$55 million 15 CPW combo yanked off market

Seller plans construction as former tenant A-Rod moves on to the Rushmore


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.

“Most people coming in to buy something like that want a finished apartment,” Beare said of the soon-to-be trophy home, which, once combined into a single, 5,600-square-foot spread, will be one of the largest at the Upper West Side behemoth.

Construction is likely to take about a year, Beare said, and depending on where the market is by the time it’s finished, a price hike may be on the horizon.

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But even with the $55 million price tag, Schecter’s listing has already been among the priciest ever for a condo in New York City. For about four months in 2008, a penthouse at the building was listed for $80 million, but that asking price was later reduced to $47.5 million and the apartment sold in 2009 for $37 million. In December, 15 Central Park West developer William Zeckendorf himself sold a 41st-floor penthouse there for $40 million in an off-market transaction that cracked a city record for price per square foot: it went for a staggering $10,259 per.

Earlier this month, Russian composer Igor Krutoy set the new city record for a single condo purchase price with his $48 million deal for 6,000 square feet at The Plaza hotel.

Krutoy and his wife, Olga, had actually been interested in Schecter’s 15 Central Park West combo first, having put in an offer last year, reportedly in excess of $45 million. But according to Beare, the offer ultimately “wasn’t quite where we wanted to be,” and the Krutoys also decided that they preferred a finished product, like The Plaza apartment they wound up buying.

Meanwhile, Rodriguez, who was said to have paid $30,000 per month for the smaller of Schecter’s units, has moved on to the Rushmore, where he inked a deal to buy a full-floor, roughly $6 million pad last month.