Taxes not included: Duty-free mogul pays $27M for 220 CPS pad

An entity controlled by the president of Duty Free Americas bagged a sponsor unit at 220 Central Park South for $26.5 million, according to records filed with the New York City’s Department of Finance on Monday.

Leon Falic, who’s behind the corporation “220 CPS 32A LLC,” paid $26.5 million for the 3,700-square-foot apartment, records show. The unit at Vornado Realty Trust’s luxury tower was originally priced at $25 million, and sold for just under $7,200 a square foot.

Falic financed the purchase with two mortgages from Safra National Bank of New York. The first was for $21.6 million and the second for $15.25 million. Falic couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

In October, Falic told TRBusiness that his company wasn’t for sale despite interest from competitor Lotte Duty Free. “We don’t have a ‘For Sale’ sign outside, but if someone comes to buy us and gives us the right amount of money we’ll consider it,” he said.

The closing follows several other sales at 220 CPS that have hit property records recently. This month, unit 28A was purchased by an anonymous buyer for $28.4 million. Another unit sold to Richard Leibovitch, a founding partner at Arel Capital, for $26.2 million.

Closings started at Vornado’s project in October. The first unit to close went to an anonymous buyer who paid $14.63 million. Vornado is looking at $1 billion in profits from the building, which was 83 percent sold as of Sept. 30, the company said in October. Vornado said roughly 98 of 118 units were in contract — with closings are scheduled through 2020.

Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group is handling sales at the Robert A.M. Stern-designed luxury building.