Not your average Fifth Avenue dining room. (Kelviin, flickr)

The holidays aren't only a good time for giving to others; they're also a popular time for people of means to buy themselves lavish gifts. This year Apollo Global Management managing director Marc Rowan went all out: the billionaire and bride Carolyn splurged on a $26 million co-op at 927 Fifth Avenue, according to city records.

The Rowans, who own a floor-through on the sixth floor, have purchased the floor-through on the fifth floor. The couple could be looking for a slightly inferior view, of course, but we'd say this a fairly unambiguous move to create a duplex floor-through.

What's more, in May, the Rowans bought a $7.7 million commercial unit on the ground floor. Now that the red-tailed hawks have moved on it appears that the Rowans want to rule the roost at the tony limestone behemoth.

A striking design, but it's not for everyone. (Kelviin, flickr)

It's not the cushiest perch. The apartment, which was sold by Claire Edersheim, the widow of financier Maurits Edersheim via the Edersheim 2000 Marital Trust, was designed by the late Paul Rudolph. The Brutalist architect and former dean of the Yale School of Architecture, and his love of concrete and other uncomfortable surfaces, did not win many fans in the residential market.( Indeed, his status as a designer of upscale interiors could not be more different from that the current dean—Robert A.M. Stern.) Although the famed architect did appear to have softened his design somewhat for the Edersheims' pre-War spread, judging by photos of the Edersheim apartment and their Long Island home, also renovated by Rudolph.

Given the multitude of chintz-covered living rooms and mahogany paneled libraries we've looked at, the bracing design is rather refreshing, if a little dated (the Edersheims were long-term residents of the building). Unfortunately, we doubt if Rudolph's vision be blended with whatever sixth-floor design motif the Rowans have selected. Not to mention the fact that a major redesign is basically a given when creating a duplex from two simplexes. Mr. Rowan has not yet returned a request for comment on his plans for the space.

The unit was not listed publicly, so we can't say who'll be taking home the sizable commission on this sale. Fortunately for Ms. Edersheim, the deal closed in December, which will mean a lower tax rate on the rather considerable capital gains she'll be paying. It's a happy New Year for everyone involved.

kvelsey@observer.com

A modest spread for a woman of wealth

An indoor Juliet balcony!

If there's one thing that shipping magnate Angela Chao knows, it's how to move goods. Ms. Chao just sold her Greenwich Village co-op for the $1.6 million ask, according to city records.

Ms. Chao, an executive at her father's Foremost Group and the fourth wife and widow of  the late billionaire and Lazard chief Bruce Wasserstein, must have grown tired of her two-bedroom co-op apartment at 35 East 9th Street, which sold to Nancy Bello and Michael Boghosian. They sure liked the place, though, as it enter contract after a little more than a month on the market.

Well, we can certainly understand why Ms. Chao, who has a much swankier pad at 927 Fifth Avenue, held onto this cheerful apartment, listed with Brown Harris Stevens brokers William Grant and Jill Mangone, for as long as she did. It's a charming space with odd and amazing details like 18-foot barrel-vaulted ceilings, a wood burning fireplace with an 18th-century French marble mantel, chandeliers and a master bedroom suite with internal and external Juliet balconies.

Designed by architect Harvey Wiley Corbett of Helme & Corbett Architects in 1924, the three building co-op also features a roof deck, a big front garden and lots of double-sized windows. A nice place to live for Ms. Bello and Mr. Boghosian, who also work in finance (for Merrill Lynch and Citigroup, respectively).

As for Ms. Chao, she calls a 10th-floor apartment at 927 Fifth Avenue home. The apartment once belonged to her late husband, who liked the building quite a bit. He also owned an 11th-floor apartment that sold to William Lie Zeckendorf for $29 million last year.

kvelsey@observer.com

You'd probably roost here too if you got the chance

You can never have too much of a good thing, and 927 Fifth Avenue—red-tailed hawk controversies aside—is definitely a good thing. Or so Apollo Global Management managing director Marc Rowan and wife Carolyn seem to think.

The couple, who live on the exclusive co-op's sixth floor, have paid $7.7 million for the space formerly owned by Robert Schwager, who died in 2007, according to city records.

Schwager, a prominent plastic surgeon, kept his offices on the ground floor of the building, which is classified, according to the deed, as commercial co-op space.

There's no real estate listing for Schwager's space, and it's not clear if the Rowens plan to use it as a deluxe in-house storage locker or if Mr. Rowen, among the kings of leveraged buyouts, hopes to supplement his $1.5 billion fortune by renting it out as space.

Or maybe the Rowans just wanted a place to park a small portion of their vast fortune and the limestone building seemed like a good bet? After all, William Lie Zeckendorf recently sold his apartment for $34.6 million less than a year after he bought it for $29.1 million.

It is, of course, also popular with wildlife, but those birds are freeloaders.

kvelsey@observer.com

Scott and Donya Bommer (Photo from Patrick McMullan)

Back in July, The Observer learned that William Lie Zeckendorf had found a buyer for his half of the old Wasserstein pad at 927 Fifth Avenue, which he had purchased for $29.1 million only seven months earlier. The purchase price was rumored to be as high as $34 million, well above the $31.5 million ask and a good explanation for why Mr. Zecekendorf might ever think of selling, given the quick turnaround. It turns out, the sale was even higher than that.

Plummeting stock market? Global recession on the horizon? Didn't seem to bother Scott Bommer, founder of uber hedge fund SAB Capital, and his wife, Donya. The Times revealed the couple as the buyer of the Zeckendorf pad, and they paid $34.6 million for it, meaning an extra $600,000 in Mr. Zeckendorf's pocket. There must be something about the apartment at 927 Fifth which begs buyers to unload their wallets, throwing in many millions of extra dollars to seal the deal. Remember, Mr. Zeckendorf paid well over the $26 million ask, as well.

Mr. Zeckendorf is no stranger to wise-if-often-eyebrow-raising real estate deals, of course. There was his record-setting sale at 15 Central Park West last December, raking in an extraordinary $30 million profit. For their part, Mr. and Mrs. Bommer are no newcomers to the world of luxury flips: they sold their Ritz pad for $3o million, according to The Times, after buying it three years prior for $28.5 million.

He's got a long way to get to enter William Lie territory.

Money slept here. (Haus Fitzgerald)

Could William Lie Zeckendorf be the shrewdest man in New York City real estate?

The only thing more surprising than the news just over a month ago that Mr. Zeckendorf was selling the top half of the late Bruce Wasserstein's old duplex at 927 Fifth Avenue—which he fought off a number of other buyers for in a madcap one-day auction—is that he found a buyer less than a week after putting it on the market. Not only that, but according to a number of sources, the five-bedroom spread went for "well over" its $31.5 million asking price after some zealous bidding. One broker said the price could even be in excess of $34 million.

This could help explain Mr. Zeckendorf's unexpected decision to sell.

As The Times noted 32 days ago, "brokers said the reasons for his selling again were unknown at this point." Well, now we may know, as Mr. Zeckendorf could be turning a $5 million profit on the five-bedroom home overlooking Central Park, which he closed on in December for $29.1 million. He never moved in.

That may not be nearly profitable as one of his other jaw-dropping deals, the record-breaking sale of the penthouse atop 15 Central Park West, which went for $40 million, or nearly $10,000 a square foot, or four times what Mr. Zeckendorf originally paid to crown the building he and his brother built with Robert A.M. Stern. Then again, he turned around 927 Fifth in all of six months, instead of two years. Never mind that Mr. Zecekendorf does not need the money, 15 Central Park West having been a success in and of itself after it grossed a staggering $2 billion, an amount matched only in magnitude by the outsized resales in the building.

If the sale is true, and the contract goes through, it belies the fact that, like Bid 'Em Up Bruce, as Wasserstein was known, Mr. Zeckendorf is simply a consummate dealmaker who cannot say no to a good offer. "Will clearly knows what he's doing," one broker said. "He's going to be a lucky son of a bitch, whatever he does."

The identity of the buyer remains unknown, and there is still the possibility the co-op board might not approve. For the kind of money on offer, it might be hard to say no, though. A rising tide and all that. Plus, this is one of the more lenient boards in a stringent city. "Financially, it is tight, but socially, it's easy," one broker said.

John Burger, Mr. Zeckendorf's broker, as well as his firm Brown Harris Stevens, which manages the building, declined to comment. Mr. Zeckendorf did not immediately return requests for comment.

If such numbers seem staggering—Wasserstein paid $15 million for both floors only a decade ago—brokers said it is an especially nice apartment in nearly perfect condition with not only views of the Park but also lots of light from the 74th Street side.

Completed in 1917 by Grand Central Terminal architects Warren & Whetmore, it is not the most distinguished of the Upper East Side co-ops. Nonetheless, it has attracted its fair share of notable owners, among them Mary Tyler Moore, Kenneth Cole, Richard Cohen and Paula Zahn and, perhaps most famously, the hawk Pale Male, whose perch was dislodged to widespread protest in 2004, until it was replaced three weeks later.

So quick turnarounds are nothing new in this building.

Yes, that's right, we're talking about none other than William Lie Zeckendorf. The vaunted developer who just sold his 41st-floor condo at 15 Central Park West for $40 million, the second-highest sale this year and the highest ever per square foot, has now bought a spread at 927 Fifth Avenue for $3 million above the asking price. 

The Post previously reported that Mr. Zeckendorf had purchased Bruce Wasserstein's 14-room spread, which was up for auction for $26 million. He was rumored to have put down $27 million, but it turns out even that was a conservative estimate.

Public records now show that he's paid $29.1 million and some change. That nudges the price slightly above the $4,200 a square foot he was said to have paid, but like every other sale in the city, a bargain compared to his recent successes.

The Wasserstein place is much bigger than Mr. Zeckendorf's self-developed modern digs. Of course, the co-op also has the Mary Tyler Moore glam factor, as well as the legendary chutzpah of having rejected Barbra Streisand. But is it worth giving up one of the city's best views? We're not totally convinced.

lkusisto@observer.com