New York’s Most Impressive Real-Estate FlipsWonder if it’s still possible to make money on the housing market? Here are some of the city’s most inspirational real-estate rollovers.
Video: A Look Inside 15 Central Park WestWe’ve been intrigued by the spectacularly luxurious residential building at 15 Central Park West for quite some time now. And we have some questions. For example, sure, Daniel Loeb may have plunked down $45 million on one of the penthouses, and Sandy Weill may have dropped $42 million on the other one, but what about the rest of the building? You know, the apartments that aren’t duplexes with terraces and the ones that aren’t occupied by people like Sting and Trudie Styler. Who lives there and shares the pool and the “motor court” with Sandy and Danny? Thankfully, New York’s genius real-estate reporter, S. Jhoanna Robledo, wrangled her way into the building (they’d never let us in; Chris is too fat, and Jessica wears white after Labor Day) and brought back video from the inside. Click above to see a fabulous three-bedroom, including herringbone hardwood floors and a bathroom so amazing that, if you were in a hotel, you would totally use the wall phone to call your mom and tell her how fancy it was, while sitting on the toilet.
Inside 15 Central Park West
real estate porn
Daniel Loeb Gets His Dream HouseNotoriously prickly hedge-fund manager Daniel Loeb has finally closed on his $45 million penthouse at 15 Central Park West. The five-bedroom, five-bathroom (plus two half-bathrooms!) apartment on the 39th floor is 10,674 square feet, and that’s not including the 709-foot wraparound terrace. It also comes with access to a 75-foot lap pool, around which Loeb can hobnob with neighbors Sting, Denzel Washington, and Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein; a screening room; English-oak-paneled library; formal dining room (with a private in-house chef); climate-controlled wine rooms (keep your Gewürztraminer chilled!); and a general sense of extreme self-satisfaction, especially if you pay for it in cash, as Loeb did. One issue, though: Loeb’s views of the park will be obstructed by views of Sandy Weill’s $42.4 million apartment. Well, even the rich sometimes suffer, a little.
15 CPW ALERT! Loeb’s $45 M. ‘Panorama’ [NYO]
company town
Kent Brownridge Still Stealing Silverware From the House of WennerMEDIA
• Kent Brownridge picked a new fight with his old boss Jann Wenner, poaching ten-year Rolling Stone vet Joe Levy for the top spot at Blender. Brownridge already stole Men’s Journal editor James Kaminsky to take over Maxim. [Mixed Media/Portfolio]
• The OK! issue with the Jamie Lynn–pregnancy exclusive sold only 900,000 copies on the newsstand, well short of the roughly 1.5 million the mag had predicted. [WWD]
• Steve Cohn on the Condé shake-up following so fast on Steve Florio’s death: “It sort of reminds me of The Godfather. They go to the funeral and then they blow everything up.” [NYP]
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This Just In: Manhattan Still Expensive!Some of the city’s biggest brokerage firms released their fourth-quarter reports on the Manhattan real-estate market this week. And the news? Holdouts hoping for a slump won’t get their reward quite yet. The breakdown:
• While other cities sink into subprime hell, the borough remains stubbornly bullish, buoyed in part by tight inventory, especially in co-ops. If you’re still looking to buy, an apartment in the borough will set you back an average of nearly $1.44 million, 18 percent more than what you would’ve paid the year before. (That’s according to valuations guru Jonathan Miller’s Prudential Douglas Elliman survey; Halstead and Brown Harris Stevens’ numbers come in slightly under at $1.43 million.)
• Prices were up pretty much across the board, with large spaces being the most in demand. (No surprise, they saw the most gains; according to Miller, three-bedrooms spiked an impressive 39.8 percent in value over the same period the previous year.)
white men with money
And You Thought Your Rent Was High!Housing costs are becoming more and more difficult to bear for normal people, but the absurdly rich seem to be faring just fine. DealBook is reporting that, according to a filing with the City of New York, Sanford Weill, former CEO of Citigroup acquired a $42.4 million penthouse in 15 Central Park West where presumably, he will conduct his business of orchestrating the end of the world. In their new digs, the Weills will have access to a private dining room, a walnut-paneled library, a screening room, and a chauffeurs’ waiting room, although they’ll have to pony up some extra cash if they want a wine-storage area or a maid’s suite — those are sold separately! Let’s hope the walls are thick enough that no one has to overhear neighbors Sting and Trudie having Tantric sex.
Weill Pays 42 Million For Chic New Address [DealBook/NYT]
Past Perfect” [NYer]
