Prices may rise in tandem with the tower.

With everyone else tacking on millions to the asks for their apartments, we guess 432 Park Avenue wanted to get in on the action, even if the most soaring of soaring residential towers has yet to break ground. Why should One57 and 15 Central Park West rake in all the cash? Especially when 432 Park Avenue is set to be the tallest residential building in the city at 1,395 feet?

In her weekly luxury market report, Donna Olshan of Donna Olshan Realty writes that sources tell her that the blended average asking price in the building will be about $5,800-a-square foot. Last we heard (when The Wall Street Journal snagged a brochure for the luxury high-rise this June), the average ask was at $4,500-a-square foot. One57 is still more expensive even with the price increase, offering some bargain prices of around $3,500-a-square foot on the lower levels, but charging as much as $13,000-a-sqaure foot for the penthouse (which is currently in contract for somewhere north of $90 million).

Of course, we'd expect some more price adjustments before sales start at the Harry Macklowe/CIM project (although Ms. Olshan said that the building is due to come on the market as soon as this fall!). Even One57, which just recently topped out, scrambled to bump their asking prices up after Sandy Weill sold his 15 CPW penthouse for $88 million last December.

So what kinds of luxuries and amenities can residents at the 117-unit building expect? Designed by Rafael Viñoly with interiors by Deborah Berke, the building is set to offer residents onsite housekeeping, valet parking, a 75-foot pool, a yoga studio, a fitness center, a billiards room, a children's playroom, a screening room, six elevators, a landscaped sculpture garden and a 64-seat private restaurant that opens onto a huge terrace. Also, owners will be able to buy offices below the 34th floor for those who hate to walk/take a Town Car to work.

Not that anyone will be seeing any of these touches anytime soon. The building is not expected to be finished until 2015.

kvelsey@observer.com

No sooner do we report that Kelly Ripa has sold her Soho apartment than the buyer puts it on the market again. With the same agent Ripa used (Alida Rubin, of the Corcoran Group). For half a million dollars more than Ripa got for it. Within weeks of closing the deal with Ripa.

The flipper in this case is former Goldman Sachs investment banker Michael Rubinoff. He's got something on Ripa trying to sell the place, being a big-time deal maker who just recently invested in a consortium with Seagram's scion Matthew Bronfman.

But he probably doesn't need the half a million in profit. Why isn't he moving in to the extensively-renovated apartment in a celebrity-filled Soho building?

Could it have been the ongoing construction on the upper two floors--where Ripa and Consuelos now reside--that made the sleek condo lose its luster?

Mr. Rubinoff's broker did not respond to calls from The Real Estate seeking answers.

The whole Soho flipfest began ages ago in real-estate-speculation years: April of 2002, when Ripa and her husband Mark Consuelos dropped $2.8 million on the trendy downtown pad, abandoning their New Jersey home.

After buying the apartment, the couple embarked on a massive renovation. They hired architectural firm Deborah Berke & Partners-a company that has recently worked on the Marianne Boesky Gallery in Chelsea and Jon Stewart's Tribeca duplex-to overhaul the 5,000-square-foot apartment.

Yet, despite the flashy renovation, Ripa and Consuelos were enticed by a duplex penthouse that became available upstairs.

Once owned by Tennis great Boris Becker, and later rented by Nicole Kidman, the apartment came on the market one year ago for close to $10 million. (Film mogul Harvey Weinstein also bought into the same Soho building last year).

Over the summer, Ripa and Consuelos dropped $9.5 million on the duplex, which is situated on the top two floors, directly above their previous pad.

But a triplex was out of the question; the couple put the full-floor loft on the market for $7.5 million in late October. By Nov. 18, Mr. Rubinoff signed a contract; the deal closed exactly two months later.

Inside, Ripa and Consuelos (and now Rubinoff) are leaving behind three bedrooms and three-and-a-half baths. There is a library/den, office, small gym, and a spacious eat-in kitchen-which features 2 Sub Zero refrigerators, double Gaggenau ovens, and double Gaggenau cooktops.

On Feb. 6, less than three weeks after closing the deal with Rubinoff, Ripa and her husband filed plans with the Department of Buildings for an interior renovation that includes plumbing, mechanical, and structural work.

Again, Ms. Berke's architectural firm was retained.

- Michael Calderone