Real estate developer Joseph Klaynberg and his wife, Emily, have sold their five-bedroom condominium at 923 Fifth Avenue for $10.9 million, according to city property records filed Feb. 8. The sale, handled by Ilan Bracha, founder of Keller Williams NYC, was the most expensive of last week.
Klaynberg is the founder of Wonder Works Construction, a development and construction firm that has worked on numerous New York City residential projects. A native of Minsk, he is now a senior managing director at Berkshire Capital Group, a private equity real estate investment firm headquartered in Manhattan.
Klaynberg first listed the 3,370-square-foot combination unit this past July for $14.9 million and cut the price to $13.75 million in September, according to listings aggregator Streeteasy.com. He acquired the two units in 1998 for an undisclosed sum. (City property records revealed only that the property was transferred from an LLC to Klaynberg for $10.)
The 21-story limestone and white brick building between 73rd and 74th streets, one of the few condo options on that stretch of Fifth Avenue, was built in the 1950s and converted in the early 1980s. Klaynberg’s 17th floor apartment features a rotunda ceiling with a chandelier, a walk-in closet with a window, a wet bar and a media room, according to the listing.
The buyer is a Newport, Calif.-based trust held by Mehrdad and Semira Moshayedi, represented in the deal by Bahar Tavakolian, a vice president at Stribling & Associates. Mehrdad Moshayedi, who goes by the name Mark, is the president and COO of STEC, a manufacturer of computer memory chips based in Santa Ana, Calif.
Tavakolian declined to discuss the transaction saying she first had to obtain permission from her client. Jacob Shakarchy, an attorney with Cox Padmore Skolnik & Shakarchy who represented the trust, declined to comment.
Bracha did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Klaynberg’s Wonder Works has helped develop condo projects including Tribeca’s Ice House, at 27 North Moore Street; Nolita’s 285 Lafayette Street; and the District, a 163-unit condo project at 111 Fulton Street in the Financial District. The firm also worked on the lobby of the Dorilton, the posh pre-war co-op on the corner of West 71st Street and Broadway.