Trending
Any takers? Dakota residents struggle to unload apartments
UWS co-op is struggling to compete with flashy new condos
The country’s first luxury apartment building is struggling to compete with new condo developments.
Two units at the Dakota — built in 1884 on Central Park West — went into contract this month after sitting on the market for several months and undergoing numerous price cuts. If the deals for the apartments — owned by singer Roberta Flack and late socialite Jacqueline Bikoff — close this year, they will be the first units in the building to be sold since 2016, the New York Post reported.
Though the building saw a big-ticket deal in 2015 — the sale of Lauren Bacall’s nine-room apartment for $21 million — other apartments have languished on the market and/or undergone a series of discounts. Ad exec Ilon Specht tried to market his four-bedroom apartment for $19.5 million in 2006, brought the price down to $14.5 million and then de-listed the unit in 2016. Craig Hatkoff and Jane Rosenthal, founders of the Tribeca Film Festival, tried to unload three units for $39 million in 2016, cut the price to $28.99 million and then took the apartments off the market.
Despite the building’s history of star-studded tenants — John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Boris Karloff, Roberta Flack and Lauren Bacall, to name a few — the Dakota, like many pre-war co-ops, is having a hard time competing with new development projects that offer the latest flashy amenities.
“The buying audience has gone elsewhere,” Olshan Realty’s Donna Olshan told the Post. “It underscores the whole change in taste.” [NYP] — Kathryn Brenzel