Thursday, January 29, 2009

The Biggest Price Chop Ever?


SELLER: Amit Ben-Haim
LOCATION: 15 Central Park West, New York, NY
PRICE: $47,500,000
SIZE: 5,276 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 5.5 bathrooms
DESCRIPTION: Step into your private landing on the 40th floor of New York's most sought after new condominium residence. Enjoy completely unobstructed views over Central Park West and the Hudson River. All major rooms have 14 foot ceilings. Masterful layouts by Robert A.M. Stern Architects. 5,276 square feet. Four bedrooms, five and one-half baths. Ground floor suite: 1,222 square feet with private street access ideal for owner staff offices. An extraordinary offering.

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: If the children will put on their thinking caps and dig deep into the recesses of their mind they might recall all the rumors and reports from October of '08 about Madonna's post-dee-vorce boy toy Alex "A-Rod" Rodriguez looking to buy an $80,000,000 penthouse at the super swank Indiana limestone clad 15 Central Park West building in New York City.

Remember all that nonsense? Not only was there a lot of whispering and speculating about the recently unhitched Mister Rodriguez's interest in the 40th floor condominium, there was a lot of (justifiable) shock and awe regarding the hair raising $80,000,000 price tag.

What was most puzzling and perplexing to Your Mama about the whole thing was not whether Mister Rodriguez could actually afford an eighty million clam condo, but rather that the seller–who the New York Times identified as a London based investor named Amit Ben-Haim–listed the four bedroom spread at nearly 4 times the $21,500,000 they paid for the place in April of 2008, just two months earlier. Two months!

It will be no surprise that Mister Rodriguez did not buy the apartment.

Soon after all that brouhaha and gossip about Mister Rodriguez, the owner took the apartment off the market. Until now. Thanks to the fine sleuthing of Natalie Attired, Your Mama has learned that the apartment that was once one of the highest priced listings in New York City has returned to the market with a serious karate chop to the asking price. Listing information now shows a price of $47,500,000. That's right, $47,500,000.

A few gleeful flicks of the well worn beads on our bejeweled abacus and we see that the sellers have chopped a mind melting $32,500,000 off the price. Now that children, has to be the largest single price chop ever, right?

The apartment measures 5,276 square feet, offers a private elevator landing and large public rooms with expensive views over Central Park. The private quarters include a 30 foot long kitchen/family room, 4 bedrooms and 5.5 windowless bathrooms including a master suite with two entrances, two walk in closets, two giant windows looking over Central Park and, natch, two private poopers, one of which has a bee-day for the all the people who like to have their naughty bits be sparkling clean at all times.

Forty seven and some million big ones not only buys you the apartment but also a 1,222 square foot ground floor suite where the Richie Rich owners can park their live in staff and still maintain a modicum of privacy. Maintenance and taxes will run a sizable but not unheard of $7,506 per month.

Other notable buyers in the Robert A.M. Stern designed complex include Sting and Trudy Styler, Denzel Washington, Norman Lear, writer John Ridley, NASCAR honcho Jeff Gordon, sportscaster Bob Costas and a slew of Wall Street types and big bizness barons including Goldman Sach's Lloyd Blankfein and Abigail Wexner, wife of billionaire Les Wexner who recently and quietly heaved their gigantic Fifth Avenue pied a terre on to the market with a $60,000,000 asking price.

42 comments:

Anonymous said...

Half of too much is still way too much...........wake me when it sells.

Anonymous said...

it's not a price chop when you are cutting it down from wet dream heights.

When it is listed for less than they paid (as they are nothing but flippers) then it's a chop.

Anonymous said...

i doubt that the condo was really 80,000,000 in the first place.

Anonymous said...

$33,500,000 off the price


you should buy another calculator.

last time in kindergarten math

80-47.5= 32.5

Anonymous said...

Anon 3:37. Well you are a smarty-pants. Mama is an artiste and not a stockbroker.

Your Mama said...

Hunny, it was not the abacus, it was a slip of finger on the keyboard and a poor read through for errors.

And p.s. the place was listed at $80,000,000. so, yes, it really was priced at eighty million.

Anonymous said...

"... The apartment was bought by a corporation in care of a private Geneva-based company, Lemuria Alliance S.A., which listed Amit Ben-Haim as its chairman. Mr. Ben-Haim, a London investor, earned a fortune in medical devices and other businesses, starting in 1999 with the sale of an Israel-based medical device company founded by his brother to Johnson & Johnson for $400 million"

According to the NY Times that is:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/15/realestate/15deal.html?_r=1

Anonymous said...

NONE OF THEM DAMN TERLETS HAVE WINDOWS!

Anonymous said...

I really wouldn't call this the biggest price drop ever because there was no way in hell they were ever going to get $80 Million for this. There are so many other places on the market that are so much better for much less money. Also, if I price my condo worth $10 Million for $200 Million and then lower the price to $10 Million a couple of months later can I win the award for biggest price drop?

Anonymous said...

Question: Would someone be able to tell me what a private elevator landing is?

Does that mean an elevator that is only used for this apartment that then opens into the apartment itself?

Thanks.

Anonymous said...

This place was never going to go for anywhere near $80M, it was a ridiculous number even when things were crazy in Manhattan. But a price chop is a price chop no matter what YOU or anyone else thinks of the original price or "value" of the property.

Your Mama said...

Thanks for the link to the New York Times darlin.

Your Mama is down for the count with a migraine today and our skills of subtraction and research are, obviously, compromised.

Anonymous said...

Hope your head is feeling back to normal soon, Mama.

For this many claims, Id expect a little more detail inside please. It ought to look like Robert Stern did it.

Anonymous said...

clams even!

my spelling has joined Mama's arithmatic skills in one of those windowless terlits I guess.

Anonymous said...

This says more about the parabolic trajectory of NY prices over the last couple of years - I'm sure $21.5M seemed like an exorbitant price (the Zeckendorfs are not exactly known for leaving huge sums on the table) when it went to contract which I'm guessing was some time ago while the building was being redone. $80M (or something in the vicinity) may have been doable pre-crash when this was THE building for GSers, hedgies and other megarich. But now they're riding the down side of the parabola, which is not a pretty place to be!

Anonymous said...

Parabola is generous...........what we have here, I believe, is an inverted V and that is even less pretty.

Anonymous said...

Drop it another 45 million and it might be worth it.

Starck Mad said...

It is a pretty building.....but this unit is sans any outdoor/terrace space. I can't imagine a unit at this cost without any 'outdoor' access.

It will be interesting to see if the 'Beanie Baby' guys 40 million dollar penthouse purchase, in the under-construction Santiago Calitrava's Chicago Spire materializes. Now THAT is serious architecture.

so_chic_darling said...

Herringbone floors are so wrong and so Granny on Park Ave in a 1950s white brick building, I feel a little sick.

Anonymous said...

average joe :[) said...
avg joe here, I just came across this from the LA BLOG

18MM price reduction

lol :)

"This is the biggest price drop I’ve seen in the Malibu Real Estate market, ever. Starting out $39,500,000, this ocean front property has been chopped to $21,500,000 in 4 short months. That’s an $18,000,000 chop in 120 days! The home is located just south of the Paradise Cove pier and was recently remodeled.

Here’s the MLS description……
ONE OF MALIBU’S SPECIAL GATED BLUFF & BEACHFRONT COMPOUNDS OVERLOOKING DESIRABLE PARADISE COVE. NEWLY COMPLETED & OFFERING A SEAMLESS TRANSITION BETWEEN INDOOR & OUTDOOR LIVING & ENTERTAINING IN A CASUAL, YET DRAMATICALLY ELEGANT SETTING. PROPERTY FEATURES: A SPECTACULAR MAIN HOME W/ OCEANFRONT INFINITY POOL & SPA, GUEST HOUSES & BEACH PAVILION ON APPROX. 81′ OF SANDY BEACH FRONTAGE. APPROX. 2.4 LANDSCAPED ACRES IN TWO PARCELS, WITH LIMITLESS COASTLINE & OCEAN VISTAS. THERE IS NOTHING LIKE IT!!"

January 28, 2009 4:22 PM

Anonymous said...

You just simply can not buy class.

Anonymous said...

A private elevator landing does not open in the apt, it just means you have your own private hall outside of your unit where you don't have to chit chat with any neighbors.

THis building is a joke.

Anonymous said...

So chic, I thought parquet floors were so 50s white brick building, and that herring bone was very common in good pre-war buildings. Am I wrong?

Anonymous said...

no you are not wrong 6:10. more specifically parquet block. so chic is also misleading in her connection of park avenue and white brick. in fact there are a few white brick apartment buildings on park in the sixties (and some others down on park in the thirties/murray hill, so they don't count), but in general park avenue is all about pre-war, as in wwII.

Anonymous said...

A-Fraud should swoop in and pick it up at this bargain-basement price, and then the Yankees should trade him so he never gets to use it.

Sucka...

Anonymous said...

BTW, the largest ever price cut was when I listed my Toluca Lake 2/2 condo for $975,000,000 and then sold it a few months later for $465,000. Let your bejeweled abacus do the math on that one. (Hint: It's many hundreds of millions and thousands less)

so_chic_darling said...

OK fist of all So Chic darling is a him not a her and yes I do know that most of Park Ave is pre war. The few white brick buildings from the 1950s and 60s stick out, and not in a good way. I've been inside them, I've seen the actual Granny in an actual apartment with, I'm sorry to say very unfashionable, herringbone floors on her Mario Buatta chintz slipper chair.
Herring bone looks dated to me sorry.
Why would you put that kind of flooring in a 21st century building?

Anonymous said...

That's a nice building, but the views are ruined by the Trump Hotel and Tower, one of the ugliest buildings in NY. I could never buy a place that involved having to see that tacky thing on a daily basis.

Anonymous said...

so So Chic has a Chwanz. I am crushed!

Anonymous said...

Imagine going to a Homeowners Association Meeting for this building. Everybody probably sends their lawyers/business managers etc......

Anonymous said...

lol. so chic chooses that particular user name, and then feels the need to point out that it is a he not a she. . .

Anonymous said...

I hate the floor plan - it's all choppy corridors, foyers and anterooms. Even walking from a soak in the larger of the two windowless (?!) master baths back to the master bedroom involves a trek down yet another damn internal hall. And the laundry room is tiny and in a weird location. For a new building, I don't get it.

Anonymous said...

Smile je staat op geenstijl.nl

TT said...

This could really give you much money in the long term!

Anonymous said...

mmmmm 47 miljoen usd; thats about...mmmm...lets say, where is mi calculator, 120000 euro's or so????

Anonymous said...

Smille your on www.geenstijl.nl

Anonymous said...

Nah, $47,500,000... that's a bargain! That's only € 13,65! No need to wrap it up, thank you. It goes along fine just as it is!

Anonymous said...

5.5 bathrooms.. Not 5.65???

Anonymous said...

Is that stairwell the fire escape for the building and the smaller blueprint the unit on the ground floor?

Anonymous said...

BREAKING NEWS:

I just dropped the price on my home from $75,000,000,000,000,000 to an attractive $499,999.

Anonymous said...

Actually, from the looks of the plan, there's not even a bloody balcony that comes with it. Who the heck would wanna buy something they can't even step out during a Sunny day on? $30-$40 mil fer that? Ya gotta be crazy.

Anonymous said...

Does anyone know if this condo is still available?