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If Carrie and Paula can’t sell it… can Dolly?
(Updated 6:27 p.m. with quote from Dolly Lenz) Benny Shabtai, the Raymond Weil watch mogul who has been trying to sell his multi-million dollar Park Avenue townhouse for the better part of the decade, has been shuffling the listing between the queen bees of New York City residential real estate for almost as long.
It looks like Shabtai is hoping the third queen bee — Prudential Douglas Elliman’s Dolly Lenz — is the charm.
After picking up the property, whose façade was designed by 15 Central Park West architect Robert A.M. Stern, for a cool $8.2 million in 2000, Shabtai first put 870 Park Avenue up for sale in early 2004. To assist, he chose Carrie Chiang, the Corcoran Group listing leader who originally showed it to him, for $23 million.
The price was cut to $21 million and then to $19 million before he swapped out Chiang for townhouse guru Paula Del Nunzio of Brown Harris Stevens, who upped the asking price to $33 million in March 2008. Del Nunzio told the Observer at the time that Stern’s success at 15 Central Park West had increased the home’s value.
Apparently, not for long. The price was slashed to $26.75 million later that year before Shabtai pulled the house from the market. When it came back online last March, Del Nunzio had lost the listing to Chiang, who priced it back under $20 million. One year and one price cut later, and Shabtai pulled the listing again.
Now, after a three-month hiatus, the 13-room home is back on the market, and this time Elliman’s top dog is stepping up to the plate. Lenz’s listing, which came online today, asks a relatively middle-of-the-road $24.5 million for the six-bedroom residence, which has four stories, a double-height living room with a “wall of glass overlooking Park Avenue” and a four-passenger elevator. Plans have been approved for a 1,100-square-foot roof garden with a gazebo and hot tub, according to the listing.
Lenz said: “It’s an extraordinary sunlit house in a perfect location — ideal for a family to share.”
Shabtai and Chiang were not immediately available for comment; Del Nunzio declined to comment.
With additional reporting by Yaffi Spodek