One57 buyer willing to take $2M loss on pad

"Escape from New York" paid $32M for Billionaires' Row apartment, re-lists it for $30M

Kurt Russell as Snake Plissken in the 1981 film "Escape from New York" and the units at One57
Kurt Russell as Snake Plissken in the 1981 film "Escape from New York" and the units at One57

A One57’s buyer’s desire to “Escape from New York” appears to be so strong, he or she seems willing to take a nearly $2 million loss on a prospective sale.

The owner of Unit 62A, who cloaked their identity through the colorful LLC, has listed the pad for just shy of $30 million, after paying nearly $32 million for it last year. 

The buyer first tried to sell the property through Sotheby’s International Realty’s Elizabeth Sample and Brenda Powers for $38.9 million, or what would have amounted to a $7 million profit in less than six months. But prospective buyers didn’t bite at that price, which amounted to $6,690 per square foot.

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The price cut may serve as further fodder for those who say that demand from buyers in the upper echelons of the condo market is beginning to wane amid an onslaught of high-end inventory. Some developers, sensitive to these changes, are rejigging their product to cater to a wider pool of buyers at lower price points.

“Real sellers are lowering their prices,” said Lisa Lippman of Brown Harris Stevens, speaking Wednesday at a luxury real estate conference hosted by Haute Living. “No one is stomaching unrealistic asking prices anymore.”

The new listing broker, Douglas Elliman’s Noble Black, was not immediately available for comment.

The apartment, on the 62nd floor of Extell Development’s One57, which recently surpassed 15 Central Park West as the city’s most expensive building, has three bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms and views of Central Park.