Some are describing the move to put the penthouse on the market at such an aggressive price as the first "test" of the Big Apple's post-COVID real-estate market.
In what one Manhattan real estate insider described as "an effort to quantify the optimism that we're seeing now", the owner of the 96th-floor penthouse at 432 Park has put the unit on the market for $169MM, roughly double what they paid for it, despite all the complaints and negative press surrounding what has been described as an ill-conceived abomination of a residential tower.
More than any other building, 432 Park came to symbolize the luxury apartment development boom that characterized the 2010s not just in Manhattan, but across Brooklyn and Queens as well (the Bronx and Staten Island were mostly left out, for reasons that are probably self-evident for most New Yorkers).
Back in 2016, the 96th floor penthouse at the top of the building sold for nearly $88MM to a company controlled by the Saudi retail magnate Fawaz Alhokair.Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez bought a 4K-square-foot apartment in the building for $15.3MM in 2018, only to sell it about a year later.
However, early whispers about the building's shortcomings were made embarrassingly public in February when the NYT's Stefanos Chen reported on the disputes between the chronic malfunctions ratcheting up tension between buyers and the developers.
"I was convinced it would be the best building in New York," Sarina Abramovich, one of the earliest residents of 432 Park, told the NYT in February. "They’re still billing it as God’s gift to the world, and it’s not."
The seething anger about broken-down elevators (making traveling to and from the top floors virtually impossible) appears to have quieted a bit. But as the NYT reported, in recent years, there have been a number of floods in the building, including two leaks in November 2018 that the general manager of the building, Len Czarnecki, acknowledged in emails to residents. The first leak, on Nov. 22, was caused by a 'blown flange'. Days later, a "water line failure" on the 74th floor caused water to enter elevator shafts, removing two of the four residential elevators from service for weeks.
Now, broker Ryan Serhant, who has the seller's listing, is marketing the penthouse as "a trophy unlike any other in the world," highlighting its private elevator landing, herringbone white oak floors and designer furniture from Fendi, Bentley and Hermes.
According to Bloomberg, Manhattan's battered luxury housing market is "surging back" following the doldrums of the pandemic.
However, even Jonathan Miller, president of the appraisal firm Miller Samuel, acknowledged that the pricing is "clearly aggressive".
Now, the seller of the penthouse is "under the assumption that the market has doubled since September of 2016," Miller said. "The list price assumption seems inconsistent with market trends."
Still, the broker claims that more than half a dozen would-be buyers have toured the penthouse since it hit the market. "There are a lot of people looking for places to put their money," he said. "In cash, cars cryptocurrency and high-end real estate."
On the upside, the owner of the penthouse will boast an even grander view than that afforded by billionaire Citadel founder Ken Griffin, who bought the penthouse at nearby 220 Central Park South a few years back.