Two apartments in The Plaza — which take up a combined 5,850 square feet — hit the market last Wednesday with an asking price of $55 million, The Real Deal has learned. The listing includes units 807 and 809 — which have been combined into one corner-property unit — as well as unit 808, a separate apartment that’s located across the hall.
Listing broker Giampiero Rispo, owner and broker at Domus Realty, said he is not entertaining offers for the units to be sold separately. “It makes sense the way it is right now,” he said, noting that a buyer can use unit 808 for their staff. (Unit 808 cannot be combined with the other two apartments because of the common hallway separating them, Rispo said.)
The listing has a total of four bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms. It also has a laundry room and a media room, in addition to a living room that’s over 60-feet long.
Rispo — who declined to reveal the owner — originally listed the project in March 2009 for $40 million. Four months later in July, he dropped the price to $38 million. That October, according to Streeteasy.com, the property was rented for $65,000. “In those days, the market was completely flopped,” Rispo said. “Nothing was happening… there was just no market.”
Still, he said, he thinks the current asking price “will be very realistic.”
While the listing — which is in the OLR system, but not yet posted on Streeteasy.com — is one of the most expensive on the market, it is not the priciest. For example, a unit at 50 Central Park South is currently listed for $77.5 million, while a penthouse at the Time Warner Center has a $60 million asking price.
Rispo said the original rental tenant still lives in the unit. He declined to name the tenant, but said the lease is up in November and noted that the apartment cannot be shown until September. That’s because the tenant’s current lease stipulates that the home will not be shown until three months before the lease ends. Rispo said the tenant will move out in November.
Rispo referred to unit 808 as “the guest house” and to 807, 809 as “the main house.” He said in addition to guests, 808 can also be used for staff, such as a maid or a butler or any other kind of on-site staff personnel. “But if you don’t want him around,” said Rispo of the butler, “he has his own separate quarters.”
A square footage breakdown of the units was not available.