Darren Sukenik and 815 Fifth Avenue

A 25-foot-wide mansion along Fifth Avenue that hit the market last week with a $25 million asking price could ultimately sell for as much as $40 million, according to the Wall Street Journal, which used the property as an example of the strength of the high-end market.

The building, at 815 Fifth Avenue, is currently divided into offices and apartments, but prospective buyers, who hail from around the world, are looking to restore hidden details from the original construction and transform it into a single-family home. [more]

Prudential Douglas Elliman executive vice president Rob Gross, who has been working on 14 West 14th Street for two years.

From the April issue: You can file the bizarre sales situation at 14 West 14th Street under “thanks to the economy. “Rather than sell all their units at post-meltdown discounts, the sponsors of the building decided to sell just one-third of the units. Read: Roughly 20 of the 30 condos will remain in the developer’s hands and be rented out. Because most banks won’t finance buyers in a building where only 33 percent of the units are being sold, the developers, Albert and Robert Dweck, originally said they would sell only to all-cash buyers. Sales started in September. That strategy, not surprisingly, didn’t bear much fruit. No buyers plunked down cash for their apartments out of the gate. But then, after a couple of months, the team finally found a bank, NJ Lenders Corp., willing to finance buyers at the building. [more]

From the December issue: In New York City real estate, buyers have had the upper hand for a
while. With transactions virtually frozen in the wake of last year’s
collapse of Lehman Brothers, sellers grew alarmed, dropping prices and
offering incentives to tempt purchasers. For the first time in a year, however, New York is no longer a
buyer’s market, brokers say. Or at least not the intense buyer’s market
of recent months.
“Neither buyers nor sellers have an obvious upper hand over each
other right now,” said Ric Swezey, a senior associate at the Corcoran
Group.
As the stock market recovered and prices dropped, more buyers –
especially those who put off buying during the financial crisis — came
back into the market, searching for bargain prices. [more]

From the November issue: With third-quarter market reports showing an increase in activity and brokers reporting more deals getting hammered out, the question is: Who has come off the sidelines? The answer may be “trade-up” buyers, or New York homeowners willing to sell for much less than what they would have gotten at the height of the market — so long as they can then buy better property at reduced prices. The thinking behind selling low and upgrading is simple: “It’s a logical step because if you take 20 percent off a $1 million home, and 20 percent off a $2 million home, if you can afford the upgrade, you’re getting a better value” with the more expensive property, said Leah Blesoff, a sales associate with Halstead Property.