Walker Tower’s crown jewel hits the market for $55M

Walker Tower’s largest and most expensive penthouse unit hit the market today with an asking price of $55 million, The Real Deal learned exclusively.

The luxurious pad, which occupies the entire top floor of JDS Development and Property Markets Group’s Walker Tower at 212 West 18th Street, boasts a 6,000-square-foot spread, five bedrooms and five-and-a-half bathrooms.

Additional amenities at the Art Deco condominium conversion, on the corner of Seventh Avenue, include harbor and 360-degree unobstructed Manhattan views, 479 square feet of outdoor space, 13-foot coffered ceilings and heated flooring throughout.

Walker Tower has a total of 47 luxury condos on offer, of which 34 are currently in contract and five – excluding Penthouse One – remain on the market. Prices start at just above $4 million.

Monthly fees for Penthouse One are going to be just over $9,000, “which is crazy low for common charges and taxes,” Vickey Barron, the Douglas Elliman broker who brought the marketing assignment for the development with her from CORE when she jumped brokerages earlier this year, told The Real Deal.

The buyer could take possession of the unit – “the cream of the crop” — and move in by the end of the year, she said. “That’s going to give us a big edge, that anyone who wants to can move in and not have to wait a year or two,” she said.

The building includes four townhouse-like units also dubbed “penthouses.” An additional true penthouse on the floor just below Penthouse One has yet to be released. That unit, Barron told The Real Deal, will likely come on the market once a contract for Penthouse One is signed.

The property is in luxe company Downtown, with a penthouse at 56 Leonard, the under-construction Tribeca development, asking $31 million and the triplex at One Madison Park, the long-stalled tower which hit the market for a second time last week, nearing its price tag with a $50 million ask. Should Penthouse One snag its asking price, the sale would set a record Downtown – unseating the top unit at 18 Gramercy Park, which closed for $42 million in June to Houston Rockets owner Leslie Alexander. The priciest unit to go into contract, meanwhile, is the penthouse at 56 Leonard, for $47 million.

“We will continue to shatter records with the release of the highest priced and best penthouse Downtown,” boasted Elliott Joseph of Property Markets in a statement. “At Walker Tower, we already have the second-highest-priced residence in all of Downtown Manhattan under contract.”