Co-op board rejects buyer of heiress Huguette Clark’s co-ops

The co-op board at 907 Fifth Avenue has provided a setback to what was otherwise seen as a quick sale of heiress’ Huguette Clark’s three units in the building. According to the Wall Street Journal, the board rejected Qatar Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani’s bid to combine two of her apartments into a five-bedroom home overlooking Central Park. As a result, the units will likely return to the market.

The two units were on the eighth floor and listed for a total of $31 million by Mary Rutherfurd and Leslie Coleman of Brown Harris Stevens. A number of offers came in above the asking price — another sign of the rebounding demand for high-end co-ops — but all were predicated on the ability to combine the units, brokers told the Journal. Boaz Weinstein, a well-known trader formerly of Deutsche Bank, is in contract for to buy the third unit for nearly its full $24 million asking price, MSNBC reported.

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The board reportedly rejected the combination bid because it din’t want one owner to hold such a large share of the co-op, and the accompanying votes, over all the residents of the building’s many smaller units.

It’s unclear how this ruling would affect a $25 million unit listed in the building, marketed by John Burger of Brown Harris Stevens, that is a combination of three units divided from an apartment that was one large unit when the co-op first opened. [WSJ] and [MSNBC]