Real estate developer William Zeckendorf has sold his 17th-floor apartment at 740 Park Avenue for $29.5 million.
Property records identify the buyers as American businessman Peter May and his wife, Leni May. The couple could not be reached for comment. Peter May’s firm Trian Partners owns beverage companies Snapple and fast-food chain Arby’s, among others.
Zeckendorf bought the two-bedroom co-op in 2011 for $27 million from video game magnate Gregory Fischbach and his wife Linda. The couple had purchased it in 1994 for $6.3 million, The Real Deal reported.
The deal comes at a busy time for residential sales, which spiked in Manhattan last month ahead of the new mansion tax that came into effect on July 1. Property records show the sale was first documented on June 26 — close to the mansion tax deadline — and recorded on July 9.
Earlier in the year, Zeckendorf traveled to Albany with his own lobbyist, Patrick Jenkins, to push back against a proposed pied-à-terre tax, then under consideration. The Real Deal reported at the time that Zeckendorf took the unusual step because he felt that Real Estate Board of New York wasn’t moving the needle on the issue, amid speculation that the board’s clout with lawmakers could be diminishing.
Zeckendorf, co-chairman of both Zeckendorf Development and Terra Holdings — parent company of Brown Harris Stevens and Halstead Property — could not be reached for comment.
Zeckendorf Development has seen a string of wealthy buyers pick up units at its new project, 520 Park Avenue, including vacuum mogul James Dyson and billionaire investment banker Ken Moelis.
The company this year scaled back its penthouse offering at the tower, splitting a sprawling unit that once asked $130 million into a simplex and duplex asking $40 million and between $80 million and $100 million, respectively.