From left: 15 CPW, Time Warner Center and the Plaza

Not only is the high-end of the Manhattan housing market healthy, but in some respects it’s performing just as well as it did during the market’s peak, according to the Wall Street Journal. Seven deals worth more than $30 million have been recorded this year, not including Sanford Weill’s recent $88 million sale, the most since 2008 and the third-most ever. Further, the $6,000 per square foot price point that was noteworthy even in 2008 has become somewhat more commonplace, the Journal said.

The astronomical prices are buoyed by a shortage of ultra-luxury apartments, according to brokers, as the world’s wealthiest people are moving assets right now. … [more]

Edward Mermelstein, an attorney and managing partner with Rheem Bell & Mermelstein, and the Russian flag

Russian magnates are spending massive amounts of money on residential real estate in the New York area, in Manhattan and some parts of Long Island, according to Edward Mermelstein, an attorney and managing partner with Rheem Bell & Mermelstein, who told Moscow-based website Russia Beyond the Headlines that half of his company’s current deals involve clients from Russia and the Ukraine, an enormous increase in the last few months.

“I rarely see Russians buying property for less than $800,000 to 900,000,” Mermelstein said.

As The Real Deal previously reported, one of the most important things for Russian buyers is a desirable location. “Russians usually buy real estate in the best buildings in prime locations, focusing on Park Avenue, Central Park West, Central Park South, Fifth Avenue and 57th Street,” said Victoria Logvinsky, a vice president at Prudential Douglas Elliman. “You often hear a Russian client asking where the best buildings and best apartments are.” … [more]

David Tepper and a view of the Sagaponack mansion he plans to demolishThis season’s hottest Hamptons real estate trend? Multi-million-dollar teardowns. According to the Post, some of New York’s most deep-pocketed buyers are planning demolitions of some of the East End’s priciest mansions. One such buyer is hedge fund manager David Tepper, who last May picked up a $43.5 million Sagaponack estate from Joanne Dougherty, the ex-wife of former New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, in the Hamptons’ priciest sale of 2010. He’s rented out the home for the summer to billionaire Henry Silverman for $900,000, after which he plans to raze it. David Walentas is also giving his East End mansion one last hurrah before leveling the property. … [more]

Libet Johnson, heiress to the Johnson & Johnson fortune and the sister of Jets owner Woody Johnson, has been exposed as the buyer of this year’s priciest residential sale to date, the Vanderbilt Mansion at 16 East 69th Street, for which she has just handed over upwards of $48 million. That price is also the highest paid for a Manhattan townhouse since the fall of Lehman Brothers in 2008. According to the Post, Johnson is a close friend of seller and fellow heiress Sloan Lindemann Barnett and her husband, beauty.com founder Roger Barnett, which explains why the couple was able to sell the mansion without a broker. … [more]

An Upper East Side townhouse has just gone into contract to an anonymous buyer for upwards of $47 million, which would make for the priciest single-family home sale in New York City since the collapse of Lehman Brothers. According to the Wall Street Journal, the five-story, 33-foot-wide townhouse at 16 East 69th Street, once owned by the Vanderbilts, wasn’t officially listed. And after three years of quietly showing the mansion to prospective buyers, the owners — author and cell phone heiress Sloan Lindemann Barnett and her husband, Beauty.com founder Roger Barnett — have found one, sans broker, meaning that no one will be taking home a commission on what will surely be one of the city’s biggest deals of the year…. [more]

A floorplan for the $55 million combination spread, Yankees star Alex Rodriguez, who used to rent the lesser of the two units, and the exterior of 15 Central Park West

Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez has officially moved out of his blockbuster 15 Central Park West rental, but those hoping to snag his place are out of luck — at least until next year.

Leroy Schecter, the steel mogul who owns both A-Rod’s former unit and the one next door, and who has been trying to sell them for a combined $55 million since last March, pulled the listing from the market this week. Emily Beare, the Core broker in charge of marketing the 35th-floor condominiums on Schecter’s behalf, told The Real Deal that the owner is planning to physically combine the units in an attempt to generate higher offers…. [more]

There’s a new record in town. Russian composer Igor Krutoy has closed on the 6,000-square-foot Plaza Hotel condominium he chose last month after an epic search for Manhattan trophy apartments, and according to the Post, he paid $48 million for the 12th-floor pad. That’s the priciest single condo ever sold in New York — and the musician isn’t even getting the whole floor in the deal. As the Wall Street Journal reported when the contract was signed, Krutoy
and his wife, Olga, had been making offers on all the big-ticket condos
in the city — including the $55 million, two-unit combo at 15 Central
Park West and equally stunning listings at the Time Warner Center —
before settling on the Plaza spread, which has views of Central Park but
wasn’t officially on the market. … [more]

Russian composer Igor Krutoy and his wife, Olga, have wrapped up an epic search for Manhattan trophy apartments with a contract signing for a Plaza Hotel condominium for upwards of $40 million, according to the Wall Street Journal. If the sale closes, it will be the second-priciest residential sale in the city since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, behind the Duke Semans Mansion, which sold for $44 million last year. (William Zeckendorf’s own penthouse atop 15 Central Park West is also reportedly in contract for $40 million). For their money, the Krutoys will get around 6,000 square feet with views of Central Park — a combination of at least two renovated units — that wasn’t officially on the market, brokers said. … [more]