Time Warner Center duplex sells after $20M discount

For the second week in a row, top luxury sale follows huge drop in price

Towering over Central Park, unit 70B at the tony Time Warner Center embodied luxury living when it was listed at $35 million in 2014.

The 3,491-square-foot duplex apartment featured custom white concrete floors, a sculptural staircase and a private elevator.

But after cycling through a series of brokers, the condo ended up on the discount rack — relatively speaking. With its asking price whittled down to $15 million — more than half off the original figure — the unit finally went into contract last week at an unknown amount.

Ranked by asking price, it led Olshan Realty’s weekly market report — the second week in a row that the top sale was for a home steeply discounted after years on the market. The previous week’s No. 1, a five-bedroom Upper East Side townhouse, was asking $16.5 million, down from an original price of $35 million, when it finally found a taker.

In total, 25 contracts above $4 million were signed last week. While luxury homes prices bear little resemblance to the frothy days of 2015, Olshan president and founder Donna Olshan said it was was the fifth strong week in the past six.

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“The market moved because prices came down,” she said.

The 25 contracts were for 19 condos, four co-ops and two townhouses.

Thirteen of the 19 condo contracts were for sponsor units, a sign that developers were “getting with the program” about adjusting prices to break the luxury market’s slump, said Olshan. “The only way out is to discount their way out,” she said.

Last week’s “negotiability” average, meaning the percentage difference between the original and final asking prices, was 12.5 percent. The average for the year is 10 percent, Olshan said.

The second highest signing was for a 4,158-square-foot condo at 152 Elizabeth Street, with an asking price of $13.75 million from the original listing price of $14.8 million in 2015. Records of contracts signed do not disclose the agreed-on price.