Private equity chairman is record co-op buyer

Howard Marks, the chairman and co-founder of global investment management firm Oaktree Capital Management, was the buyer behind the record-setting sale of the Courtney Sale Ross duplex co-op at 740 Park Avenue, according to the New York Observer. As previously reported, the $52.5 million sale marks a record for the most expensive co-op sale.

The duplex home was assembled by former Time Warner chairman Steve Ross. His wife controlled the property since his death in 1992, and it entered into contract last month. Brown Harris Stevens’ Kathy Sloane had the listing since last November and asked $60 million. But the Observer said the co-op as quietly been on the market for years seeking as much as $75 million.

The home, which is on the 12th and 13th floors of the building, has two dining rooms, six terraces, eight bedrooms and 10 bathrooms. The purchase breaks the 2008 record set by Scott Bommer’s sale of his 1060 Fifth Avenue co-op sale for $48.8 million. [NYO]