Jimmy Choo founder’s penthouse tops Manhattan luxury market

Tamara Mellon was aking $19.5M for UES penthouse — less than she paid

Jimmy Choo's Tamara Mellon along with 225 West 57th Street (left) and 3 East 95th Street (right) (Getty, John Simpson Architects, Google Maps)
Jimmy Choo's Tamara Mellon along with 225 West 57th Street (left) and 3 East 95th Street (right) (Getty, John Simpson Architects, Google Maps)

The most expensive Manhattan home to go into contract last week was Tamara Mellon’s penthouse at 3 East 95th Street, according to Olshan Realty’s weekly report of homes in the borough asking $4 million or more.

Mellon is a co-founder of Jimmy Choo shoes and her own namesake brand. The British fashion entrepreneur paid $20 million for the apartment in 2008.

The condominium unit went into contract last week with an asking price of $19.5 million after flitting on and off the market since it was listed in 2014 for $34 million.

The duplex is more than 7,100 square feet and has four bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms. The lower level has 12-foot ceilings and a 41-foot-wide sunken living room with a fireplace.

The living room connects to a terrace and loggia — an outdoor, covered corridor. The primary bedroom and formal dining room each have a fireplace, as does the library on the upper level, which also has an office and wraparound terrace. The unit also has a roof terrace.

Monthly common charges and taxes add up to nearly $40,000.

The second most expensive home to go into contract was unit 83W at Gary Barnett’s 217 West 57th Street, a sponsor apartment at Central Park Tower asking $17 million. The pad is actually on the 53rd floor, not the 83rd as the unit number suggests. The building has 98 stories but, for marketing purposes, the floor numbers run well into the triple digits.

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The unit measures 3,000 square feet and has three bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, 12-foot ceilings and views to the north, west and south.

Central Park Tower is a 1,550-foot supertall skyscraper with 179 units, marketed as the tallest residential building in the world. Its more than 50,000 square feet of amenities include indoor and outdoor pools, a fitness center, a children’s playroom and a club on floor No. 100 — which is actually the 68th floor — that has a ballroom, bar and cigar lounge.

Of the 23 Manhattan luxury units that went into contract last week, 14 were condos, six were co-ops and three were townhouses. Their combined asking prices were $184.8 million.

The average asking price was $8 million and the median was $6.5 million. The average discount from the original asking price was 10 percent and the median time on the market was 692 days — about a year and 11 months.

The 23 luxury contract signings were two shy of the 10-year average for Presidents’ week.

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