The owner of 807 Park Avenue – a property once owned by rapper Sean “P. Diddy” Combs – is rolling out Plan B to sell the 12-story building’s luxe condos. Make that Plan C.
After failing earlier to sell three, four-story condos, real estate investment firm Aion Partners rented out the townhouse-like apartments for between $32,000 and $40,000 a month. Now, the firm intends to expand the building and reconfigure the condos, according to plans filed with the city’s Department of Buildings. According to the proposed plans, Aion wants to expand the building, located on Park Avenue between 74th and 75th Streets, to 139 feet from 109 feet.
Instead of housing three residences with four stories each, plans call for five residences – two triplex units and three duplexes. The building, formerly known as 813 Park Avenue, has a less-than-stellar track record. Built as a five-story property in 1899, 807 Park was expanded to 12 stories in the 1980s.
But it remained a smaller neighbor to 799 Park Avenue, a 21-story co-op building, and 815 Park Avenue, a 49-unit co-op building where a three-bedroom sold for $7.8 million in June. P. Diddy bought 807 Park in 1999 for $12 million but listed it for sale a year later. It lingered on the market until 2004, when Aion — led by founder and managing director Siraj Dadabhoy — paid $14.3 million for the building.
The firm initially tapped star broker Dolly Lenz to market the townhouse-style condos for between $12 million and $16 million. When the condos failed to sell, the developer replaced Lenz with Stribling & Associates, but not without a legal fight from Lenz. Stribling, too, failed to sell the condos. In 2008, Aion renumbered the building and hired designer Eric Cohler to reconfigure the layout of each residence.
Then in 2008 and 2009, Aion tapped Stribling again, this time to rent out units at 807 Park for between $32,000 and $40,000. Neither Aion, nor agents from Stribling, responded to requests for comment. The Landmarks Preservation Commission is scheduled to review the latest proposal for the building on December 2.