Another One57 seller just took a loss

Lawrence Stroll's apartment sold for $1.6M less than he paid in 2014

The 85th floor at One57 and Lawrence Stroll (Credit: Getty Images)
The 85th floor at One57 and Lawrence Stroll (Credit: Getty Images)

Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll took a loss on the One57 unit he bought in 2014, New York City Department of Finance records show.

Stroll’s apartment at the “Billionaires’ Row” supertall closed Wednesday for $54 million, less than the $55.6 million he paid in 2014. Records show that a mystery buyer using the shell corporation “ONE5785 LLC” bought the apartment. Sotheby’s International’s Nikki Field had the listing.

Stroll, a fashion investor who helped mastermind the Michael Kors IPO in 2011, first listed the apartment in October for $70 million but slashed the asking price to $59 million in March. A few weeks later, Mansion Global reported that a buyer had entered contract on the 6,240-square-foot unit.

He’s among a growing contingent of sellers who have taken losses at the condo building. In March, a unit on the 63rd floor sold at a $6 million loss. The losses are also occurring as the building’s developer Extell Development cuts prices on sponsor units to move product. Unit 52B, which was listed by Extell for $31.7 million in 2014, sold yesterday for $24.4 million, according to DOF records. Extell sold five apartments for $73 million in the first three months of the year, according to filings on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. They were all discounted.

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“If our competitors are giving discounts, and that’s what people really want, that’s how you’re going to move the product,” Extell CEO Gary Barnett told Bloomberg. “We could just hold it — the market will come back. But we have Central Park Tower coming up … Clear the deck for that.”

In November, The Real Deal explored the difficulties resellers face in turning a profit at condos they purchased during the height of the cycle.

If the source of his funds was Canadian, Stroll might have come out alright in the transaction: the Canadian dollar was just about even with the dollar in December 2011 when Stroll went into contract on the apartment. Today, the U.S. Dollar to Canadian Dollar rate is $1.28.