Clockwise from left: the apartment at the Time Warner Center, Jay-Z and buyer Taek Jho Low

The buyer of Time Warner Center pad previously rented by Jay-Z has been revealed as an entity linked to Malaysian party boy Taek Jho Low, according to the New York Post. At $31 million, or more than $6,400 per square foot, Low paid more than anyone else has ever paid at the luxury site.

This is not an unusual purchase for Low, who has partied regularly with Lindsay Lohan, Megan Fox and Paris Hilton. He has owned various trophy properties, including a $33 million penthouse, formerly owned by Donald Trump, on Central Park West, which he sold at a $3 million loss last year.

Insiders told the Post that a “bevy of beautiful Asian women trailed by American men in suits” toured the glamorous 76th-floor condo several times during the negotiations. [more]

The 4,825-square-foot Time Warner Center penthouse once rented by Jay-Z has gone into contract for $31 million, according to the Post. At over $6,400 per square foot, the deal would be the priciest ever at the Related Companies-developed condominium tower. The 76th-floor spread has tried for building records before; in 2010, current owner Todd Wagner, Mark Cuban’s co-founder of Broadcast.com, put it on the market with the penthouse upstairs as a potential $73.5 million combination — the most expensive listing in Manhattan. On its own, Wagner’s apartment, which he bought from investor Michael Hirtenstein for $27 million in 2007, was last asking $38 million. [more]

The penthouse at 1 York Street

The sprawling 15-room penthouse on top of the new condominium project in Tribeca at 1 York Street sold for $23.7 million, or [more]

The 76th-floor Time Warner Center penthouse that Jay-Z once rented for $40,000 per month is back on the market for $38 million with Prudential Douglas Elliman’s Raphel and Claudine De Niro. That’s $11 million more than what it sold for in 2007, when Todd Wagner, the dot-com era business partner of Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, purchased the four-bedroom, five-and-a-half-bathroom apartment for $27 million, or $5,596 per square foot, from telecom entrepreneur and real estate investor Michael Hirtenstein. Hirtenstein had bought it for $15.7 million but later had second thoughts about moving his 10-year-old daughter into the place. He rented the penthouse to Jay-Z instead before selling it to Wagner in what was, at the time, the highest price-per-square-foot ever paid for a Manhattan condo. [Curbed] 

An Asian financier calling himself “J. Lo” is reportedly looking to buy up luxe apartments in Manhattan’s premier buildings with haste. Lo, who is currently renting a $100,000-per-month condo at West 56th Street’s Park Imperial, counting neighbors like Daniel Craig, Sean “Diddy” Combs and Deepak Chopra, also recently signed a contract at the Park Laurel on West 63rd Street. He is reported to have paid nearly $28 million for the 7,758-square-foot spot that belonged to Israeli philanthropist Ephraim Gildor. Lo hasn’t made an offer yet on the $31 million penthouse he visited at Trump Park Avenue, but he did bid almost $40 million on Broadcast.com founder Todd Wagner’s apartment at the Time Warner Center, which, unfortunately for Lo, isn’t actually for sale. Wagner bought the 4,800-square-foot penthouse, once famously rented by Jay-Z, from real estate investor Michael Hirtenstein in 2007. Observers have noticed Lo’s black Cadillac Escalades idling outside his current rental, where he’s had shopping bags from Bergdorf Goodman delivered to his door. [Post, 1st item]

From the October issue: When the buyer of a new development condo on the Upper West Side broke
his sales contract last spring, he didn’t regret forfeiting the
$250,000 deposit. By his estimate, the $2.5 million condo had lost far
more of its value — some $800,000 — since he agreed to purchase it. “He thought, ‘I’m losing less money walking away from my contract
deposit. I’m not going to throw good money after bad,’” said Steven
Sladkus, a partner at law firm Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman &
Herz, and the buyer’s attorney. So Sladkus was surprised to get a call from the buyer a few weeks ago
asking if the sponsor would sell him the unit after all — for the
right price.

Michael Hirtenstein has closed on his $16.8 million, five-apartment purchase at One York Street, on the corner of St. Johns Lane, in Tribeca. Telecommunications mogul Hirtenstein had earlier walked away from a deal to buy six units for more than $25 million in the Enrique Norton-designed building. He ended up purchasing a 9,000-square-foot residence with 6,000 square feet of outdoor space. He told the New York Post he plans to use the home for philanthropic events.

Former telecom mogul Michael Hirtenstein’s $20 million townhouse at 23 Gramercy Park South is in contract, the New York Observer reported. Hirtenstein purchased the house for $14.5 million in February 2007 and put it back on the market in July of that year for $22 million. In September 2008, while Hirtenstein bought and sold real estate elsewhere in the city, including an $11.495 million condominium at the Plaza, the price of the Gramercy Park South townhouse went up to $25 million. It was cut back to $22 million in November and to $20 million in February. [more]