Thoughts on Bernie's Penthouse?

Views don't appear to be anything special. Terrace is ok, but not spectacular.

Just looked at the listing brokers website: looks MUCH better than the wsj pics. i take back the above.

Ok 30 yrs. I'm pretty good at finding re info, but I can't find the Madoff Apt at the Sotheby's website nor when I go to Serena Boardman's link. I know I'm dumb but my re porn addiction wants me to find it NOW. Do you have a link?

does anyone know if the buyer will have to get approved by the co-op board? I think under federal seizure laws, the government can essentially bypass the board and sell to whomever they want to. Is this true?

I don't know how 30yrs found it but I cannot, either. Anyway, here's something ........

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090909/ts_nm/us_madoff_apartment

Maybe I was looking at the wrong unit then

Men just don't get it - did you get a look at the closet? And the kitchen? Fabulous (and I think the terrace picture is only showing one part.

its not 4000 sft..im hearing its 2800 sft (although I hear it will be marketed at 3000sft interior when it comes on with sothebys) with a 1000 sft wraparound terrace. the appraisal formula for valuing a terrace focuses on functionality of the outdoor space and can add anywhere between 25% - 50% of a premium to the interior PSF it sells for. I happen to disagree with that formula in the real world though.

A furnished and large terrace on a lower floor would prob add about $80-$100/sft to interior premium psf, a balcony, ehh, maybe $20/sft. A wraparound terrace that is 1000 sft and perched on a PH unit, likely significanty more than the $100/sft. Perhaps $150-$200/sft.

So, Im saying if the interior space is 2800 or so and you multiply that by $200 and the wraparound terrace should add about $420,000 - $560,000 to the value of the PH unit or so - compared to if exact same unit sold without the 1,000 sft wraparound ph terrace.

Layout (from what you can tell), room proportions, most finishes, look quite nice. The furnishings, on the other hand, are just generic looking stuff that I'm sure is expensive but looks so blah. And honestly, hunting paintings in the sitting area/den or whatever that room is? Pretentious arriviste shit. I also am not a fan of the mexican floor tiles in the kitchen. But overall, yeah, I could make it all work if anyone should want to buy it for me and provide some $$ to fix it up. Personally don't care for the area either--find the UES sterile, but I could get over it. Bottom line: not great enough to fantasize about. Now, show me the larger PH at 40 Fifth and we can start to talk...!

Well, it's way better than the Montauk house but gah those decorator shades of beige and brown. Still waiting to see the Palm Beach house, that's the one that will be envy worthy.

ali r.
{downtown broker}

Photos of all three at http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Bernard-Madoff-Scandal/ss/events/bs/121208bernardmadoff

Palm Beach still listed under Ruth at the county appraiser's site: http://www.pbcgov.com/papa/

You know, overall I think they had a serious taste level problem. Some nice Thomas Moser wood furniture, but all those roll-arm sofas have that Ethan-Allan-at-the-stripmall look. And equistrian paintings and the like seem so incredibly out of sync for a schlubby guy with lots of new (stolen) money. The generic style of these homes look staged by mediocre designers as if dressing sets.

There is really nothing that reflects the substance of who occupied these residences--of who these people were. Or maybe it all reflects who they were--empty pretenders without substance.

I don't have a problem with the antique-fishing-rod school of decorating, and it seems like they tricked out the boat well enough.

I agree that the hunting paintings are a problem, but they are a classic way of trying to age one's money. When I worked at DLJ, then the youngest firm on the street, it was full of hunting paintings and ducks and pier mirrors. You had to jump into the VPs office to find an Alex Katz.

ali r.

I thought that the carpets in the sitting room & dining room were spectacular & I don't know what they did to get those diamond shapes on the ceilings, never seen it before, but I liked those. I wondered, too, about their level of taste but, come on, they're really only crooks from Queens so what can you expect? The kitchen gave me THE WILLIES with all of that commercial stainless steel - ICK - & I found the bathroom very cold. I don't know about the size of the terraces but I'm always looking for one where you can have a table for 6 or 8 but not too commonly found.

What I keep asking, & I've never gotten a response, is why aren't his co-conspirators in jail too. Did he make a deal to take 150 years & spare everyone else? Double ICK.

can't get past the wall to wall carpeting.

Penthouse Tour on Video:
http://www.nypost.com/video/?vxSiteId=0db7b365-a288-4708-857b-8bdb545cbd0f&vxChannel=PostBusiness&vxClipId=1458_588026&vxBitrate=700

Video Tour of 50 Foot Motorboat
http://www.nypost.com/video/?vxSiteId=0db7b365-a288-4708-857b-8bdb545cbd0f&vxChannel=PostUsFeed&vxClipId=1458_588457&vxBitrate=700

Copy and Paste the above URLs into your browser. Enjoy!

Another link for the penthouse video tour:
http://www.nypost.com/video/?channel=PostBusiness&clipid=1458_588026&bitrate=300&format=flash

I want the leather bull. How do I bid?

Just listed by sotheby's for 9.9 million. Since one of the world's greatest thieves only estimated the value at 7 million, I think they would need a lot of luck to get that price --- or perhaps an enormously charitable person or org. Oh wait, most of those were wiped out by Bernie.

Thanx, JohnnyMac. Can you contact the Feds to find out when the auction is? They've said that they will auction off the personal effects after they sell the real estate, I believe. Might it be cheaper to have one made than purchase this one at auction?

crap

chateau de Bernardo.
Nice digs. Who say's crime doesn't pay?
Lie, cheat, steal, Get caught late in life so the state can pick up health care costs and housing.

Trash can in kitchen...nice touch, thought they would have had a bigger can.

not much streeteasy building history

http://www.streeteasy.com/nyc/building/133-east-64-street-new_york#discussions

Hard to believe this guy lived like a pauper in contrast to the rest of the Wall Street kings of greed, whose apartments would stun even the Saudi Arabian monarchy!

Get_Real: I thought kind of the same thing. This pad is nicer than anything I could ever dream of owning, but it isn't a fantasy apartment. It's a nice apartment like 100's or 1000s of others in NYC. And the garbage can in kitchen was odd--left by the FBI movers and taggers no doubt. Wonder if they have computers in his prison and if he is reading this thread and looking at the pictures and cyber tours of what had been his life.

Pathologically taupe.

I worked with a young lady once who always said that affluent people try to be so tasteful that it's just beige, beige, beige. I did see another photo of the terrace & there is a good-sized open area for my dining table; how close to the kitchen, tho', I don't know.

I find something a bit creepy, if not nasty, about having that exercise bike next to the toilet. I'm trying not to imagine !

FYI, here's the Sotheby's link with pics and a floorplan - http://www.sothebyshomes.com/0016591.html .

Thanx for that link. You can really see the difference between those workman-like photos we saw earlier & these gorgeous glamour photos - much nicer. Do hope you'll ALL come to the house warming ;-)

That terrace really looks pretty spectacular in the floor plan. Actually, the entire place looks pretty spectacular in plan. Maybe it was just the taste of the furnishings that was so awfully distracting. This is a very nice pad.

I thought it'd be bigger: the whole half floor plus the penthouse part above. Instead the lower floor is just ("just") the front of the typical 133E64 apartment. But as it is, fine if you don't need lots of bedrooms.

The bottom of the staircase must be kind of clunky, or they'd have photographed it. Probably awkward transition from curved to straight. The newel and balusters look to be standard stair parts. Another taste-level thing where they didn't know that stairs rate a bigger outlay.

Oh come on - you all would live there in a heartbeat if you could - so forget all the snarky comments about "taste level" would we all laugh looking at your apartments?

What, we can't criticize until our own places are perfect? What fun would that be?

I didn't even get started on the carping. E.g., the fake mullions on the tilt-and-turn windows.

And how exactly do you know those are "FAKE" mullions (actually from my time in Tribeca "muntins" - yeah you're probaboy right if theyre on tilt and turn windows

It is a nice apartment & it looks nicely done in those Sotheby photos; I would have thought it might be a little larger. Perhaps they moved there after the boys were grown?

NWT - as in "people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones"?

if i steal billions of dollars feel free to laugh at my apartment.

That floor plan is spectacular. It does not have the routine bad small room, or quirky weird spaces that occurs in many penthouses, especially ones that are prewar. This really can fit how people live today. Compare to Broole Astor's place. Gorgeous stunning apt, and almost three times the price(albeit in a better location and better building and larger) but the floor plan needs work and the terraces are small.

Yeah, Uncle Bernie's in the BIG HOUSE; when are his fellow conspirators going down?

It is a pretty stunning property for someone who wants living space/doesn't need many bedrooms. For 2 people, it is amazing. I hate that the broker randomly capitalized names of rooms - WTF? (plus, if Bedroom is not bedroom, then why is bathroom not Bathroom??)

curbed has some good snaps

http://curbed.com/archives/2009/09/14/on_the_market_the_most_ponzilicious_penthouse_in_town.php

OK, so those were the pics i was looking at when I posted "Just looked at the listing brokers website: looks MUCH better than the wsj pics. i take back the above." But for the life of me i have no idea where i found them.

Bernie's pad just took a $1MM chop. Wonder what the final "hammer price" will be.

i bet 6-6.5M when it was first priced at 9.9m. that was 2 months ago. you would think they had some incentive to price this thing right to sell; guess not

Bernie's place is in contract.

Closed last week for $8 million.