Perhaps more than any other building on Central Park West, the San Remo is associated with celebrities – and for good reason. The board is said to be one of the most lenient on either side of the park and past residents include household names like: Steve Jobs, Barry Manilow, Stephen Sondheim, Tiger Woods, Steven Spielberg, Donna Karan, Glenn Close, Dustin Hoffman, Steve Martin, Bruce Willis, Robert Stigwood, Diane Keaton and Rita Hayworth. If you start to include yesteryear showbiz types the list of famous residents gets absolutely crazy.
In fact, it seems that Madonna is one of the only a-listers to have been turned away. (The board shot her down in July 1985 when she attempted to buy a 12-room apartment for $1.2 million, the same month nude photos of the singer appeared in Playboy. Actress Diane Keaton was the only vote to let her in, after Madonna appeared at the board interview in a little black dress with two gold crucifixes around her neck, according to the “Sky the Limit” by Steven Gaines.)
But while the building still carries a reputation as a celebrity oasis on the park, a recent analysis of public records by LLNYC shows that for years the building has been moving away from celebrity and toward cold hard capital.
With the notable exceptions of U2 front man Bono — who bought one of the building’s towers from the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs — and Demi Moore — who hasn’t actually lived in her triplex apartment in many years – few boldface names still call the building home.
Today, Wall Street is king in the San Remo, with anonymous capitalists filling the building’s duplexes. Take Bennet Goodman, the founder GSO Capital Partners, which Blackstone Group purchased for $620 million. More recently, Blackstone awarded Goodman with $200 million is shares to continue managing the firms credit fund unit, according to Bloomberg. He purchased a pair of apartments on the 19th and 20th floors for $14.5 million and $15.5 million respectively in 2011.
And again just last year, Goldman Sachs bigwig David Solomon sold his San Remo duplex to JLL managing director and private equity honcho Brett Milgrim for $21.5 million.
Other nabobs of the financial world in the building include hedge funder turned juice mogul Michael Karsch; money manager Peter Marber; Odyssey Investment Partners principal Doug Hitchner; and investment banker Raymond McGuire. And considering the size of the San Remo, this is really to name a few.
Naturally, we found the odd artist and entertainer in the building, and of course, units purchased years ago do not appear in public records. So there could be some real celebrities hiding out in Emery Roth’s iconic towers. But, by and large, the building’s celebrity heyday seems to be over.