A full-floor apartment at the Rosario Candela-designed 778 Park Avenue has hit the market for the first time in 70 years with an asking price of $22.5 million, according to listings website Streeteasy.com. The 10-room apartment, on the 17th floor, has three bedrooms and three bathrooms; other features include five terraces, a library with a wood-burning fireplace, a breakfast room and a double staff room. Voting records indicate that the apartment belongs to the estate of noted philanthropist Celeste Bartos, who passed away in January.
The building is located at East 73rd Street and neighbors 720 Park Avenue and 784 Park Avenue on a stretch that is dubbed “Candela Alley.” Sotheby’s International Realty’s Roger Erickson had the listing. “It’s one of the all-time greatest apartments on Park Avenue,” Erickson said.
In 2011, legendary socialite Brooke Astor’s 14-room duplex at the building, once listed for $46 million, sold for about $21 million, after the famously stodgy co-op board rejected an earlier $19.9 million offer from a Swiss investment banker. Other current and former residents of the white-glove building include fashion magnate Estée Lauder, the late legendary broadcaster Roone Arledge and the late Peter Sharp, former owner of the Carlyle Hotel.