The Plaza | The New York Observer

Eloise Victories! Suit Won; Klum's Sire Finds Renter for $65K Sprawl

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 19:25:35 -0400

Of all the huge indignities suffered by deluxe pieces of Manhattan real estate this past year, not even Julian Schnabel’s fuchsia Palazzo Chupi has had more to put up with than the Plaza. There was the Russian oligarch who sued over his $53.5 million penthouse’s low ceilings and ugly drainage grates; the broker who said she got trapped overnight in a 14th-floor garbage room and “cut her fingers to shreds trying to claw her...

The Plaza's Dictatorial Spread

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 14:16:11 -0400

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Curtains on Eloise! Vavilov Exits Long, Strange Plaza Penthouse Trip

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 18:53:49 -0400

One of the genuinely great fracases in Manhattan real estate history has finally ended, but with a whimper. Andrei Vavilov, the Russian oligarch who sued the Plaza last year over a duplex penthouse and triplex penthouse he was supposed to buy there for $53.5 million, has finally left the building.

In January, he ended up buying the duplex as a compromise, then put it on the market immediately. According to a deed filed in city...

Second Time's a Charm? Plaza Relists State Suite for $39 M.

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:46:48 -0400

In June, The Observer warned that the Italian businessman Luigi Zunino had been desperately trying to come up with the money to close on his $45 million–or–so deal for the Plaza's gargantuan third-floor sprawl. A year earlier, there had been reports that Mr. Zunino was looking to sell his place for $100 million, but that was wishful thinking: Before he could sell, he would have to own it outright.

That hasn't happened.

A new listing on...

'08's Biggest Apartment Offerings: Where Are They Now?

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 11:19:38 -0400

Late last month, the $51 million duplex penthouse at Trump Park Avenue quietly came off the market, a year after the Elliman broker Victoria Shtainer listed the 6,200-square-foot sprawl, and seven years since Mr. Trump bought the building. "We haven't sold it," Ms. Shtainer said this week. "The timing was not good, so I didn't get any offers."

That's the story with New York's most outstandingly lush real estate. Of the 10 properties that...

Eloise Is Other People: Parents Sneer as Plaza Pushes Thousand-Dollar Slumber Parties Themed to Its Mini-Mascot

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 11:34:11 -0400

Last week, the Plaza announced a pair of special packages in honor of their most famous fictional resident: Kay Thompson’s Eloise.

The Live Like Eloise Slumber Party Package accommodates six guests and includes a suite, a copy of The Eloise Guide to Life, Eloise DVDs, Eloise postcards, Eloise snacks, rollaway beds, and a trophy party for elementary schoolers, or, the hotel hopes, a “girls night” for adult women. It starts at $3,595.

The regular Live Like...

A Businessman, a Berlusconi and a Recession Walk Into the Plaza … Zunino on Hook for $45 M. Sprawl

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 18:03:43 -0400

Amid all the snickering about the Plaza’s conversion into mega-haute condominiums, all the guessing about what will happen to its re-listed apartments (which, The Times said this weekend, are asking more than $250 million in all) and all the gasping about Russian billionaire Andrei Vavilov’s suit over his penthouse triplex, awfully little attention has been paid to a third-floor drama that may be the most lip-smacking of all.

There, according to two sources, the troubled...

Italian Designer Teresa Sapey's Plaza Condo Gets Fourth Price Cut

Thu, 14 May 2009 14:48:42 -0400

The Spain-based Italian architect Teresa Sapey has had more success suspending 100 paper lanterns over European streets than selling her Plaza condo. In July 2007, she spent $6.9 million on a five-room, two-bedroom, 2,339-square-foot apartment in the new hotel-condo, but by the end of the year, according to The Times, it was back on the market for $10 million.

The Wall Street Journal reported two months later that the price was coming down to $9.8...

Slim Manhattan: 99 Percent Luxury Free

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 00:34:12 -0400

During the giddy days of the housing boom, perhaps no single word quite defined Manhattan’s zooming sales market quite like “luxury.” Everyone was obsessed with it and wanted to buy it; most people paid for it, even if it wasn’t what they got. Those days are definitively over, with last week's first-quarter market reports unmistakably showing a screeching slowdown amid the top 10 percent of the sales market.

Real estate research site StreetEasy set the...

Eloise Redux: Second Big Plaza Penthouse Will Be Re-listed

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 18:57:20 -0500

A few months ago, two brokers in charge of selling the redone Plaza’s 181 private apartments were sitting happily by the condo’s new reflecting pool: The building’s 181st apartment, a 16th-floor one-bedroom suite, was about to go to contract.

But it was already widely known that oil oligarch Andrei Vavilov had sued over a massive deal for a three-level penthouse sprawl. Last month, after the suit was settled, The Observer reported that El-Ad,...

Handicapping ’09! Where Will the Very Next Mammoth Manhattan Sale Come From?

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 18:42:12 -0500

Until this week, when news broke that hedge fund manager John A. Griffin paid $32.25 million for a co-op at 1030 Fifth Avenue, New York’s 10 most expensive residential listings looked more or less doomed. The thinking went that none of the three townhouses and seven apartments, each asking (officially or quietly) over $45 million, could possibly sell during this frozen downturn.

Now that Mr. Griffin’s deal...

Plaza Gives It Away

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 10:23:35 -0500

Maybe it's the sudden media smackdown (but probably not). The Plaza is offering a free third night on select reservations. From the Wall Street Journal this morning:

For fans of "Home Alone 2," "Eloise" or just luxury accommodations, the Plaza hotel in New York is celebrating its first post-renovation holiday season by offering a complimentary third night when guests book three consecutive nights....

Another Penthouse Buyer Sues El-Ad

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 10:46:58 -0500

A penthouse buyer at The Grand Madison condo at 225 Fifth Avenue has sued El-Ad Properties for $6.4 million claiming fraud and a breach of contract, according to this morning's Wall Street Journal. It's the third lawsuit filed against El-Ad this year involving sales of apartments built on the roofs of existing buildings off Fifth Avenue; the other two involved condos at The Plaza.

In early September, The Observer revealed a Plaza lawsuit by Russian...

What a Difference 15 CPW Makes!

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 15:57:27 -0500

Last week, we gave you (via PropertyShark's crackerjack research) the Manhattan zip codes with the most $5 million-and-up housing deals in 2008. That list, however, deliberately did not include The Plaza, 15 Central Park West and Time Warner Center.

The above does, and there's a big difference between the two lists: Gone is the dominance of the Upper East Side.

Upper East Side zips claimed four of the top five spots on last week's list....

Finicky New Yorkers May Not Warm to an Underground Mall, Even If It's at the Plaza

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 14:38:11 -0400

Wednesday evening, at the launch of the Plaza's brand new, high-end underground shopping pavilion, Anthony Nicola was putting on a brave face. Mr. Nicola is the general manager of the Plaza's retail operation, and with the Dow having taken another big hit Wednesday and the whole city consumed by financial jitters, the timing seemed a bit inauspicious for a "strictly luxury" mall where one can purchase a $500 Vacca shirt.

Mr. Nicola...

Defending Eloise

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 19:04:08 -0400

The Plaza has gotten a bad rap. Uptown types like snickering about those nouveau Russians who bought its redesigned condos; Andrei Vavilov, the ex-Yeltsin finance minister who’s unhappy with his Plaza triplex penthouse, has done a grand job of getting publicity for his lawsuit against developer El-Ad Properties; the building has been overshadowed by its primmer, New Yorker-profiled rival, 15 Central Park West. It doesn’t help that Jimmy Cayne, loathed chairman of Bear Stearns,...

Plaza Condo Listed for $55 M.

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 11:14:33 -0400

Jurgen Friedrich, the founder of retailer Esprit Holdings' European operations, wants to flip his Plaza condo for $30 million more than he bought it for in 2007. He's put the 4,500-square-foot, fifth-floor unit on the market for $55 million, according to the Wall Street Journal.

My colleague Max Abelson broke the news in July that Mr. Friedrich was renting the place, dubbed the Astor Suite, for $75,000 monthly (he's apparently never spent a night there)....

Meet Andrei Vavilov! Litigious Plaza Penthouse Buyer (Inadvertently) Revealed

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 15:38:16 -0400

That mysterious Plaza buyer who is awfully upset about his $53.5 million triplex penthouse at The Plaza (and its "unappealing drainage grates") isn't so mysterious anymore. According to an email mistakenly sent to The Observer, the buyer is buzz-cut Russian financier Andrei Vavilov, a hedge fund maverick who became a deputy finance minister under Yeltsin in 1992, survived an assassination attempt in a Kremlin parking lot in 1996, made a fortune in Russian oil...

Trouble in Plaza Paradise! Mystery Buyer Sues Over $53.5 M. Deal [Updated]

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 13:41:38 -0400

Scrambling what would have been one of the country's biggest residential deals ever, the would-be buyer of a two-unit, three-level penthouse at The Plaza is taking the building's developer, El-Ad, to court.

According to a copy of the suit emailed to The Observer today, an anonymous buyer (listed as Penthouse 2009, Inc. and Penthouse 2001, Inc.) has backed out of a $53.5 million deal for a gargantuan spread in the newly redone condo...

Clock Tower to Plaza: Watch Us Get Russians (And Donatella!)

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 12:01:48 -0400

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...

Plaza Watch! Irish Hotelier's Nine Million Lucky Charms

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:16:15 -0400

The Irish equivalent of the Plaza is the Shelbourne Hotel, give or take a couple hundred condos.

Built in 1824, in a landmark building overlooking a park in the heart of Ireland's capital, the Shelbourne has had a long reign as what The New York Times called "the princess of Dublin hotels." Like the Plaza, the 225-room hotel never lost its cache with tourists, even as more luxurious competitors...

Plaza to Raise Roof: Striving for Scenesters, Hotel Hires Mixmaster

Tue, 20 May 2008 18:16:34 -0400

Management at the Plaza is paying a million dollars to an electronic-music composer, one Ariel Blumenthal, to create a two-hour soundtrack for its revamped Rose Bar (along with Frank Sinatra remixes for the lobby). “They said they want the downtown people to come uptown,” Mr. Blumenthal, who has been working on the project amid workmens’ marble drilling between 1 and 7 a.m., told the Transom during a visit the other night.

The...

PLAZA WATCH! Jerry Kokes's $5.4 M. Knock-Out

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 16:09:33 -0400

Jerry Kokes made his fortune selling boxing gloves. Now he's moving into one of the most white-gloved buildings in the city. The founder of T.K.O. and his wife Lynda have paid $5.4 million for a 6th-floor condo at the Plaza, city records show.

The couple are currently based in Brielle,...

Plaza Watch! Billionaire Montana Philanthropist Buys $19 M. Spread

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 12:56:37 -0400

The Plaza is about as far away from Dennis J. Washington's childhood hometown of Missoula Montana as you can get, so it's a fitting place for the septuagenarian billionaire and self-styled Horatio Alger to spend his twilight years.

His wife Phyllis has paid nearly $19 million for a 19th floor-condo at the Plaza, city records show.

The Washington Company's website details its founder's rise "from humble beginnings to rank...

Plaza Watch! Mother-Daughter Duo Buy Spreads, May Flee Palace

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 14:34:52 -0400

After enduring a high-profile lawsuit with the Waldorf Astoria and a stint at the Palace Hotel, Barbara Guthmacher Girard closed on a $4.7 million condo at the Plaza a couple of weeks ago. Though Ms. Gutmacher Girard signed the contract for the 1,760-square-foot, 18th-floor apartment over two years ago, she said in an interview recently that she and her wheelchair-bound, elderly mother may not move into the Plaza afterall because they had become so...

Bear Stearns' Cayne Takes The Plaza, Then Bridge

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 13:55:20 -0400

Bear Stearns chairman James Cayne was in Detroit at the start of the weekend that saw the tanking of his venerable investment bank. Why? Mr. Cayne was competing in the North American Bridge Championship, according to reports.

Also last week, as the perfect storm gathered, Mr. Cayne closed on a $25 million condo at the revamped Plaza. ...

The New Plaza Hotel: 'It's Kind of Empty-Looking Now'

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 16:00:36 -0500

Camera-wielding tourists, a smattering of ladies who lunch, and a few nostalgic locals milled around the newly renovated Plaza Hotel this afternoon, two days after the iconic landmark re-opened following a three-year, $400 million renovation.

The Plaza’s new owners, El-Ad Properties, gave the famous Palm Court restaurant a $15 million makeover, and a spruced-up Oak Bar will open again this spring, but only 130 of the 800 original hotel...

PLAZA WATCH! Home-Lender Biggie Buys for $8.5 M.

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 16:40:44 -0500

Investment manager Joseph Stilwell has bought an $8.5 million condo at the Plaza, city records show. Mr. Stilwell is one of the largest shareholders of Cameron Financial, a U.S. home-lender established in 1887....

CHEAP 2-BDRM! W/ GREAT VIEWS! BAR IN LOBBY! CALL PLAZA

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 15:32:01 -0500

It might be a slight overstatement to say that asking rents at the Plaza have been cut in half in 2008, but, boy, have things changed since the first rental was listed last summer.

In September, Sotheby's listed a one-bedroom Plaza rental at an eye-popping $30,000 per month that is still on the market. Meanwhile, 12 of the 14 other rental units that have come online since August have languished...

PLAZA WATCH! Debt Collector Nabs $4 M. Condo

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 11:24:50 -0500

The chairman of a debt collection agency with a 20-year history of landing unbid contracts with the government has closed on a condo in The Plaza, city records show. Jerold B. Katz, the patriarch of the Houston family that owns GC Services limited, paid over $4 million for Unit 1711.

GC Services has repeatedly been in the spotlight for its campaign contributions to office holders who award state contracts. Between 1980 and 2006, also...

PLAZA WATCH! Green Exec Buys $10 M. Condo

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 11:55:08 -0500

Green technology executive Howard Berke has bought a $10 million condo at The Plaza, according to city records. We'll see whether the co-founder and chairman of Konarka plans to make Unit 1001 more enviromentally friendly and how he gets along with his neighbors, a handful of whom made their fortunes in non-renewable energy. ...

Plaza's Grand Ballroom Officially Re-Opens

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 15:54:23 -0500

We got a press release trumpeting the official reopening of The Plaza's Grand Ballroom. It's been "meticulously restored to its 1929 opulence," and had a soft opening last week as the site of a party for Chanel Fine Jewelry.

I got a sneak peak at the Ballroom last month, when it was still undergoing the renovations. Elizabeth Stribling, whose firm markets The Plaza condos, told me that the ceiling, in particular, would be restored....

Suze Orman, TV's Finance Maharishi, Buys $3.6 M. Plaza Spread

Mon, 31 Dec 2007 11:43:21 -0500

Suze Orman, the well-tanned finance guru, who writes huge-selling books like You've Earned It, Don't Lose It and The Courage to Be Rich, once said she was simply aghast at real estate mania. Rampant condo speculation, she intoned, was a sure sign Americans were “losing their minds.”

But a deed filed today show that trusts in the name of Ms. Orman and her partner Kathy (“get yourself a living revocable trust” was Ms. Orman's...

Elizabeth at The Plaza

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 09:01:35 -0500

Ms. Stribling: The lobby you’re entering now has the original mosaic floors of the Plaza that were created in 1907—we just celebrated our 100th anniversary. They’ve really been polished and brought back to their splendor. … We echo some of the mosaic work in the bathrooms and the kitchens of the residences. This is the complete private entry lobby for the residences. It shows you the original check-in concierge desk for the hotel, and...

It's Eloise By a Nose! Plaza Takes Price Lead Over 15 C.P.W.

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 16:58:16 -0500

Together, the newly converted Plaza Hotel and the newly constructed Fifteen Central Park West represent the pinnacle of Manhattan’s luxury development boom this decade—amenity-laden condos with sweeping views of Central Park and hoity buyer rosters to rival any building’s in the city. But only one can be No. 1 in price and it looks like, so far, the Plaza has a slight edge.

The Plaza’s most expensive condos have sold...

Plaza Is the New UN: Panamanian Buys In for $8.8 M.

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 15:09:27 -0500

Recent Plaza sales seem to have a south-of-the-border theme.

In this week’s Observer, Max Abelson spoke to Rogerio Azcarraga Madero, the Mexican radio mogul whose holding company dropped $8.2 million on a Plaza pad.

And today another deed from The Plaza showed up in city records, this time for $8.791,972.13. The buyer is listed as Kitch Company Corp., a...

Mexican Radio Magnate Buys Latest Pad, $8.2 M. Plaza Condo—‘We Own Over 65 Apartments’

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 18:17:11 -0500

Two days after closing on a $5.3 million penthouse duplex at 715 Park Avenue, a Mexican radio and music publishing mogul named Rogerio Azcárraga Madero closed last month on a $8.26 million Plaza apartment.

Never mind that last year he bought a small condo at Trump Parc, two months after buying a neighboring 110 Central Park South apartment for $4.31 million.

But none are for him. Reached through his lawyer,...

Over The Weekend...

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 11:38:13 -0500

This holiday weekend was Plaza heavy, with an $8,616,895.53 condo purchase in the 100-year-old hotel, according to city records. The buyer was Fred G. Farago, the president of California-based American Fruit Processors, a provider of fruity flavored syrups and extracts. The purchased unit, number 1003, was Mr. Farago’s second in the building. He purchased unit 1505 in July for $5,873,316.

Perhaps the fruit-king decided he needed...

Another Low-Baller at The Plaza

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 14:42:12 -0500

We found another low price tag at The Plaza today, this one for $2,213,877.60. As we mentioned last week, it’s surprising to find these lower-cost units available in a building with so many $10-million (and up) condos. It somehow inspires a sense of relief.

The buyer was listed as Kennedy Park Gallery USA Ltd, and calls to his or her (or their) lawyer did not turn up anymore information on...

Former UBS Investment Bank President Buys in The Plaza for $11 M.

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 13:54:41 -0500

The former head of UBS' investment bank has bought Unit 907 in The Plaza for $11,050,697.08, according to city records. Kenneth D. Moelis resigned as president of UBS' investment bank earlier this year after barely two years at its helm and more than six years with the financial services giant.

Mr. Moelis, as a trustee of the Moelis Family Trust, is listed on the deed as a buyer of the condo, along with wife...

A Plaza Condo for Under $3 M.!?!

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 11:31:53 -0500

City records show that Unit 802 at The Plaza has sold for $2,891,489.90. That's astoundingly low compared to most of the other condo purchases in the building. Just recently, a spate of sales closed for around $10 million each. And the hotel-turned-partly condo also includes what could become the biggest apartment sale in New York history.

But, apparently, there's room--literally--for the relatively small spender. The buyer on the deed is listed as One Central Park...

Plaza, Plaza! Condo There Goes for $5 M.

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 14:04:49 -0500

We found another sale at The Plaza today, this one for $5,110,316.06. Considering how many sales we’ve seen in the $10 million range, this one stands out as a bargain. It’s unit 905, and the buyers are listed as Michael and Meryl Mann.

The name may sound familiar, but we assure you that it’s not that Michael Mann, the Hollywood writer, director, and producer of Ali and Miami Vice. This...

Another $10 M. (or Thereabouts) Spread at The Plaza

Fri, 02 Nov 2007 13:12:50 -0400

Unit 1301 at The Plaza has sold for $9,522,606.61, according to city records. It's the latest in a series of sales at the iconic hotel turned partly condo that have fallen in the roughly $10 million range.

At the tail end of summer, UNICEF ambassador Ann-Kathrin Linsenhoff bought a 14th-floor condo for $9,586,957. Russian banker Vladimir Stolyarenko bought a condo one floor up around the same time for $10,184,363.46. Also during the summer,...

Over The Weekend...

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 12:02:07 -0400

Two big sales in city records caught our eyes over the weekend, with price tags above $5 million (and, of course, one had to be in The Plaza): Lawyer Richard and Loretta Rosenbaum of Scarsdale purchased unit 703 in The Plaza for $8,741,976. We can't help but wonder how this suburban couple will get along with all the Russians. We have a call out to Mr. Rosenbaum. New York University Stern School...

Notre Dame Business School Namesakes Buy in The Plaza for $9 M.

Fri, 26 Oct 2007 12:30:56 -0400

Thomas and Kathy Mendoza, the namesakes for the Nortre Dame business school, have bought Unit 1015 in The Plaza for $9,026,113 and 59 cents, according to city records. Mr. Mendoza is president of Sunnyvale, Calif.-based data storage company Network Appliance.

In 2000, the Mendozas gave Notre Dame, Mr. Mendoza's alma mater, $35 million, according to Slate. The university then renamed its business school the Mendoza College of Business.

Infinitely more interesting, though: Earlier this year, the...

Another Putin Pal—Patriots Owner Robert Kraft—Buys in The Plaza

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 16:55:42 -0400

According to city records filed today, a buyer named Kraft Plaza LLC just forked over $14,477,211 (plus 59 cents) for an eleventh floor apartment at The Plaza.

Who’s the actual buyer? It’s not hard to guess, considering the appearance of “Kraft” in the corporation name, and considering that the corporation’s address is “1 Patriot Place” in Foxborough, Mass., and considering that the Post long-ago reported that New...

Paul Anka! Matthew Broderick! Um ... It Must Be the Plaza's 100th Birthday!

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 12:30:47 -0400

Did you know The Plaza was turning 100 this coming month? Paul Anka knew! Matthew Broderick knew! They're both going to be on hand, apparently, to celebrate the momentous event. Once upon a time it was a lovely hotel your middle-class mother took you to for tea once a year (hey, Carmela! Welcome back!) Now it's a condominium you can't afford to live in. So break out the Grucci fireworks, the 12-foot birthday cake,...

Report: Plaza Owner Wants to Build City's Tallest Apartment Tower [UPDATED]

Fri, 21 Sep 2007 11:23:59 -0400

Reuters reports this morning that Elad Group, the real estate firm that owns the Plaza Hotel, plans to build a 95-story apartment tower on Madison Avenue. At 899 feet, the $450 million tower would be the tallest residential tower in the city and about 71 percent of the height of the Empire State Building, the city's tallest commercial tower. (We're confused by the initial reports, however, which claim Elad plans to build a 75-story...

The Two Towers

Wed, 12 Sep 2007 19:23:45 -0400

Sandy and Joan Weill have spent $42.4 million on a penthouse in Fifteen Central Park West, according to a city deed filed on Sept. 12. That is only the third apartment sale in the new development to officially close, and the second to close for over $10 million.

The Plaza Hotel, on the other hand, has had four such deals close for above $10 million in the last few months. These include the...

It Was The Summer of Big Deals!

Wed, 05 Sep 2007 17:21:52 -0400

The summer is typically a time when news slows down to a snail’s pace. People (including reporters) split for the beach and opt for the latest Pat Conroy novel rather than a daily read of the newspaper.

But from the standpoint of Manhattan residential real estate, the summer of 2007 was one of the most newsworthy on record.

Let us recap.

The first big news of the season came in May when...