A townhouse owned by the estate of late Iranian princess Ashraf Pahlavi was first listed for $49.9 million in 2014. Last week, it went into contract, asking just $11.45 million.
The price chop followed years of legal disputes over the Midtown East property, and two failed sales. Still, it was a welcome development for New York’s weakened luxury residential market, which these days is notching any deal as a win.
In total, there were four luxury contracts signed last week — down by one from the previous week, according to the latest market report from Olshan Realty. The bright spot, however, was that three of the four properties were asking more than $10 million, which pushed the total asking volume to $46.8 million — the highest total in 11 weeks.
In her report, Donna Olshan, head of Olshan Realty, said the noteworthy deals had “offered new hope in the luxury market.”
“The hope is that the big-money sales are still around, and that those buyers are willing to jump onto the market and not just hang around in the Hamptons or wherever they are now,” she said. The two priciest deals last week were New York City buyers, she added.
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The priciest contract was a 4,470-square-foot penthouse at 415 Greenwich Street, asking $18.9 million.
Josh Wesoky of Compass, who represented the buyers, told Olshan the buyers had seen the unit in photographs, floor plans and on video. They later visited the property in person.
“We started the negotiations about three-and-a-half weeks ago,” said Danny Davis of the Corcoran Group, who represented the seller. “We first negotiated the price and terms, and once we had an accepted offer, then the buyers came to see the apartment on their own.”
The second priciest contract was unit 11A at 260 West Broadway, which was asking $11.5 million, down from $14.8 million when it was listed last February. The 3,777-square-foot unit features two bedrooms, three bathrooms and a media room with a large, oak-paneled rotunda.
Loy Carlos of the Corcoran Group, who represented the sellers with Corcoran’s Carrie Chiang, told Olshan the buyer saw the unit in January.
“They loved the neighborhood, and the kind of space and things they could do with it,” he said. “Under normal circumstances, we would have been a lot more firm on the price.”
The third priciest contract, the townhouse at 29 Beekman Place that belonged to Pahlavi, had cycled through six different brokerages over the years. Pahlavi died in 2016 at the age of 96.
Write to Sylvia Varnham O’Regan at so@therealdeal.com