535 West End Avenue penthouse
Extell Development has split the $37.5 million penthouse of 535 West End Avenue originally intended for the firm’s head into two apartments asking a combined $45 million, the Wall Street Journal reported.
When the 22-unit building hit the market in 2008, brokers were told the unit was being held for Extell President Gary Barnett, who was considering a move to the Upper West Side from Queens. [more]
The TouraineAbout a year and a half ago, I wrote an article in The Real Deal about 535 West End Avenue, a fine example of contextualism by the Chicago-based architect Lucien Lagrange. It was the architect’s first building in Manhattan and, I assumed, his last: citing a growing disenchantment with the profession, a downturn in the Chicago market, and impending bankruptcy, Lagrange had just announced his retirement at the relatively young age (for an architect) of 69. But, after Lagrange closed his own firm, he went on to join VOA Associates, also of Chicago, which describes itself as specializing in “luxury residential, hospitality and commercial mixed-use markets.” [more]
Brian MaddenBrian Madden, president and co-founder of title insurer Liberty Title Agency, was sentenced to 20 months in prison for misappropriating and embezzling escrow and other client funds from Liberty Title and two other insurance agencies he controlled, the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced today.
Beginning when the real estate market was crashing in 2008, Madden took about $2.2 million from Liberty Title. To support these withdrawals, Madden paid current client debts with new funds he collected from other clients. – Adam Fusfeld [more]
Extell Development President Gary Barnett has listed his duplex penthouse at Extell’s 535 West End Avenue for $37.5 million, which, if it closed for that price, would rank it among the top 20 apartments ever sold in Manhattan, according to the Wall Street Journal. The apartment features 11 full bathrooms, two half-baths and 2,400 square feet of terrace.
“The residence is one of a kind in New York City,” Barnett said. “At one point we were thinking we would perhaps live there. Whatever plans there were have changed. We are not moving.” [more]
Even as the land sales market has improved in Manhattan overall, the number of developers actively trying to put together sites remains just a handful, far fewer than during the boom. One of the city’s leading professionals in the business, Dov Hertz, an executive vice president at Gary Barnett’s Extell Development, spoke with Insights from The Real Deal about the current number of deals he believed are underway in Manhattan, and about the time someone backed out of a deal to sell air rights.
Hertz leads the acquisitions arm of Extell, one of the most prolific residential developers in the city. He has led or had a hand in Extell’s major assemblages, including two projects still under development, the 34-story International Gem Tower at 50 West 47th Street and the 74-story Carnegie57, at 157 West 57th Street, spanning the mid-block between Sixth and Seventh avenues and 57th and 58th streets. He has also put together sites for completed residential towers, including the 110-unit Lucida, at 151 East 85th Street; the Ariel East and West; and the 22-unit 535 West End Avenue.
In addition, Robert Knakal, chairman of investment brokerage Massey Knakal Realty Services, weighs in on how many sites are being assembled now, and where they are located. [more]
From left: 995 Fifth Avenue, 535 West End Avenue, the Lucida and Michele Kleier
Gumley Haft Kleier, the boutique New York City brokerage made nationally famous by HGTV’s “Selling New York” last year, is “very seriously considering opening up a division to represent new developments,” co-president Michele Kleier told the New York Times. The television starlet has been getting lots of business from Gary Barnett’s Extell Development lately, including trophy listings at 995 Fifth Avenue, 535 West End Avenue and the Lucida. Four or five listings in another new development are also coming her way soon, she said, declining to identify the property. “I would love to represent a whole building,” Kleier said. “Truthfully, we have never been set up for it.” [NYT] [more]
535 West End AvenuePower broker Dolly Lenz of Prudential Douglas Elliman has been found liable for withholding commission from a former colleague in a $13.7 million sale of a seven-bedroom penthouse at Extell’s 535 West End Avenue. In a judgment issued Jan. 3, the State Supreme Court ordered Lenz to pay close to $90,000 to settle the dispute, Real Estate Weekly reported. “I always try to stand up for what I believe in, and, just because Dolly Lenz is a power broker, it doesn’t give her the right not to honor her agreement,” said Jona Rechnitz, the former director of Africa-Israel acquisitions who brought the suit and who now runs JSR Capital, a real estate development company. [more]
From left: 535 West End Avenue and Dolly LenzA full-floor unit at Extell Development’s 535 West End Avenue has sold for $12.91 million — 40 percent less tha [more]
From left: 535 West End Avenue and Dolly LenzA full-floor unit at Extell Development’s 535 West End Avenue has sold for $12.91 million — 40 percent less tha [more]
The 13-room townhouse at 247 Central Park West, which broke an Upper West Side sales record when it last changed hands, is back on the market for another potentially record-breaking $32 million.
The 12,270-square-foot mansion, near West 85th Street, belongs to retail mogul Keith Monda, the former Coach co-president and chief operating officer, property records show. He bought it from Walt Disney’s grandniece, Abigail Disney, for $15.5 million in 2006 — at the time marking the Upper West Side’s highest-priced single-family townhouse sale to date. Currently, that title belongs to 26 West 76th Street, which sold for $19.3 million last month.
The five-bedroom, Edward Angell-designed spread is one of the few remaining single-family homes on Central Park West. Erected in 1887 by builder William Noble, the home would have been demolished in the 1920s and replaced with an apartment building if not for architect W. Gedney Beatty, who owned it at the time and refused to sell.
Among 247 Central Park West’s most noteworthy features today is an indoor, 60-foot lap pool, a domed skylight in the entry parlor and a roof terrace with views of Central Park. It also has an elevator, two offices, and two additional outdoor spaces. [more]
