By Don Driggers
The first resale at the luxurious 220 Central Park South is close to happening and its big real estate news for “billionaires row” where process have been dropping.
The new development contains some of the most expensive apartments in New York City, with a secretive purchasing process and many anonymous buyers. Two of the building’s units have sold for over $100 million, including a $238 million unit purchased by billionaire hedge fund manager Kenneth C. Griffin in 2019, the most expensive home ever sold in the United States to date.
The owner of unit 55B has accepted an offer from an unknown buyer for the 3,211-square-foot three-bedroom, listing agent Jessica Campbell of Nest Seekers International confirmed. If the deal closes, it will be the first resale at Vornado Realty Trust’s blockbuster building, Real Deal reported.
Vornado Realty Trust developed the building on the site of a rent-stabilized apartment complex constructed in 1954. While Vornado acquired the existing apartment building in 2005, a lawsuit from the existing building’s tenants forced the demolition of the existing structure to be delayed to 2012., Wikipedia summarized.
Real Deal reported: the seller, masked behind a limited liability company, 220 MARCH, bought the unit on the 55th floor for about $26.8 million in late 2019. The seller originally signed a contract to purchase the unit in April 2015. It was listed for resale in early February seeking $33 million.
The value of apartments on “billionaires’ row” has been in decline even before the pandemic, nearly 40 percent of condo resales in Midtown closed at a loss — the worst of any neighborhood or property type, according to a citywide analysis by StreetEasy.
TJV Reported in 2019:
Celebrated hedge-fund manager Ken Griffin recently spent $238 million for a penthouse setting a record. In January, Brazilian construction, and cement magnate (Camargo Correa) Renata de Camargo Nascimento is reported to have laid down $30.191 million for an apartment on the 33rd floor.
A firm linked to Albert P. Behler, Chairman/CEO of real estate conglomerate Paramount Group, plunked down $33.5 million for an apartment on the building’s 35th floor in February.
Billionaire Daniel Och of Och-Ziff Capital Management, Andrew Zaro, chairman of financial services and investment company Cavalry Portfolio Services, and pop singer Sting have also reportedly moved into their own palatial digs at that address.
“Many of the contracts signed at the 1,000-foot-tall tower, including Mr. Griffin’s, date to 2015, when the Manhattan real-estate market was booming,” reports The Wall Street Journal. “They are not a reflection of the strength of the current market, according to agents familiar with the market.”
