The apartment at the Dakota (Image c/o StreetEasy)

A three-bedroom unit at Central Park West’s famously stodgy Dakota has gone into contract, after several price slashes, for $11 million, a far cry from its pre-recession listing price of $19.5 million, Curbed reported.  [more]

The Dakota

From the March issue:  Convincing busy Manhattanites to serve on their co-op or condominium boards has always been somewhat of a hard sell. Indeed, acting as a board member has long been a time-consuming (and often hassle-filled) job. But now, residents have more reason than ever to avoid seeking election to their boards: getting socked with a personal liability lawsuit. Co-op and condo board members have always been open to legal action, but a slew of recently well-publicized lawsuits — most notably a high-profile suit at the famed Dakota on the Upper West Side — that singled out individual board members as defendants have made the risks more visible, sources told The Real Deal. [more]

From left: John Burger, an interior shot of Barnes’ unit and the Dakota

The head of the Dakota’s co-op board, hedge-funder Bruce Barnes apartment at the storied building — listed for $29.6 million — is in contract, Curbed reported. The property was first listed this past April and, according to Streeteasy.com, the price never changed. John Burger at Brown Harris Stevens had the listing. [more]

Alphonse Fletcher Jr. and the Dakota

A New York state judge has allowed the lawyers representing hedge fund manager Alphonse Fletcher Jr. to officially withdraw his lawsuit against the Dakota co-op board, the Wall Street Journal reported.In late October, the law firm Kasowitz Benson Torres & Friedman asked the court to drop Fletcher’s discrimination case, citing non-payment. [more]

Alphonse Fletcher Jr. and the Dakota

Hedge-fund manager Alphonse Fletcher Jr.’s race discrimination lawsuit against the Dakota has hit a major setback that could put the case on ice, according to the Wall Street Journal. The law firm Fletcher hired to represent him, Kasowitz Benson Torres & Friedman, has asked the court to withdraw the case, due to “non-payment of very substantial legal fees.”

Fletcher sued the historic Central Park West building after the co-op board rejected his attempt to purchase the apartment neighboring his own in 2010. He claimed that the board discriminated against him because he is African-American. The co-op board fired back that his bid contained “red flags,” suggesting he could not afford the unit. [more]

Alphonse Fletcher Jr. and the Dakota

New Yorkers may become even more reluctant to sit on the board of their condominium or co-op building. A decision handed down by the state appellate court this month could increase the likelihood that individual board members will be held liable for their building’s decisions, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The decision was made in light of a discrimination case brought by Alphonse Fletcher Jr. against the Dakota co-op. The former president of the Dakota’s board sued the building and board members last year when he was turned down for the purchase of a second unit at the famed West 72nd Street building. The board claimed he couldn’t afford the unit. [more]

Jan-Dirk Paarlberg, the Dutch investor who was convicted of fraud, forgery and money laundering in the Netherlands last year, has unloaded his two-bedroom apartment at the Dakota for $4.6 million, as he continues his battle to stay out of prison.
The six-room co-op at 1 West 72nd Street, which has views of Central Park as well as 14-foot ceilings and comes with a studio on the ninth floor, was one of several residences Paarlberg owned worldwide before he was found guilty of participating in a $23.5 million extortion scheme.

The buyer, public records show, is Bettina Caiola, the widow of New York property owner and Ferrari enthusiast Benny Caiola, who died last year. 
According to previous reports by the Wall Street Journal, Dutch authorities seized Paarlberg’s properties in the Netherlands, Portugal, France and the Netherlands Antilles, and obtained a restraining order from a federal judge in Manhattan last year that prohibited him from selling the Dakota unit without court approval…. [more]

John Madden, the interior of his Dakota apartment, and the private entrance off of the interior courtyard

Hall of Fame football coach-turned-legendary sports commentator John Madden has put the 2,000-square-foot co-op he owns at the Dakota on the market for $4.9 million. According to the Wall Street Journal, Madden, who now lives primarily in the San Francisco Bay Area, purchased the five-room apartment for $625,000 in 1985, from comedian Gilda Radner, who had paid just $150,000 for it during the late 1970s. The Central Park West maisonette, at 72nd Street, has original moldings, two fireplaces and a rare, private entrance off of the storied building’s interior courtyard. … [more]

While the racial bias suit at the Dakota, filed against the tony Upper West Side building’s co-op board early last month, has drawn its share of controversy, it’s also peeled back the curtain on the building’s more eccentric policies, according to the New York Times. The suit, which accuses the co-op board at 1 West 72nd Street of discriminating against building applicants on the basis of race, has led to a body of paperwork detailing the co-op’s rules, including the barring of “domestic employees, messengers and trades people” from service elevators. Also in the rules is a stipulation barring tenants from giving “dance, vocal or instrumental instruction in his or her apartment at any time” and a mandate that “chauffeur-driven vehicles are not allowed to wait in the driveway.” [NYT]

Alphonse Fletcher and the Dakota (Fletcher photo source: NYT)

In a rare move, the co-op board of the Upper West Side’s famed Dakota has fired back at a former president who alleged racial discrimination by releasing financial documents detailing the reasons behind why he was rejected from buying another apartment in the building. According to the New York Times, the board filed a 237-page response in State Supreme Court yesterday to a suit filed by former president and money manager Alphonse Fletcher earlier this month. Fletcher, who still owns three apartments in the building, including one that he bought for his mother in 2001, had claimed that the board barred him from buying a fourth, $5.7 million unit because of his race, citing previous instances of board prejudice he’d observed against actor Antonio Banderas and singer Roberta Flack. … [more]