Why is One57 so secretive?

At 15 Central Park West, leaks of closed sales turned out to be a good marketing strategy. So why is One57 keeping mum on its own closings, the New York Times wonders.

Michael Gross, who is writing a book about 15 Central Park West, told the Times: “There was a constant drip, drip, drip of information that made 15 seem like the most fascinating building in New York.”

Press surrounding One57 most recently centered around the Qatari Prime Minister’s supposed purchase of $250 million worth of apartments inside the Extell building. But those much-touted reports turned out to be false. The New York Observer remarks that the people leaking these stories seem to be overcome with boredom and frustration.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

There are also some rumors behind the secrecy. The Times wrote, “Some brokers murmur around town that Mr. Barnett may be trying to avoid revealing the number of foreign buyers at the building, because that might scare off other potential domestic buyers.”

Only one One57 purchaser has been publicly (and correctly) revealed: Richard Krigstein, the co-owner of Herman Kay Company, an outerwear company. [NYT] via [NYO]