Carnegie Hill commercial condo trades for $20.3M

Building was site of high-profile Landmarks dispute involving Woody Allen

Prudential Insurance Company of America has paid $20.3 million to Aegon USA Realty Advisors for a commercial unit in 47 East 91st Street, a luxury Carnegie Hill condominium building that was at the center of a heated landmarking dispute about a decade ago. Thomas Schefter, a senior vice president at Aegon, handled the deal on behalf of the seller.

The building, designed by Platt Byard Dovell White Architects, has eight full-floor apartments and a duplex penthouse, as well as a Citibank branch.

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In the late 1990s, developer Cary Tamarkin, who acquired the lot from Citibank, had sought to erect an “as-of right” 17-story luxury apartment condominium on the property. But he was stymied by the efforts of local community activists, who enlisted Woody Allen in their successful campaign to have the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission reject the project’s design. In 2003, Tamarkin-who later helped complete the construction of troubled Flatiron condominium One Madison Park–built a smaller, nine-story building with tall corner windows on the East 91st Street site at Madison Avenue.

Representatives from the buyer and seller did not immediately respond to a request for comment.