contract to buy the 5,500-square-foot, tower-side duplex with five bedrooms and a terrace nearly two years ago.  read more »

A mogul who made a fortune on portable, personal cooling devices paid $5.4 million for a 26th-floor condo at 15 Central Park West, city records show. Steven Bandawat bought the Arizona-based Misty Mate in 2004 and the company has since become the jewel in the crown of a portfolio that also includes Bromwell Housewares and Michiana Forge. Since then everyone from the U.S. military to the 1996 Summer Olympics have used the company's "misters."

South African gambling and hotel mogul Sol Kerzner has indulged his daughters’ penchant for expensive real estate over the years, gaining a reputation as quite the doting daddy. He bought his daughter Beverly a $10.5 million, 5,845-square-foot penthouse at Philip Johnson’s Urban Glass House two years ago. Just a year later, last September, The Observer's Max Abelson reported that the heiress paid $8.35 million for a colossal basketball court-turned-triplex at 213 West 23rd Street.  read more »

Laura Blankfein, the wife of Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, paid $701,000 for Suite 807 ("suite" being the euphemism for a staff apartment) at 15 Central Park West, city records show.

The Observer's Max Abelson reported that the Blankfeins closed on a 16th-floor duplex condo in the building back in January when the extent of the subprime mortgage crisis' impact on Wall Street was finally becoming clear. The couple signed the contract for the yet-to-be built apartment two days before Mr. Blankfein was promoted to CEO at Goldman in May 2006, at the height of the Manhattan real estate market.

Since then, the national market has tanked and New York's is stagnant. But while other Wall Street banking firms are writing down their balance sheets as quickly as they once did year-end bonus checks, Goldman Sachs, with Mr. Blankfein at the helm, has remained largely unscathed.  read more »

Gary Jortner, executive vice president of corporate affairs at Pfizer, has bought what we can only assume is a pied a terre at 15 Central Park West given its relatively modest price tag of $2.48 million, city records show. Mr. Jortner and his wife Cindy live in Rye, according to the property deed.

One of the most successful Big Pharma firms, Pfizer has been slagging lately. In January, it announced plans to cut 10,000 jobs and close five plants in the U.S.  read more »

Mikhail Segal, the director of Dynegy, the third-largest independent power production company in the U.S., has paid $12.95 million for a 38th-floor unit at 15 Central Park West, city records show. Last week we reported that Mr.  read more »

A pair of condos at 15 Central Park West have sold, city records show. A buyer listed as Jay Investments LLC paid $20.5 million for Unit 11A. A few minutes later, a $15.6 million condo sale popped up in city records.

The second deed lists a pair of LLC's, G-Ike Management and L-Stone Management, as the buyers of Unit 15C. Both of the companies are registered to the same North Carolina address as a senior vice president at Capital Research and Management, Greg Ireland, and wife Lori. The firm is the largest Yahoo shareholder according to Portfolio magazine, so perhaps Mr. Ireland bought the swanky new apartment in anticipation of Microsoft's possible purchase (or takeover) of Yahoo.

The same lawyer filed both deeds, but he was out of the office when we tried to verify the buyers' identities.

Back in January, we reported that the owner of the upscale travel agency Smart Flyer had bought a $4.86 million condo at 15 Central Park West. Less than two months later, Spanx CEO Sara Blakely and former rapper and Marquis Jet founder Jessie Itzler (a.k.a. 1991 one-hit-wonder Jesse Jaymes), have paid Mr. Holtz $8.5 million for the 14th-floor condo, city records show. After turning a nearly $4 million profit, Mr. Holtz must only be thinking "Spank!"

Mr.  read more »

Mikhail Segal, the director of Dynegy, the third largest independent power production company in the U.S., has bought a $1 million "suite" at 15 Central Park West, according to city records.

Mr. Segal worked at the Department of Energy in the former Soviet Union and went on to found LS Power Group in 1990. In 2006, LS Power Group's assets were acquired by Dynegy for $2 billion.

Tech mogul Omid Kordestani has bought a $30 million condo at 15 Central Park West today, according to city records. Mr. Kordestani is the senior vice president of Global Sales and Business Development at Google and was the 189th richest man in America in 2006, according to Forbes' annual survey.

An unknown buyer has paid $11.77 million for Unit 9B at 15 Central Park West, according to city records. The same buyer purchased a $720,000 "suite"--the euphemism for staff accomodations at the building--on Feb. 22. Though we couldn't confirm the identity of the buyer, one of the names listed on the deed was Queens College graduate Betty Lau, the CEO of technology firm Applied Info. Partners.

Drs. Evelyn and Amarga Segundo have bought a $3.4 million condo at 15 Central Park West, city records show. The couple live in Plandome in Nassau County, according to the deed; and have separate medical practices in Ozone Park and Jackson Heights in Queens. As far as we know they are the first practicing medical doctors to move into the Zeckendorf-developed building.

The former chairman and CEO of the pharmaceutical giant Merck, Roy P. Vagelos, has bought a $21 million condo at 15 Central Park West, city records today show.

At Merck until 1994, Mr. Vagelos was largely credited with shepherding the firm through its pre-Vioxx golden years. Since his departure, Merck has been rocked by a series of high-profile scandals, most notably its recall of its best-selling arthritis drug Vioxx after a study revealed it caused heart attacks.  read more »

A Madrid-based Internet company called the Aitana Corporation has paid $11.4 million for an 11th-floor condo at 15 Central Park West, according to city records. We're hunting for more details about the buyer.

Just one week after paying $11 million for a sixth-floor condo at 15 Central Park West, the founding partner of the Canyon Capital consulting firm, Josh Friedman, has closed on an $810,000 unit there as well, according to city records filed today. It's presumably one of the 29 maids' suites on the lower floors of the building, and he bought it through a family trust, records show.

Mr. Friedman used to work in mergers and acquisitions at Goldman Sachs so he will have plenty of former colleagues as new neighbors.  read more »

The manager of technology firm Accenture, George Logothetis, has paid $12.9 million for a condo at 15 Central Park West, according to city records. In December, Mr. Logothetis sold three condos on the 53rd floor of the Millenium Tower building just a few blocks away for $15.1 million.

Daniel Loeb, the hedge-fund manager known for his gloriously acidic put-downs ("We are a bunch of scrappy guys... who enjoy outwitting pompous asses, like yourself, in financial markets globally," he wrote a would-be employee in 2005), might be lightening up. According to real estate records filed on Friday, he's finally closed on his famous $45 million penthouse at 15 Central Park West--which he bought using a cute little limited liability corporation called Panoroma on the Park.  read more »

The head of commodities research at Deutsche Bank London, Michael Lewis, has bought a $10 million condo at 15 Central Park West, according to city records.

Political cartoonist Ranan Lurie and his Greenwich, Conn., power-broker wife Tamar have closed on an $11.45 million condo at 15 Central Park West, according to city records. Max Abelson broke the news of the sale on Jan. 8. Mr. Lurie back then told The Observer he looked foward to having one of the Google co-founders as his next-door neighbor.

“When you want to know how many people in Oshkosh, you poor people have to go open your computer and everything.  read more »

Another 15 Central Park West condo has sold for $8.75 million, according to city records. The deed lists the buyer of Unit 30D as LBI Capital LLC. We're hunting more info.

Rodney O. Martin, the chief operating officer of insurance behemoth AIG, has bought Unit 3B in 15 Central Park West for $8.1 million, according to a deed filed with the city.

Also, a deed shows that Anne M. White paid $13.1 million for Unit 32D in the new condo building.

So many Goldman Sachs bankers snapped up condos at 15 Central Park West in January that you would think they got coupons from the Zeckendorff brothers who developed it.

Goldman Sachs partner Donald C. Opatrny closed on an $11.8 million condo at 15 Central Park West, according to a city record filed Tuesday, making him the fifth Goldman banker to buy an apartment in the building in the past month.  read more »

Zachary Jared Schreiber and wife Lori bought Unit 33D at 15 Central Park West for over $11 million, according to city records filed today.

Mr. Schreiber donated $2,300 to Barak Obama's presidential campaign this year, and he was listed on the filing for that donation as a portfolio manager for Duquense Capital.  read more »