First resale of desired D-line in 15 CPW on market

15 Central Park West, 25D

The first of 15 Central Park West’s coveted D-line is available for resale, according to listing broker Andre Rouach, a vice president and associate broker at Prudential Douglas Elliman.

The 2,434-square-foot home, 25D, is on the market for $16.5 million, or $6,778 per square foot, nearly three times the $5.99 million the owners paid when they closed on the unit in December of 2007, according to city data.

Rouach said the leap in price reflects the fact that the current owner bought the three-bedroom unit from a floorplan in 2005, though it didn’t close until two years later.

“This is a four-year appreciation,” he said.

He added that the owners, who use the home as a pied-a-terre, have spent millions professionally decorating the home. The price includes all the furnishings, including a Li Li oil painting, a Steinway Boston Piano and an antique French curio cabinet filled with Haviland China.

“It’s really in move-in condition,” he said.

According to public records, the sellers are Lawrence Mueller and his wife Mary Kay. They declined to comment through Rouach.

Lawrence Mueller, a retired tech executive, is no stranger to profitable flips. In 2006, the couple sold a Colorado mansion they purchased for $3.6 million in 1999 to professional golfer David Duval for $12.5 million, after remodeling the garages and adding a barn, according to the Denver Post.

But the time for such flips may no longer be ripe, even at Robert A.M. Stern-designed 15 Central Park West.

A resale penthouse in the limestone building had its asking priced hacked by $32.5 million in October, dropping to $47.5 million from $80 million. The listing is now no longer available on Streeteasy.com.

The last closed sale at 15 Central Park West was for 2C. The unit, which is larger than the Muellers’, albeit on a lower floor, sold for $11 million, far below its original asking price of $16.5 million, according to city data.

Another three-bedroom unit, 14K, closed in December for $8.7 million, down from its original listing price of $9.85 million.

By contrast, Rouach pointed out, three-bedroom 38A closed in December for $27 million.

He added that the D-line, which faces northeast and has Central Park views on three sides, is the “most coveted” in the building. So far, none of the owners of D-line units have sold, he said.

Rouach added that the Zeckendorf-developed building isn’t as vulnerable as other buildings to the vagaries of the real estate market.

“Fifteen Central Park West is its own market,” he said. “Phenomenal apartments like the D-line, they’re not dictated by how the market is doing.”