David Weinreb’s West Chelsea Penthouse Rents For $177K/Month

David Weinreb nabbed a tenant for his West Chelsea penthouse for a whopping $177,500 per month.

The former CEO of Howard Hughes and founder of real estate investment firm Weinreb Ventures inked a roughly year-long lease for his full-floor apartment at 551 West 21st Street, The Real Deal has learned.

Bespoke’s Laura Klein arranged the off-market rental deal.

The monthly price is significantly higher than some of the units previously reported to be the city’s priciest, including the $150,000 Bad Bunny reportedly agreed to pay in October 2023 to rent the penthouse at the Jardim in Chelsea and the $95,000 rate fetched in December by an apartment at Naftali Group’s the Benson on the Upper East Side.

The eye-popping lease comes amid a rush of demand and record-breaking prices have popped up across downtown Manhattan.

Last year, financier Harsh Padia and his wife, interior designer Purvi Padia, sold their apartment at 150 Charles for $60 million, setting a new ceiling for condo sales in the area. Zeckendorf and Atlas Capital also snagged a $129 million signed contract for multiple units at their 80 Clarkson development in December.

Weinreb purchased the then-unfinished condo from the building’s developer, Scott Resnick, for $38 million in 2017. Four years later, he sought to offload the 6,500-square-foot condo for $50 million, though after nearly a year on the market without finding a buyer, Weinreb pulled the unit and finished construction. He listed it again in April for $75 million, but removed it just three months later.

Klein declined to comment on the identity of the tenant.

The five-bedroom, five-bathroom condo has more than 4,500 square feet of outdoor space, including a rooftop terrace featuring what the Streeteasy listing describes as the “largest private outdoor pool” in the city. It also has a kitchen designed by celebrity chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten.

Amenities in the 44-unit building, designed by Norman Foster’s firm, include 24-hour doormen, fitness center, yoga studio and residents’ lounge.

Resnick’s SR Capital filed plans for the building in 2013 and completed construction on the project roughly two years later. Other notable buyers in the building include Hong Kong billionaire Karen Lo, who shelled out more than $29 million for two 15th-floor units in 2016.

Weinreb, who stepped down from Howard Hughes in 2019 and launched his Texas-based firm the following year, also owns an estate in North Dallas, which he listed for $25 million in March. He built the 20,000-square-foot mansion on North 40 Place in the 2000s.

Weinreb Ventures is also working on a megadevelopment in Frisco, outside of Dallas, the first phase of which includes three buildings with commercial space and more than 1,000 apartments.