From left: 1280 Fifth Avenue, 4 East 102nd Street and 1212 Fifth Avenue

A trio of Upper East Side developments will test the traditional northern boundary for luxury buildings, the Financial Times reported.

The projects — 1280 Fifth Avenue, 4 East 102nd Street and 1212 Fifth Avenue — will test the East 96th Street line Manhattanites have long considered the separation between the Upper East Side and Harlem. But the new developments offer the amenities of buildings to the south and all three were designed by “brand-name” architects. While 1280 Fifth Avenue and 4 East 102nd Street are new developments, by Brickman and Durst Fetner Residential, respectively, 1212 Fifth Avenue is a conversion.

The Robert Stern-designed 1280 Fifth, the furthest north, at 109th Street, is anchored by the African Museum of Art. [more]

Andrew Heiberger has recruited 265 agents
and staff since launching Town a year ago.From the December issue: When Andrew Heiberger launched the residential brokerage Town, he prophesied that it would become the city’s biggest firm, vowing to hire the industry’s “best and the brightest.”

A year later, at least part of that prediction is on its way to coming true. With five offices and some 265 agents and staff, Town is undoubtedly the fastest-growing brokerage in Manhattan. By way of comparison, Rutenberg Realty — until now the city’s most rapidly expanding firm — didn’t top 200 agents until three years after its 2006 launch. (Rutenberg, in contrast to Town, has a low-overhead business model with just one small office.)

It’s still too soon to tell, however, whether Town’s agents will become the city’s best. At press time, Town said it had 152 exclusive listings worth approximately $405 million, with an average asking price of $2.67 million for sales and $7,500 per month for rentals.

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From the December issue: As the year draws to a close, the future seems as opaque as a glass of eggnog. Some real estate professionals say pent-up demand in the residential market could foster a busy 2012, while others predict that a sluggish economy will keep prices and activity in check.

Citi Habitats vice president Jay Molishever said the high rents, relatively low sales prices and increasing activity he is seeing in the current market are good signs for the New Year.

“At some point,” he said, “the kindling is going to burst into flames again,” bringing high prices and high volume. [more]

Sandy Weill and his 15 CPW penthouse

Former Citigroup Chairman Sandy Weill has found a buyer for his 15 Central Park West penthouse that had an asking price of $88 million, the New York Post reported.

The prospective buyer has not yet signed a contract and his or her identity could not be revealed, but sources told the Post the buyer hails from outside the United States.

Weill bought the 6,744-square-foot penthouse with a 2,077-square-foot terrace in 2007 for $43.7 million. [more]

From left: 1280 Fifth Avenue and Tom Postillo, Natalie Rakowski and Parul Brahmbhatt, all of Core

East Harlem’s new 116-unit tower on Central Park, 1280 Fifth Avenue, will no longer be marketed through Nancy Packes and Brown Harris Stevens Project Marketing. The developer, Brickman, has opted instead for Core, The Real Deal has learned.

“We appreciate the initial involvement and contribution from Brown Harris Stevens on the pre-development and initial marketing of 1280 Fifth Avenue,” Brickman’s principal Bruce Brickman said, though he declined to give any specifics on why the company made the switch. Nancy Packes declined to comment, citing confidentiality arrangements. [more]

Lenox Hill single-family mansions have become some of the city’s most in-demand properties, the Wall Street Journal reported, but they’re rare and often pricey.

The median asking price for a Lenox Hill home is $1.2 million, or $1,045 per square foot, according to data from Streeteasy.com, compared to $1,020 a square foot in the Carnegie Hill neighborhood and $999 a square foot on the Upper West Side. Closing prices for townhouses in Lenox Hill have ranged from $8 million to $48 million since 2008, data shows.

“It’s rare to find a house in Manhattan” that is the size of the single-family homes in Lenox Hill, said Susan Greenfield, senior vice president at Brown Harris Stevens. [more]

A view of Jed Garfield, of Leslie J. Garfield & Co.’s kitchen and upstairs living room, which is filled with Damien Hirst paintings and sketches

From the November issue: A New Yorker’s address is a marker of identity — especially if the New Yorker is a residential real estate broker. This month, The Real Deal peeked inside the homes of some of Manhattan’s top brokers to find out what’s behind their front doors.

The five brokers we visited, who were all in the top 20 on The Real Deal’s latest list of top Manhattan agents (published earlier this year, in the June issue), may specialize in different sectors of the market, but they have all used their industry knowledge to pounce on insider deals and access otherwise obscure properties.

So it’s perhaps no surprise that their own homes seem to match up with the homes that fuel their businesses. [more]

From left: Former Citigroup Chairman and CEO Sanford Weill and 15 CPWFormer Citigroup Chairman and CEO Sanford Weill is putting his 15 Central Park West penthouse on the market for $88 million, more than twice what he paid for it in 2007, the Wall Street Journal reported. Weill and his wife plan to donate the proceeds to charity and downsize to a sixth-floor apartment they own in the building.

The Weills paid $43.7 million for the 6,744-square-foot apartment in 2007, or more than $6,400 per square foot, then a record for price paid per square foot. The current price per square foot record holder is another penthouse in the building, which sold for $40 million, or $9,940 per square foot, in December 2010, according to the Journal. [more]

A home on the Delafield EstatesNow on its fourth development attempt, the Delafield Estates in Riverdale could finally become what developers first envisioned for the 10.4-acre Bronx site back in 1980, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The estates, once owned by early Bank of America President Edward Delafield who resided in a mansion on the property, before donating it to Columbia University in 1965 in hopes it would become a botanical gardens. But facing budget shortfalls a decade later, the university put it on the market and a buyer got approval for a gated community of 33 compact houses clustered together on about three of the acres, with the remaining seven left for shared woodland. [more]

William Zeckendorf, co-developer of 15 Central Park West and a co-owner of Terra Holdings, parent company of Halstead Property and Brown Harris Stevens, has gone into contract to buy a two-bedroom, 17th-floor apartment at 740 Park Avenue, a building once owned by his grandfather, for $27 million, the New York Post reported.

The 10-room apartment is owned by video game magnate Gregory Fischbach and his wife Linda, who bought the apartment in 1994 for $6.3 million. It was once owned by John D. Rockefeller, who planned to join the unit with his duplex below but never did.

Zeckendorf has been busy maneuvering his personal real estate assets of late. [more]