From left: 740 Park Avenue, 834 Fifth Avenue, 4 East 66th Street and 2 East 67th Street

From the June issue: Like mushrooms, glass-walled condos and fancy rentals with wine storage popped up with fury across the city in recent years, and seemed to fundamentally alter New York’s housing stock in the process.

No longer would the pinnacle of city living be the exclusive Uptown co-ops that had ruled the roost for decades, the trend seemed to suggest, but instead this new crop of buildings with impressive architecture and an A-to-Z range of luxuries. It didn’t hurt that they were a lot easier to get into.

Indeed, why would a buyer subject himself (or herself) to invasive co-op board packages and taxing interviews, the thinking went, when that buyer could get just as nice a home without having to trot out reference letters galore?

But then a funny thing happened when the recession hit: Many condos tanked in value, in part because their open-door policy was seen as exposing them to risks like job-challenged residents missing maintenance payments. Meanwhile, co-ops, whose residents are required to have deep cash reserves, generally weren’t so hard-hit. [more]

The Manhattan State Supreme Court ruled that the seller of a unit in the co-op building at 812 Fifth Avenue had to return the deposit from a woman who purposely flunked the board interview, the New York Times reported. Demet Sabanci Cetindogan put down a $300,000 deposit to buy Harvey Schuyler’s $3 million unit in 2009, and was set to interview before the co-op board, which her broker, Roger Erickson of Sotheby’s International Realty, called “the most welcoming” he can remember. But the board rejected her after the interview, and Shuyler’s attorney presented emails that showed Cetindogan was concerned the building wouldn’t let her college-age daughter live in the building alone as reason for her to purposely lose the apartment. Comments

• Tweet

The Real Deal has had an action-packed schedule. We hit up the Charity: Water event at 123 East 10th Street, the largest and priciest home available in the East Village, hosted by Rubicon Property. We stopped by Core’s cocktail party on the 17th floor of 812 Fifth Avenue, which was recently redesigned by architect Joseph Dirand. We also dropped by the Griffin Court condominium in Hell’s Kitchen, where Gumley Haft Kleier was hosting a viewing party of this week’s HGTV’s realty reality show “Selling New York.” Meanwhile, back at the office we were letting our fingers do the walking and got some fun nuggets. Click here for more. [more]

The floorplan for Shulsky’s unit in 812 Fifth Avenue (click image for larger version)

Rena Shulsky, the real estate magnate and environmental activist, has put her 812 Fifth Avenue penthouse duplex back on the market, with a new broker and a freshly chopped price.

Time Equities’ Javier Lattanzio now has the listing, and has priced it at $9.9 million. The three-bedroom duplex co-op unit was previously on the market with Ariel Tirosh and Peter Schwartz from Prudential Douglas Elliman, who listed it at $11.75 million last year, then dropped the price to $10.75 million this January before taking it off the market in early April.

Shulsky is the CEO of longtime New York City commercial developer Shire Realty and co-founder of the non-profit organization Green Seal. She originally purchased the three-bedroom apartment in 2007 for $9.23 million, according to city documents. The eight-room spread, with both city and park views, occupies the top two floors of the building and features a wraparound terrace.
[more]