Vu.

The Most Expensive Rental in New York

$55,000 a month; maid not included.

By Deborah Schoeneman
Published Oct 31, 2005

(Photo: Jeremy Liebman)

For $660,000, you could buy a modest one-bedroom in the West Village, lease 110 hours of rides on a Gulfstream V—or pay rent for a year in Manhattan. Corcoran broker Antonio Cosentino appears to hold the keys for the priciest rental apartment on the market right now in New York (and, presumably, in America). “Unless you stay at the Waldorf-Astoria,” he clarifies.

So what does a tenant get for the mid–five figures each month? A four-bedroom apartment (4,415 square feet altogether), fully but blandly furnished, in Trump International Hotel & Tower, the glassy black monolith at the top of Columbus Circle. If it were for sale, the apartment would go for about $15 million. Though the building is a hotel, full services (maids, room service, and the like) are extra—no matter that the carrying charges are a surreal $11,000 a month. Those fees, mercifully, are included in the sublet rent.

Courtesy of the Corcoran Group

Cosentino won’t identify the landlord, saying only that he’s an international businessman who bought the apartment when the tower was remade into condos a decade ago. “He lives all over the world,” says Cosentino, explaining why the apartment is usually sublet. The last occupant was a CEO who was renovating his nearby place. “His wife hired a team of decorators for a year,” says Cosentino. “The furniture was shipped from all the other places they owned. It was incredible.” Movie stars shooting in New York have inquired about the place, but, the broker admits, they often balk when they find out it’s a one-year commitment—a Trump house rule to prevent a raucous revolving door.

One does wonder why the owner doesn’t simply cash out. Cosentino says it’s a matter of stubborn ambition: “He doesn’t feel his apartment has reached its full potential in terms of value.” In other words, grab it now, because this deal won’t last.

1 Central Park West
$55,000-per-month sublet
Four-bedroom condo