By Kim Velsey 2/06 10:23am

Manhattan Transfers

Impeccable and impeccably dull, all at the same time.

Bank of East Asia Exec David Li Bails Out of Time Warner Tower for $18.8 M.

Time Warner is not the only big fish cashing out on Columbus Circle. The Lincoln Square mega-development is also losing David Kwok Po Li, the CEO and chairman of Bank of East Asia and former Hong Kong politician, who has just sold his 72nd-floor condo. (Related honcho Kenneth Himmel also cleared out late last year.)

Nor is he the only one who stands to profit from the decision. While Time Warner is contemplating how much it could make by clearing out of its headquarters, a process that might well set off a bidding war, Mr. Li did very, very well, doubling his money in under a decade. Read More

By Max Abelson 4/20/10 8:13pm

Observer Home: My Life With the Power Brokers

Last November, after three years of writing about magnificently overpriced New York residential real estate, I moved to the Wall Street beat. It is sober and civilized by comparison. What I feel nostalgic for isn’t the real estate itself. Even though it’s fun to visit cosmic Manhattan homes—like the hand-built third floor of the Plaza, Read More

By Chloe Malle 2/16/10 10:00pm

Penthouse at Trump-Converted 610 Park Quietly Asks $34.8 M.

The penthouse at 610 Park Avenue, a deluxe white-glove condo converted by Donald Trump, is a duplex gem hovering in the Upper East Side sky. The five-bedroom apartment, which features “one of the most beautiful private terraces in New York City,” is currently listed as a $75,000-per-month rental through Corcoran’s Carrie Chiang and Read More

By Max Abelson 10/20/09 11:18pm

$42.5 M. Wildenstein Lair Quietly Asks $37 M.

When the 29-foot-wide mansion at 11 East 64th Street was sold off last July for $42.5 million, it was one of the biggest and strangest sales of 2008. And it’s getting odder: According to two sources, the buyer is quietly willing to part with the house for only $37 million.

The mansion’s broker, both sources Read More

By Max Abelson 7/15/09 3:19pm

’08′s Biggest Apartment Offerings: Where Are They Now?

Late last month, the $51 million duplex penthouse at Trump Park Avenue quietly came off the market, a year after the Elliman broker Victoria Shtainer listed the 6,200-square-foot sprawl, and seven years since Mr. Trump bought the building. “We haven’t sold it,” Ms. Shtainer said this week. “The timing was not good, so I Read More

By Michael Calderone 4/17/06 12:00am

Fifth Ave. Moves Up

If few luxury buyers are willing to go much further north than 96th Street, one of their favorite building designers wasn’t.

Emery Roth, who designed iconic buildings like the Beresford and the San Remo, also designed 1200 Fifth Avenue, which is presently being converted into condominiums.

From the 11th-floor sales office at 1200 Fifth, it Read More