432 Park Avenue and Harry Macklowe
Alleged construction defects and a lawsuit from the condo board at 432 Park Avenue don’t appear to have scared away what could be the biggest residential deal of the year so far.
An unidentified buyer is in contract to buy an 8,000-square-foot unit on the 82nd floor for approximately $70 million, or roughly $8,750 per square foot, people familiar with the deal told the Wall Street Journal. The sale would also include two staff suites on lower floors of Harry Macklowe and CIM Group’s supertall.
Limited partnership Blessings Investments is the seller of the unit. It purchased the unit and staff suites for roughly $66.5 million in 2016. The mystery condo owner turned around and put the unit on the market in August 2020 for $90 million before dropping the price to $79 million last April.
If the deal closes at its contract price, it would be New York CIty’s largest residential sale of the year, according to the newspaper.
Blessings Investments is being represented by Douglas Elliman’s Ryan Stenta and the Corcoran Group’s Carrie Chiang, while Compass’ Jason Haber is representing the buyer. None of the three involved commented on the deal.
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The five-bedroom unit has 360-degree views of the city, a media room and a great room with 10-by-10-foot windows.
The building allegedly has some tall problems, though, including plumbing and mechanical issues, along with creaking noises. The building’s condo board in September brought a lawsuit against co-developers Harry Maclowe and CIM.
CIM hit back in documents filed in New York Supreme Court in December, calling the board’s lawsuit “ill-advised” and dismissing it as a “publicity campaign.” The developer said the building was “without a doubt, safe” and called its “amenities, features, fixtures and finishings … the pinnacle of luxury.”
The alleged issues don’t seem to be hampering buyers, according to agents who work with buyers and sellers in the building. Only two sales closed between February 2021 and December 2021, but that’s only one fewer deal than the previous year, when the pandemic started affecting the market.
Both of the units sold for more than what the sellers paid for them.
“So far, people buying [or] paying very high rents don’t give a damn,” one agent told The Real Deal in December. “They want to be in that building.”
[WSJ] — Holden Walter-Warner