From left: Miki Naftali, the Plaza, 21 Astor Place and the Grand Madison

Miki Naftali has stepped down as CEO of Elad Properties, which owns the Plaza Hotel, the New York Post reported. Despite speculation that controversy in the Plaza Hotel led to his stepping down, Miki Naftali insisted that was not the case. Naftali, who forged the $675 million purchase of the Plaza in 2004, vacated his role to pursue a new venture that includes an investment in an undisclosed mixed-use space in the city. Naftali will hold on to a 49 percent stake in Elad Properties. According to the Post, insiders believed Naftali was under fire from his boss, Isaac Tshuva who owns Elad Properties’ parent company the Elad Group, because of an inability to land long-term tenants in the hotel’s restaurant and retail spaces. [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]

The owners of the Plaza Hotel’s Oak Room have decided to close the legendary restaurant amid a bitter dispute with their landlord. According to the New York Times, Oak Room owner Eli Gindi gave the Plaza a 90-day notice of departure three weeks ago, after landlord Elad Group said the Oak Room would have to either cancel its lucrative “Day and Night” Saturday afternoon parties or pay more than twice its current rent. That brought lease negotiations to a halt, prompting Elad to sue Gindi for $33.3 million over “numerous violations of the lease, unacceptable activities and significant financial arrears.” [more]

Plaza Hotel landlord Elad Properties has filed a $33.3 million lawsuit against the owners of its famed Oak Room and Bar, decrying its recent lack of class. According to the Post, owners Jeffrey and Eli Gindi have allowed the reputation of the legendary eatery to falter, hosting regular Burlesque shows and encouraging “raucous and/or vulgar” behavior, loud music, and illegal drug use, in addition to failing a city health inspection and garnering less-than-stellar restaurant reviews, the suit alleges. [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]

Kelsey Grammer and the Bridgehampton home he recently sold

Former “Fraiser” star and newlywed Kelsey Grammer has found a buyer for his 7,500-square-foot Bridgehampton mansion, according to the New York Post. The undisclosed buyer paid the property’s full $9.95 million asking price. Although this recent property sale leaves Grammer without a Hamptons hideaway for the time being, the actor said he’s considering buying another East End home in the future. As for rumors that Grammer was planning to buy a Plaza pad? Totally false, said Grammer, who bought a $7.52 million, 3,000-square-foot apartment in Jean Nouvel’s 100 11th Avenue condominium last November. [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]