By Kim Velsey 10/04/12 12:12pm

Skyscraper Living

What if it were a condo?

Why Don’t More Co-ops Hop on the Condo Cash Train?

It’s easy to see who’s winning the popularity contest in New York real estate circles these days. Co-ops, like many a high school queen bee, are granted grudging respect: good looking, better grades, they hang out with all the best people and wield an awesome amount of social power. But condos, well, condos seem to have it all: they’re beautiful, friends with all the cool foreign kids and they’re so nice while still playing the edgy bad boy.

Over the past year or so, belligerently wealthy out-of-towners have been snapping up New York condos like so many Jimmy Choos and boarding school seats. The Russians have invaded and we couldn’t be happier, and the rest of the world is eager to follow. Glassy condo towers are—after their brief recessionary hiatus—rising again. Indeed, the biggest residential deals of the year went down neither at co-ops nor mansions but at 15 Central Park West and newfound rivals One57 and the Ritz Carlton. Amazingly the Ritz may look like an old co-op but it is actually a 2002 condo conversion of the old St. Moritz hotel. Back then, units sold for a fraction of what they are now getting, and certainly less than its co-op rivals on Park and Fifth avenues.

The same, alas, cannot be said of co-ops. Marvelous as those bastions of old money are, they are also notorious for their rigid policies and grueling board interviews, where one’s future neighbors—if one is so lucky—pour over financial documents and probe into personal lives. Look no further than the case of godly 740 Park. While the famed building notched a co-op record this year with the $52 million sale of Courtney Sale Ross’ immense spread, that is half the price of some of the record deals now taking place. Meanwhile Goldman guy Jonathan Sobel sold a penthouse at the Verona (a very nice one, but still, ever heard of the place?) for more than he paid for a new duplex at 740 Park. He got a 45 percent discount, to boot, from what the home was first asking four years ago.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. But might they rise again by becoming condos? Read More

By Kim Velsey 6/14/12 10:00am

Money troubles

Start saving! (Tax Credit, flickr)

The Tax Man Cometh for Your Condo: Albany Must Act or Unbalanced Apartment Taxes Will Jump

Time. We really have so little of it. Just a few years ago it seemed like condo and co-op owners had all the time in the world with their beloved tax abatement and now it’s expiring.

There are plenty of abatements out there, of course—ones for new construction and capital improvements, senior citizens and veterans, but this one is special. This is the one that gives a generous 17.5 percent property tax reduction to just about all co-op and condo owners. And it’s going to die on June 30 if an extension doesn’t come along to save it.

The situation has looked bad before, of course. The abatement, first passed in 1996 to help offset the disparity between the tax rates of co-op and condos versus one- to three-family houses, has required several renewals. Still, have things ever been this dire? Read More

By Matt Chaban 3/12/12 11:44am

Manhattan Transfers

12 Photos

A grand gallery, among many features.

Real Estate Scion Buys Gallerist Nathan Bernstein’s 998 Fifth Duplex

Jordan Pantzer has handled more than $8 billion in real estate transactions since joining his family’s Jersey-based development firm, Pantzer Properties. So while $16 million might seem like a lot to pay for a home, to Mr. Pantzer, it’s peanuts.

That is what he and wife Marcie paid for a 14-room duplex at stately limestone beauty 998 Fifth Avenue, according to city records. Proving his real estate chops, Mr. Pantzer got a deal on the place, which came on the market way back in September 2007 for $25 million. The price finally came down in April of last year to $19 million, though that was still too much. Read More

By Matt Chaban 3/06/12 11:12am

Manhattan Transfers

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Centerbridge Bridge Boss Jeff Aronson Buys Stress-Free Central Park West Roost

The Wall Street Journal once said of Jeffrey Aronson‘s Centerbridge Partners that its investment strategy“might well be termed one of extreme restraint.” The same cannot be said for his new Manhattan home, a massive co-op overlooking Central Park.

Mr. Aronson is known for his skill in investing in distressed assets, and he has frequently plays a waiting game, rather than get caught up in a bidding war or a bad investment. Too bad he did not pounce on this ninth-floor co-op at 101 Central Park West when it came on the market for two weeks in April of 2009. At the time it was asking $11.5 million, but Mr. Aronson and his wife Shari wound up paying $13.075 million instead, according to city records. Read More

By Elise Knutsen 2/27/12 2:25pm

Manhattan Transfers

Owen Laster

Lit Agent’s Tome-Heavy Home Sells At Sutton Place

Named by The New York Times as “one of the most powerful literary agents of his generation,” Owen Laster was an old-guard bookworm who spent his entire career at William Morris. Having worked with such literary luminaries as James A. Michener and Gore Vidal, Laster was a fixture in the book world for decades until he retired in 2006. Not surprisingly, the New Jersey native lived in a book-crammed co-op on Sutton Place, which his estate just sold. Read More

By Elise Knutsen 2/16/12 5:22pm

Manhattan Transfers

The Sherry Netherland at 781 Fifth Avenue

Fitness King Power Lifts $7 M. On Fifth

Roy F. Zurkowski was one of the lucky few in the world who was able to make millions off precisely what made him most happy: fitness. In the ’80s, Mr. Zurkowski became one of the original iron-pumping kingpins, cashing in on the wave of Regan-era health consciousness sweeping the nation. By 1983 all his clubs were purchased by Bally Manufacturing Corp, thus beginning the Bally empire.

Mr. Zurkowski passed away in November 2010, leaving behind a gym-sized home at the Sherry Netherland. That co-op has just sold for $7.1 million, city records show. Read More

By Elise Knutsen 1/20/12 3:27pm

Manhattan Transfers

6 Photos

That's a whole lot of terrace.

The Frick’s Sick $6 M. Penthouse

In terms of real estate, the Frick Collection occupies one of New York’s most enviable residences. The museum, housed in Henry Clay Frick’s former mansion at 1 East 70th Street, represents a largely bygone era when New York’s industry titans lived like kings in lordly city estates. Unbeknownst to most, however, the Frick Collection was, until very recently, in possession of another abode: a Park Avenue penthouse.

While the apartment cannot be compared to the Frick’s primary homestead, it is a substantial home nonetheless. The two-bedroom, two-bath penthouse sits atop 1112 Park Avenue, a pre-war co-op at the corner of 90th Street—making it just two blocks from The Guggenheim, it so happens. Read More

By Elise Knutsen 1/04/12 2:08pm

Manhattan Transfers

Victoria and Jon Patricof

Filmic Finance Scion Buys on Park

While his father, Alan Patricof, may be one of the world’s most renowned investors, Jon Patricof chose a different professional path from the patrician patriarch. As the COO of Tribeca Films, the younger Mr. Patricof spends his days crunching cinematic figures and yucking it up with Robert De Niro.

Still, he has managed not to stray too terribly far from his ilk. Mr. Patricof and his wife, Victoria, have just purchased a seven-figure apartment at 755 Park Avenue, just four block from his mother and father’s longtime New York digs. Perhaps they could not find a Tribeca loft to their liking. Read More