Brooke Astor and her home at 778 Park Avenue

Brooke Astor’s 14-room duplex at 778 Park Avenue, once listed for $46 million, is now in contract “in the high teens,” sources told the Post. The apartment, which takes up the 15th and 16th floors of the Rosario Candela-designed building, has been on the market since Astor died in 2007 — most recently, for $24.9 million. But despite the commitment from this mystery buyer, the Astor estate is said to be “simply dying to get another bid” and is still giving tours of the home to interested buyers in the hopes that they’ll crack the $20 million threshold. ” class=”read-more-link”>[more]

A full-floor apartment at Extell Development’s conversion of the former
Stanhope Hotel at 995 Fifth Avenue into luxury residences sold for $17
million, a savings of 45 percent from the original asking price of $31
million. The 8,360-square-foot cond-op unit has six bedrooms and eight and a
half baths, a listing on the Web site of sales and marketing agent
Corcoran Group Marketing says. The 14th-floor sponsor unit in the 17-story Rosario Candela-designed
building was originally offered for $31 million early last year,
according to Streeteasy.com. City property records published today identify the buyer as Stanhope 14 LLC. The buyers apparently don’t plan to hold on to the property for long.
The apartment has been listed for nearly three months with an asking
price of $25.5 million with Prudential Douglas Elliman’s DeNiro Group,
Streeteasy.com shows. [more]

Jason Capello, who left the hedge fund Ospraie Management in 2007 to start his own firm, paid $15.45 million for a condominium in a Rosario Candela building at 40 East 66th Street, recently restored by Vornado Realty Trust. The sponsor-owned unit was listed as a four-bedroom with 4,913 square feet by the Corcoran Group for $16.25 million. Capello closed on the purchase April 13 after going into contract in June 2008, city property records published today show.
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