William Zeckendorf, co-developer of 15 Central Park West and a co-owner of Terra Holdings, parent company of Halstead Property and Brown Harris Stevens, has gone into contract to buy a two-bedroom, 17th-floor apartment at 740 Park Avenue, a building once owned by his grandfather, for $27 million, the New York Post reported.

The 10-room apartment is owned by video game magnate Gregory Fischbach and his wife Linda, who bought the apartment in 1994 for $6.3 million. It was once owned by John D. Rockefeller, who planned to join the unit with his duplex below but never did.

Zeckendorf has been busy maneuvering his personal real estate assets of late. [more]

William Zeckendorf and 927 Fifth Avenue

William Lie Zeckendorf could probably teach his legion of real estate brokers a thing or two about doing a deal. According to the New York Observer, the co-owner of Terra Holdings, parent company of Halstead Property and Brown Harris Stevens, flipped the top half of a 927 Fifth Avenue duplex for as much as $5 million profit in a matter of six months.

Sources told the Observer that the five-bedroom spread sold for “well over” its $31.5 million asking price, and may have even brought in more than $34 million. Zeckendorf paid $29.1 million for the portion of Bruce Wasserstein’s old duplex in a one-day auction in December. BHS’ John Burger brokered the deal but wasn’t available for comment. [more]

Another day, another stunning 15 Central Park West resale attempt.

On the 37th floor of the Zeckendorf brothers’ limestone masterpiece, the owners of a 2,761-square-foot, three-bedroom spread are angling for a roughly $13 million profit on their original purchase price.

The $23.95 million asking price for the unit, which belongs to William Lawrence, founder of Meridian Capital Partners, and his wife, Gloria, and which popped up on the resale market yesterday, places it squarely in the building’s top tier, though it is hardly setting records.

But nonetheless, a 124 percent markup (the Lawrences’ paid just under $10.7 million for the apartment in 2008) is nothing to sneeze at, and is one of the most ambitious resale attempts in the past year at one of the city’s most celebrated condominiums. [more]

From left: William Zeckendorf, Bruce Wasserstein and 927 Fifth Avenue

Developer William Zeckendorf paid $29.1 million for the duplex cooperative unit at 927 Fifth Avenue, once owned by the late investment banking executive Bruce Wasserstein.

Zeckendorf and his wife Laura Weiser closed Dec. 22 on the purchase of the 11th floor unit from the Wasserstein estate, according to city records published today. The sale price was originally reported in November to be about $27 million. TRD [more]

For New York City real estate, 2010 in many ways marked a return to normalcy after the tumultuous aftermath of the financial crisis. As the ubiquitous real estate appraiser and Miller Samuel CEO Jonathan Miller put it: “it was a year of a sense of relief.” City home prices stopped their freefall and sales activity improved considerably from the post-Lehman doldrums. Stalled condominium projects like the Sheffield and 1 Rector Park re-started sales. Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim bought Tamir Sapir’s Fifth Avenue townhouse, the Duke Semans mansion, for $44 million. As the unspoken taboo on ostentatious spending faded, a number of high-end residential properties changed hands at the end of the year, including Brooke Astor’s 14-room duplex at 778 Park Avenue, which finally sold after two years on the market (albeit for a significant discount from its original asking price). Japanese retailer Uniqlo snagged 89,000 square feet at 666 Fifth Avenue’s former Brooks Brothers space for a record $300 million, demonstrating that retail is still thriving along the posh shopping corridor.
But the economic downturn continued to make its presence felt. The office market remained uneven and troubled lender iStar Financial fought to stave off bankruptcy amid lingering fears of a double-dip recession.
Here are The Real Deal staff’s picks for the stories that most altered the New York City real estate landscape in 2010, in alphabetical order. [more]

BHS’ Mary Rutherfurd, Bruce Wasserstein and 927 Fifth Avenue

William Zeckendorf, who was revealed yesterday to be on his way to a city record after finding a buyer who agreed to pay $40 million for his 15 Central Park West penthouse, has made a noteworthy offer of his own across town. According to the Post, the developer has put in a bid for around $27 million on the 927 Fifth Avenue co-op owned by late investment banking honcho Bruce Wasserstein, and the sellers have accepted. The 11th-floor duplex just hit the market Oct. 29 for $26 million, and was such a hot commodity that brokers were given only until the end of Halloween weekend to come up with sealed bids from their buyers. Sources said Zeckendorf’s winning bid was not the highest, but the Post noted that the developer co-owns Brown Harris Stevens, whose Mary Rutherford was the listing broker. [Post]

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15 Central Park West

William Zeckendorf’s own 15 Central Park West penthouse is in contract for $40 million, or a record $10,259 a foot, according to the Post. That’s a per-square-foot residential real estate record for the city, the paper said, besting the $10,151 per square foot that Kazakhstani Bolat Nazarbaev — brother of the country’s president — paid for his apartment at the Plaza in 2008. The 41st-floor condo has three-bedrooms, three-and-a-half bathrooms and a litany of famous neighbors including Sting, Alex Rodriguez and Kelsey Grammer. Zeckendorf, who lives in the apartment, paid his development company $10.7 million for it during the building’s pre-construction stage in 2005. [Post]

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Developer Kent Swig was denied a motion to reargue or stay enforcement of a $32 million judgment by Square Mile Structured Debt yesterday. New York State Supreme Court Judge Bernard Fried ruled that Swig failed to prove any legal errors that would allow him to reopen or delay the case. The judgment was issued against Swig after he defaulted on a $28 million personal loan from Square Mile that was used to help develop the troubled Sheffield57 condominium near Columbus Circle. Fried denied the motion despite allegations that Swig was denied access to critical documents and that Square Mile misrepresented key facts to Swig. Fried ruled that the only way to issue a stay would be if the court “overlooked or misapprehended the facts or the law.” The ruling will likely provide further hardship for Swig and his considerable number of real estate assets, which include Swig Equities, the real estate development firm, Helmsley-Spear, the commercial real estate firm previously owned by Harry Helmsley and Terra Holdings (where he is co-chairman and co-owner), the parent company of Brown Harris Stevens and Halstead Property. [more]

Developer and Terra Holdings Co-Chairman Kent Swig, has filed suit against an asset management firm for withholding nearly all of his compensation after a restraining order was issued to enforce a multi-million dollar judgment by Square Mile Structured Debt. Swig filed suit Sept. 24 against Manhattan-based Properties Asset Management Services in New York State Supreme Court, alleging the firm is withholding his compensation after Square Mile sent a subpoena requesting information about Swig’s salary and other compensation at Terra. No information was immediately available on the current amount of Swig’s compensation. [more]