A Drag on Prices on Park Avenue

I love how those genius brokers like Dolly Lenz attribute sale prices at 35% of original asking to "marketing". LMAO. from the WSJ today: A Drag on Prices on Park Avenue http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703886904576031941005339506.html#articleTabs%3Darticle After languishing on the market for years, two celebrated Park Avenue co-ops in the same building have gone into contract at... [more]

I love how those genius brokers like Dolly Lenz attribute sale prices at 35% of original asking to "marketing". LMAO. from the WSJ today: A Drag on Prices on Park Avenue http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703886904576031941005339506.html#articleTabs%3Darticle After languishing on the market for years, two celebrated Park Avenue co-ops in the same building have gone into contract at unexpectedly low prices—levels that may be a drag on future prices for luxury Upper East Side co-ops, brokers said. The sale of apartments formerly owned by William F. Buckley Jr. and Brooke Astor shows how far the thinly traded trophy market has fallen since the peak a few years ago, brokers said. "Everybody is waiting for these deals to close because they will set a new tone for the market," one Upper East Side broker said. Joe Kohen for The Wall Street Journal Luxury building at 778 Park Ave. .Both apartments are at 778 Park Ave., an 18-story, limestone-and-brick building on the corner of East 73rd Street. Designed by Rosario Candela in 1931, it has often been regarded as one of the most glamorous addresses in the city. One of the apartments is a duplex maisonette where Mr. Buckley and his wife Pat entertained hundreds of guests over the years. It went on the market for $24.5 million in the spring of 2008, a few months after the conservative author and columnist died. The marketing campaign for the unit at first focused on the apartment's brush with celebrity. It sold last week for $8.75 million, according to listing data recorded by StreetEasy.com, after a series of price cuts. Though the sales documents haven't been filed with the city yet, brokers identified the buyers as Renee and Mark Rockefeller, who is a son of Nelson Rockefeller. View Full Image Stribling & Associates Oversize formal dining room in former co-op of Brooke Astor. .The final asking price for the listing by Paula Del Nunzio of Brown Harris Stevens was $10 million. The latest marketing push focused on the curved stair case and the marble hallway, rather than on the former owners. Ms. Del Nunzio declined to comment on the sale. At about the same Mr. Buckley's apartment went to market, a larger duplex apartment owned by the late Ms. Astor, the influential socialite, on the 15th and 16th floors was listed for $46 million. The 14-room apartment had five wood-burning fireplaces and a red lacquer library designed by Albert Hadley. Ms. Astor died at the age of 105 in the summer of 2007. After the market froze in the fall of 2008, the price was cut to $34 million, and, after a change in brokers, to $29 million the following February, and $24.9 million in August. Associated Press Brooke Astor .Now brokers say it is in contract for about $20 million, but with concessions that will bring the final sale price considerably lower. The apartment was listed by Kirk Henckels, director of Stribling Private Brokerage. The gaps between the original ambitious asking prices and the final deals reflect a number of factors, brokers said. These include the marketing campaigns that focused too heavily on celebrity, and not enough on room layouts and square feet, as well as difficult renovation rules imposed by co-op boards. In the case of Ms. Astor, the value of her association with the co-op may have been diminished by the prosecution and conviction of her son, Anthony Marshall, on charges stemming from his handling of her will and financial affairs. But several brokers said it mostly reflected the sharp decline in values of the most prestigious properties from inflated peak prices in 2008, now that the number of transactions has picked up. "Back then money meant nothing in the trophy category and the housing bubble caused more increases at the top," said a broker involved in one of the recent deals. "This is finally the evidence of the collapse of the bubble in the luxury market." Associated Press William F. Buckley Jr. .Strong evidence of falling sale price of trophy apartments surfaced in June, the broker said, when Edmond M. Safra, a member of the Safra banking family, bought the two co-ops on the fourth floor of 2 E. 67th St. for a total of $18 million. In 2008, Jonathan M. Tisch, the co-chairman of the Loews Corp., paid $48 million for a full-floor apartment of about the same size. Dolly Lenz, a top-selling broker at Prudential Douglas Elliman, attributed the low final sale prices at 778 Park Ave. to marketing errors, including overly ambitious asking prices that drove away buyers. "If you screw up prices, the sense of urgency is blown," she said. At 778 Park Ave., the highest sale was the $33.6 million sale of a full-floor apartment on the third floor by Vera Wang in 2008. In November, a similar apartment on the fifth floor sold for $26 million without a public listing. [less]