It's an attractive place, but $24 million?

In the final days of 2012, high-end properties passed between wealthy Manhattanites like a cold in a classroom full of kindergarteners. Among the last properties to slip in before the tax codes changed on the first of the year was 14 East 94th Street, which traded hands for $24 million on December 20.

Coming at the end of a year that was gloriously triumphant for the trophy market, no one paid particular attention to this sale. It was one of three townhouse closings in the $20 million range that hit city records the second week in January, The Real Deal noted. The New York Times made a passing reference to the sale, burying it at the bottom of their weekly "Big Ticket" column that featured a more impressive townhouse sale.

They could be forgiven—the only remarkable thing about the townhouse at 14 East 94th Street was its price: more than $4,000 a square foot, which is among the highest prices ever paid for any townhouse in the city.

The kitchen is high-end, but not the most exceptional we've ever seen.

Moreover, the house, which was not technically on the market when it sold, fetched $9 million more than its most recent 2011 asking price of $15 million.

How did the property—a perfectly lovely Carnegie Hill townhouse, but nothing exceptional—manage to get so much money?

One broker snorted in disbelief when we called to discuss the sale. "Twenty-four million for that twenty-footer?"  the broker cried after examining the listing and sales details. "That is very, very odd."

In fact, all the brokers whom The Observer spoke with found the sale befuddling. The house, we were told by the brokers, many of whom had been inside at some point or another was "very simple" and "nice, but nothing special."

In a city where townhouse width is among the most important factors in determining price, 20-feet is quite narrow. Nor had the house undergone any kind of massive or celebrity designer renovations that might explain its 5,480 square-feet commanding $4,379 each. Especially given that the very similar townhouse across the street, 13 East 94th Street, had sold for just $12.5 million the year before, or $1,947 per square foot. The only other townhouse on the block to even approach that price-per-square-foot was the 7,500-square-foot 1 East 94th Street, a 25-footer that went for $24.9 million back in 2010, or $3,318 per square foot.

“There’s something spooky going on there, something funny," said one broker. "It’s just not a grand house.”

Another broker said that it was the kind of deal you generally see when the buyer is a developer, but the house in within the Carnegie Hill Historic District, so that couldn't be the case this time.

When we reached Bill Pfaff, the Douglas Elliman broker who had the listing back in 2011 with Millard Dixon, he confirmed that he had brokered the sale, and said that the new owner planned to use it as a single-family home, but declined to comment further.

Another broker who was familiar with the sale proceedings said that the buyer, Bresac LLC, had so been taken with the house that he was willing to pay a premium. And Emad Zirky, the CEO of Vanderbilt Asset Management, was the lucky recipient of the buyer's spendthrift ways. Mr. Zirky did not return a request for comment.

Appraisal guru Jonathan Miller said that while 14 East 94th Street didn't set the townhouse record, it wasn't far off. Only two other townhouses had managed to get more per square foot. One of them, 1108 Park Avenue, was a development site (it sold for $5,002 per square foot) and the other was 4 Riverview Terrace, an unusual house right on the East River that sold at $4,399 per square foot back in August 2008.

The sale, he agreed, was "weird." Mr. Miller chalked the insanely high price up to the shortage of inventory, which can coincide with erratic buying behavior.

"It's definitely an outlier," he said. "But you'll probably see a lot more sales this year that don't make a lot of sense."

kvelsey@observer.com

Catch her in Carnegie Hill. (ABC/Donna Svennevik)

When we saw that Nightline co-host Cynthia McFadden had sold her three-bedroom co-op at 129 East 69th Street last week, we wondered where she would be moving. Like the 11:35 p.m. time slot on ABC, a pre-war co-op in a white glove Lenox Hill building is prime real estate.

The answer is Carnegie Hill (and, if you're watching ABC, it's 12:35 a.m.). The famed journalist tells The Observer that she and her teenaged son are upgrading to a four-story brownstone on the Upper East Side neighborhood.

"It has beautiful qualities—squeaky stairs, old fireplaces, a great kitchen. It's a wonderful place to entertain," said Ms. McFadden, who had just come back from Washington DC after interviewing Hillary Clinton. (If you're wondering whether Jimmy Kimmel has ever interviewed Hillary Clinton the answer is no, he has not.)

When Ms. McFadden is not speaking with the former Secretary of State and possibly future POTUS, she's planning to do a lot of cooking and gardening in the new place.

"Work has me on the road a lot, but I'm really a homebody," she said. "You'll find me with dirty hands in the backyard."

Ms. McFadden told us that the she bought the new place under ask, for some $5 million; it was listed with Brown Harris Stevens brokers Ann Jeffery and Daniel Kessler. Corocoran broker Sharon Baum, who sold Ms. McFadden's co-op for $3.23 million, represented her in this transaction.

Besides a bigger kitchen and a garden, the newswoman had another reason for making the change.

"The house is not huge, but it seems huge to me. I have a teenaged son, so this allows him to escape," said Ms. McFadden. "I just hope he'll allow his mother to come up to the fourth floor to fumigate."

kvelsey@observer.com

And specialize he does: Mr. Wexler made a nice chunk of change on the Carnegie Hill five-bedroom, flipping it for more than twice the $4 million he paid in 2007. Yet being a specialist can come with its risks, too: Mr. Wexler had the audacity to list the home only a year after he purchased it for $12.5 million.

It looks like he had to wait for another gaga market to come along in order to sell it.

After a three-year hiatus, Mr. Wexler brought the property back on the market in 2011, having waited out the recession and realizing his hopes of tripling his money were in vain, asking $9.7 million. After a number of price cuts, it was whittled down to to $8.7 million.

The house does have some awesome features, like what the listing claims is the only detached garage in Manhattan "an added convenience that can only be described as priceless." Well, maybe not priceless.

Mr. Wexler and wife Julia, who list their address as Irvington, N.Y., on the deed (we hope they at least enjoyed the house a little while they were paying all the taxes on it!), sold the home to CMI Residence LLC.

If the new buyers don't try to double their money with a fast flip like the deliriously-confident owners of 122 East 72nd Street, they'll enjoy a beautifully-restored space with Tiffany stained glass lamps and eight wood-burning fireplaces. The historic house was built in 1885 by Jacob Ruppert, as a wedding gift for his daughter. So much nicer than a silver tea set.

kvelsey@observer.com

Beware the Park Avenue pillagers!

Who is out of place here?

The residents of Carnegie Hill are not particularly experienced in protest techniques—they are more likely to walk through throngs of the demonstrators than to walk among them. But a new Toll Brothers development on Park Avenue has inspired angry Upper East Siders to take up the picket.

In a vertical city like New York, simple signs on sticks do not do much good, so neighbors have resorted to a more high-flying technique for their "visual protest" this morning, unfurling homemade banners from one of their buildings that read "Save Our History."

"We're all rookies at this, not professional protesters," said Lucinda Ballard, who lives in 1112 Park Avenue, right next to the two pre-Civil War townhouses that the Philadelphia-based Toll Brothers is almost certainly planning to replace with a tower, but has thus far refused to confirm.

Plans for something are certainly moving forward, however, and applications for building permits to remove cornices, replace windows and do "partial demolition," have been filed with the city.

Park Avenue Neighbors claim that the work is "clearly a first step toward razing these two historic buildings. The clock is ticking and the wrecking ball looms."

Limited liability corporation 89 Park Avenue LLC purchased both 1110 Park Avenue and 1108 Park Avenue in March, paying a total of $29.5 million ($16.5 million for 1110 and $13 million for 1108). Between the two properties, air rights allow for a 40,000-square-foot potential project (the Toll Brothers tower is rumored to be 15 stories).

Residents, particularly those of 1112 Park Avenue—who stand to lose not only the historic buildings but also their views—have launched a campaign to landmark the buildings, gathering hundreds of signatures on a petition to save the buildings and requesting an emergency meeting with Landmarks Preservation Commission chair Robert Tierney.

Wedged between two much-larger buildings and located outside the Carnegie Hill Historic District, the townhouses seem like obvious marks for development, but Ms. Ballard said that in the past, the owner of 1108 had assured them that he would never sell the property to a developer.

"This is not about disgruntled people losing their views. That is really not the issue," Ms. Ballard said. "These houses were built in 1856, when everything around them was cornfields, they are the oldest residential homes on Park Avenue north of 63rd Street. It is wrong to tear them down without a debate."

Although a request for Landmarks Preservation to extend the Carnegie Hill historic district from 86th to 96th Streets was filed two years ago, the request has not been calendared and residents are looking toward landmarking just the two townhouses to stop the construction work from damaging the buildings and weakening the case for preservation. They hold up the preservation of a historic horse stable in Greenwich Village as an example of what they hope to achieve.

"They're not architectural masterpieces, they were the houses of working class people and they tell a different story about Park Avenue," Ms. Ballard said.

For its part, Landmarks has not been particularly encouraging. "While it may be eligible for historic district status, the proposed district is not a priority at this time," spokeswoman Elizabeth de Bourbon wrote to The Observer. And views were not among the factors that the Commission considered, she told the The Wall Street Journal. "It is our job to protect the historic character and integrity of a neighborhood."

But if such traditional techniques fail, the group is not against adopting some very unPark Avenue-like tactics.

"This is the first time I've really been involved with anything like this," said resident William Simmons, sounding both surprised and excited to find himself in the role of protester. He admitted that he was a little disheartened by how small the banners appeared from the street, but not dissuaded from trying new and unorthodox methods.

"We're trying to figure out how to get our concerns in the public eye," Mr. Simmons said. "Do we take placards and go out and march? Maybe."

kvelsey@observer.com

Will these townhouses soon meet the wrecking ball? Signs point to yes.

Toll Brothers is still pulling a "no comment" when it comes to rumors of  a Carnegie Hill tower, but plans for something are certainly moving apace on Park Avenue.

The same limited liability corporation—89 Park Avenue LLC—that purchased 1110 Park Avenue for $16.5 million (10 percent more than the $14.9 million ask) has also closed on 1108 Park Avenue for $13 million. And 1108 wasn't even listed for sale!

It is entirely possible some unknown entity likes this block enough to spend $29.5 million on two nice-enough but kind of meh townhouses—stranger things have happened, and this gives a fat 40 feet of frontage—but the far more likely plan would appear to be development.

Although the two townhouses hardly look like tear-downs, they're wedged between two, much-larger apartment buildings, so it probably didn't take a great deal of imagination on the buyer's part to see a potential site for a residential tower (rumored to be 15 stories). Besides, the Salomon Brothers listing for 1110 Park Avenue even hyped the property's air rights that would permit over 20,000 square feet to be built on the site. According to Property Shark, an equal amount of development rights is available at 1108, making for a 40,000-square-foot potential project.

If Toll Brothers is behind these purchases, it would make a lot of sense. The Philadelphia-based McMansion builders have done very well adapting to the Upper East Side with Touraine, their ritzy East 65th Street development  (although interior photos of the units suggest that the tastes of Upper East Siders may not be so different from that of suburban McMansion dwellers).

The seller was the estate of Joseph Bogen.

We'd guess that the sale of both townhouses will spur the residents of neighboring buildings, who have already been quietly mobilizing to stop the still unconfirmed development, to take more aggressive, maybe even public, action against the building.

Even before any official word is released, the residents of 1112 are said to be mulling a lawsuit against the view-obstructing development, and Carnegie Hill Neighbors is circulating a petition to have the historic district extended north to 96th Street, which would encompass the two buildings. Not that that would stop the project, but it would at least give the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission oversight over whatever gets built.

kvelsey@observer.com

A Toll Brother's tear down?

It turns out that Carnegie Hill residents are not so thrilled about whatever plans Philadelphia-based McMansion builder Toll Brothers might have for their neighborhood.

Following news that the builders, who have slowly been expanding their Manhattan presence, had closed on the purchase of a townhouse at 1110 Park Avenue and also had their eye on neighboring 1108 Park Avenue, Tolls' new neighbors are trying to stop them.

Toll Brothers has kept mum about the whole thing (a rep told the Observer that the company is not commenting on the transaction), but rumors are circulating that the developer plans to build a 15-story tower where the two townhouses now stand, according to Curbed.

It comes as no surprise that nearby townhouse dwellers are not super happy about the possibility of a new tower rising in their midst. Even if the developer's New York properties are a far cry from McMansion, they do share at least one characteristic—size.

Curbed reports that not only are residents writing letters to get the Landmarks Preservation Committee to extend the historic district from 86th to 96th Street (the buildings lie right outside the Carnegie Hill historic district), but residents of neighboring 1112 Park Avenue may have hired a lawyer in attempt to block any project that could block their view. (Never mind that theirs, and just about every other building on Park, is now quite large, the days of townhouses and mansions on the boulevard long since passed.)

Extending historic districts, or at least trying to, is not uncommon—at the moment, expansions are being considered in Bed-Stuy, Park Slope and Crown Heights. But it's a lengthy process and Toll Brothers, or whoever is behind the purchase, appears to be moving fast—Curbed reports that the developer has asked three commercial tenants in the buildings to leave by July 1.

kvelsey@observer.com

Attorney James R. Triedman bought a nine-room co-op on 14 East 90th Street in Carnegie Hill for $3.65 million, according to a deed filed with the city on July 16, after the price was chopped from the original March asking of $4.25 million.

According to the listing, the co-op—sold by insurance company vice president Marc Feinberg through Douglas Elliman broker Suzanne Sealy on July 16—has three bedrooms, four bathrooms, “[s]tunning proportions, high ceilings, classic architectural details and oversized windows.”

One would hope at least one of those oversized windows overlooks the nearby Central Park water reservoir.

Also, according to a deed filed on July 13, Wall Street investment strategist Jason Trennert bought a nine-room co-op at 22 East 88th Street for $3.25 million—after a price cut of over $1 million from September’s original asking of $4.695 million. The co-op, with both city and Central Park views, comes equipped with a library, windowed kitchen, formal dining room, and even a specially tiny maid’s room.

Paul and Tracy Taylor sold the co-op through Brown Harris Stevens broker Joanne Greene.

bkavoussi@observer.com

- Max Abelson

Last week, the acclaimed filmmaker signed a contract for a 20-foot-wide, Georgian-style townhouse on East 70th Street, which had been listed with broker Louise Beit, of Sotheby’s International Realty.

Designed by Trowbridge & Livingston in 1901, the stunning 16-room home includes 11-foot ceilings, ornate moldings, 10 fireplaces, and a Georgian staircase. In addition, there are five bedrooms, formal dining room, library, family room, media room, staff room, and a garden.

Certainly, Mr. Allen is no stranger to exquisite Manhattan properties.

In 1999, he paid $17.7 million for a 40-foot-wide mansion on East 92nd Street. The palatial home measured in excess of 15,000 square feet. About five years later, he sold the Carnegie Hill townhouse to former Goldman Sachs executive Barry Volpert, for $24.5 million.

However, the years spent in Carnegie Hill were not completely idyllic. Mr. Allen and some of his well-heeled neighbors (including Sony chief Howard Stringer and author Peggy Noonan) attempted to block the construction of a 10-story luxury condominium nearby. However, the state’s highest court ruled against them.

Since moving out, Mr. Allen has searched for an Upper East Side home, albeit smaller than the mansion he owned previously, according to real estate sources. In July 2004, Mr. Allen was reportedly under contract for a different East 70th Street townhouse; however, it was later reported in September that the deal fell through.

In the mean time, Mr. Allen has been reportedly renting a single-family residence at Madison and 85th Street for $25,000 a month.

Representatives for Mr. Allen did not offer any comment, as of this morning. Ms. Beit declined to comment on the listing.

-Michael Calderone

3:13 a.m.

8 pounds

St. Luke’s–Roosevelt Hospital Center

Valerie Russo, 37-year-old deputy commissioner for the Administration for Children’s Services of New York City, has taken a break worrying about the city’s kids to focus on her own darling firstborn. “I think being a mother will influence how I feel about work when I return,” she said. The affable tyke, who has a full head of hair, has already upended the Carnegie Hill “classic seven” that Ms. Russo shares with her husband of one year, Marc Freud (“a couple of shrinks in the family,” he admitted). The TV room is now Max’s bedroom, and the study has been converted into his personal storage space. “We wouldn’t have it any other way,” said Mr. Freud, 41, who is a principal of a real-estate company called Troutbrook.