Maybe the recent record sale of a $100 million condo will soon be yesterday’s news in New York. But, for at least one startling NY moment, breaking the $100 million threshold was indeed a big to-do.
In the waning days of 2014, a “mystery buyer” under the corporate title “P89-90 LLC” concluded a $100.4 million deal for a two-floor, 11,000-square-foot penthouse at One57 — the slender, cascading all-glass tower that has re-ordered the Midtown skyline and literally casts a shadow over Central Park.
The 6-bedroom, 7-bathroom unit’s sale will go down as the most expensive apartment ever sold in Manhattan as of its recording date of Dec. 23, 2014. And the actual sale price, down to the last dollar, was $100,471,452.
As the $100.4 million buyer’s corporate title on the recording documents suggests, the deal was for the combined unit of the 89th and 90th floors at 157 W. 57th St, or One57. The closing was handled by the Midtown law firm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.
This sale surpasses the former NYC high of $88 million paid in 2011 for a condo at another high-roller address: 15 Central Park West. In that case, the $88M record was set by Ekaterina Rybolovleva, the daughter of Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev.
By comparison, the “mystery buyer” may have gotten a better deal, since the price-per-square-foot for the One57 duplex penthouse was around $9,000 and Rybolovleva paid $13,000/square foot.
The One57 trophy tower, which was almost sold out by the time the big deal was recorded, is the work of developer Gary Barnett of Extell Development. The building was said to have cost $1.4 billion while Extell and his investment backers were looking at $2 billion in sales.
As soon as this deal was inked, however, speculation started to ramp up about how long the record will last, given that New York is and will continue to be the real estate playground for the rich, famous and the very rich.
At least one other NYC property is currently on the market for more than $100 million: A 15,000-square-foot penthouse at 10 West St. in Battery Park that is listed for $118 million.
A 16-room penthouse at The Pierre at 795 Fifth Ave. had been listed for sale at $125 million in 2013, before the price was reduced to $95 million then removed from the market.