Central Park Tower on W. 57th St Leads Two of the Top Apt Sales in December
By: Hellen Zaboulani
Manhattan’s luxury real estate market is experiencing a slowdown, in which prices have dropped. The final month of the year also still saw some high-flying sales activity, but prices were deeply discounted.
As reported by the NY Times, two of the top sales in December were for apartments at the Central Park Tower, at 217 West 57th Street in Midtown. The 1,550 feet super tower, new to Billionaires’ Row by Gary Barnett’s Extell Development, boasted both top luxury home contracts closed in December. An apartment on the 124th floor was sold for $50 million, which was well below the initial $66 million asking price. Another unit on the 122nd floor sold for close to $45 million, also discounted from the first ask of $65.5 million.
Both homes were purchased by limited liability companies, keeping the identity of the buyers under wraps. The homes each have five bedrooms with five bathrooms, and boast a total of 7,000 square feet of space. The oversized homes include huge grand salons with living and dining rooms and enormous master bedroom suites, with dressing rooms and walk-in closets. The building is lauded as the tallest apartment building in the Western Hemisphere, with amazing views, and amenities including outdoor and indoor swimming pools, fitness center, half basketball/squash court, spa with steam rooms and saunas, a grand ballroom and cigar lounge. As per the Times, the building also closed two other sales in December, for somewhat smaller apartments. One three-bedroom unit on the 33rd-floor sold for about $7.9 million, after asking $9.6 million. The other was a one-bedroom on the 46th floor, sold for $4.1 million, having listed for close to $4.3 million.
The end of the year saw a general slowdown in luxury sales for Manhattan homes priced at or above $4 million. In December, other top sales included two townhouses in the Upper East Side. One of them, located at 182 East 64th Street, between Lexington and Third Avenues, sold for $9.7 million. The five-story, 7,000 square foot home had listed for $12 million in 2020, being sold from the estate of Jayne Wrightsman, a philanthropist and grande dame of NY high society who passed away three years ago.
The other townhouse, located at 120 East 78th Street, sold for roughly $9.3 million. The eight-story home, off Park Avenue was sold by Richard Snyder, the former head of the Simon & Schuster publishing house. As per the Times, the home, which had listed for as much as $17 million in 2021, features 10,000 square feet of interior space, with eight bedrooms, eight and a half bathrooms, a full-size gym, oversized wine storage, eight fireplaces as well as roof-top and dining room terraces.
In September, the Jewish Voice reported that representatives for the Central Park Tower told the Post that a triple penthouse unit at the tower would be hitting the market at a staggering $250 million price tag for a “castle in the sky.”
The Wall Street Journal was the first to break the news about the listing and if a buyer agrees to the asking price this penthouse would be known as the country’s most expensive home ever sold, the WSJ reported.
As per the NY Times, the overwhelming trend, which the top sales all share in common, is being sold at bargain prices. While luxury sales activity has still continued, in the second half of the year, buyers received deep discounts off the asking prices.
