By Kim Velsey 11/13/12 12:07pm

Manhattan Transfers

Not so intimate.

The Death of a Crazy Dream: Magnificently Complicated Fifth Avenue Spread Is Off the Market

Amassing and connecting a melange of co-op apartments scattered about a coal baron’s Fifth Avenue mansion was an outlandish dream, even for Howard Ronson, the commercial real estate developer who kicked off the buying spree at 828 Fifth Avenue, also known as the Berwind mansion, before his death in 2007.

His heirs tried to carry on, but they could never quite replicate their patriarch’s acquisitive charms. With four of the nine apartments in hand, they stopped far short of Ronson’s goal of total building domination. Nor could they (or would they) sell the spread, at least not for $72 million. After putting the apartment on the market in May, in a bid to catch one of the many over-eager trophy hunters said to be sniffing around New York, the family pulled the property just a few months later. Read More

By Kim Velsey 5/23/12 10:04am

Stratospheric Sales

Imagine having it all?

Yours For Just $72 Million: Another Man’s Broken Dream

The late Howard Ronson and his family had a dream—a dream of making the mansion at 828 Fifth Avenue whole again, as it was in the glorious days when coal magnates commissioned Fifth Avenue manses and robber barons ruled the land. But sometimes dreams die.

After a buying spree that netted four of the nine luxurious co-op units in the building, the family is giving up, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The family has decided to give one lucky buyer—a “person with vision”—the chance to purchase their failed dream for $72 million. Read More

By Staff 2/23/07 1:31pm

What Does A Mansion’s Parlor ‘Labyrinth’ Look Like?

This week, Manhattan Transfers profiled Howard Ronson’s newest apartment in the Berwind Mansion, which had been listed for $9,495,000*.

The insane floorplan (click below) draws a glorious picture of the “clandestine mezzanine bedrooms, built for a previous owner by the I.M. Pei Group.”

‘They’re totally camouflaged; you have no idea they’re there,’ Read More