Ronson heirs yank $72 million Fifth Avenue apartment off the market

The former home of deceased British real estate developer Howard Ronson, which hit the market in May for $72 million, is no longer for sale, the New York Observer reported. Ronson’s heirs, who spend much of their time in Monaco, grew tired of marketing the sprawling home at 828 Fifth Avenue and have simply decided to keep it, sources told the Observer.

For years, Ronson and his heirs had tried to return the storied co-op building to its single-family origins by buying up four of the nine units, a 72 percent share of the property.

Those four units were on the market with a team of power brokers made up of the Corcoran Group’s Sharon Baum, Leighton Candler and Deborah Grubman, as well as Stribling & Associates’ Alexa Lambert. None of them returned the Observer’s calls.

If the family had successfully sold their stake in the building, it would have set a record for a townhouse sale, handily breaking the current record set by the $53 million sale of the Harkness Mansion. Instead, the family may continue to try to acquire the remaining units.

“I’m sure it couldn’t be bought,” one broker not associated with the listing told the Observer. “For god’s sake, it was a lot of different units.”

Known as the Berwind mansion, the building on the corner of East 64th Street adjacent to Central Park, was built by coal baron Edward Berwind in 1886. [NYO] —Christopher Cameron