Was the sky, or the wedding-cake ceiling, the limit?

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.

Several sources told The Observer that Ronson's widow Angelika and children have decided to stay put in their puzzle-piece palace. Or at least as "put" as renowned jet-setters said to spend much of their time in Monaco can stay.

Does this also mean they've decided to carry on Ronson's vision of re-assembling the entire house and returning it to its former glory? As they like to say, in for a penny, in for a pound. Or rather, in for $33.95 million (the amount the four apartments cost the Ronson family), in for $100 million (or more!)?

We'd wager that this clan is not quite so cavalier with its dough and that the decision to pull the property had more to do with a lack of interest. None of the former listing brokers—it was held by Corcoran brokers Sharon Baum, Leighton Candler and Deborah Grubman, as well as Stribling broker Alexa Lambert, returned The Observer's phone calls, so we can't be sure, but we'd say the agglomeration was not so popular with buyers and the family is waiting for a later date to list the individual units.

A $72 million sale would set a townhouse sale record and then some (the largest sale to date remains the $53 million dollar sale of the Harkness Mansion). The co-op record lingers at the same threshold, having been set this spring with the sale of the Courtney Sale Ross apartment for $52.5 million. And no matter how magnificent this corner mansion might have been, the units weren't even attached. After all, an ultra high net townhouse lover would probably be inclined to go for the intact Woolworth Mansion, listed at $90 million, rather than bribing/begging his neighbors to move out and then undertaking a huge renovation.

"I’m sure it couldn’t be bought," one broker not associated with the listing told us. "For god’s sake, it was a lot of different units."

kvelsey@observer.com

Imagine having it all?

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.

So what does $72 million get this very lucky buyer? A handful of renovated apartments that Ronson, a developer of modern office buildings, and his estate purchased for $33.95 million between 2005 and 2008 (one must pay a premium, of course, in the off chance that he or she may be able to bribe the other tenants into budging from their apartments, thus reclaiming the entire house—though for god knows how much more money).

Built by coal baron Edward J. Berwind in the 1800s, the house on the corner of East 64th Street, has been called "nothing less than a palace," but it remains, as it has for many years, a vexingly multi-family dwelling.

Apparently, 72 is the lucky (or unlucky) number for this listing, as brokers say that the clan, which is based in Monaco, now owns 72 percent of the building.

The listing was placed with Corcoran brokers Sharon Baum, Leighton Candler and Deborah Grubman, as well as Stribling broker Alexa Lambert, according to The Journal.

It's unclear why exactly Ronson, a Brit living in Monaco who was seeking a pied-a-terre when he bought into the building, found himself so compelled to reassemble the original mansion. Was it simply the instinct to build and rebuild that made him so successful in business? Did he want more space to spend his limited hours in the city? Or was he simply unsatisfied by existing townhouses like the Stanford White mansion a few blocks down Fifth?

In any event, we know that Ronson first bought an apartment spanning two floors, followed almost immediately by two other purchases: a maisonette duplex and a full-floor apartment. Inspired by the beauty of Ronson's vision, his family refused to let death come between them and full mansion ownership, scooping up the penthouse (with terrace and rooftop garden) after he died.

Altogether, the Ronsons own 15,000 square-feet of space, plus some terraces and a wine cellar. (This puts the price into some perspective, which, while outrageous, is about $4,800 a foot, half what record-setting penthouses at 15 Central Park West and One57 are currently going for). Two co-ops were combined to form a triplex, which, with a 34-foot-long ballroom and wedding-cake ceilings, which would almost certainly be a hot commodity in today's market.

But unless one has an entourage (nudge nudge Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani—we also hear the building is very friendly to internationals), we're not sure what one would do, exactly, with a disconnected penthouse apartment and a maisonette. Of course, you could just persuade the other residents of the other two apartments to move out. Might we suggest all-night parties upstairs, all-day construction downstairs.

Because, you know, this isn't just any Fifth Avenue mansion, this is a mansion on a corner that gets really good light and it's directly across "from one of the better parts of Central Park," Corcoran Group president Pam Liebman told The Journal.

You know, as opposed to all those townhouses abutting mediocre parts of Central Park.

Right now is a very popular time to buy high-end real estate, but we can't help but wonder if anyone will drop a record-setting $72 million on 828 Fifth Avenue. After all, with buyers lusting after condos and all the full-service amenities that come with them, rebuilding a Fifth Avenue mansion seems like, well, something out of the coal age.

And if you really want an opulent single-family mansion, you could just purchase the Woolworth Mansion.

kvelsey@observer.com

By the time he passed away in Monaco last March, the British skyscraper developer Howard Ronson had paid $22.95 million, in three separate deals over three years, to amass a 32-room spread in the hugely ornate Berwind Mansion co-op at 828 Fifth Avenue. (Never mind that he reportedly enjoyed his later years on his yacht.)

Eleven months later, he’s posthumously added a few more rooms.

His limited liability corporation just paid $11 million, according to public deeds, for the building’s glass penthouse, which takes his family’s tally in the mansion to nearly $34 million. That number is likely to go up, considering that records show there are at least two other owners in the building to buy out, including the retired dress designer Adolfo, Nancy Reagan’s old favorite.

It’s not clear if his widow controls his real estate deals now, but two brokers said that the idea to buy the whole mansion piecemeal came from Mr. Ronson himself. Last year, two of the apartments were transferred to a children’s trust, with an address in the Channel Islands off France.

If that trust or the LLC buys up the rest of the mansion, the Ronson family will be the first to have the house to themselves since the Berwinds. The place was built 111 years ago by the mining magnate Edward Berwind, whose coal powered the U.S. Navy through World War I. He sold to his sister Julia, who sold to the Institute of Aeronautical Sciences—it was split into apartments in the 1970’s.

Even before this $11 million deal, Mr. Ronson’s units in the building included a ground-floor duplex with a 4,000-bottle brick wine cellar, a glass conservatory and a garden. Better yet, Madonna once spent 15 minutes lying face-up in the parlor floor’s oceanic gold ballroom, ogling its 18-foot ceilings. That unit’s mirrors hide routes to mezzanine bedrooms—which must have appealed to Mr. Ronson, whose New York business office was camouflaged by an oak-paneled waiting room.

The mansion overflows with flowery Napoleon-level luxury, from the painted ceilings and gold trim to the fluted columns, sculpted mantels and perfect moldings. But on the downside, the glass-paneled penthouse was rejected by Rudolph Giuliani in 2002, after three visits, reportedly because it didn’t have a separate formal dining room.

According to city records, the penthouse seller is T. Richard Butera, a developer and philanthropist, who married the sister of infamous bounty hunter Domino Harvey.

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Did we miss any New York City real estate news this morning? Please send along tips and links.

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."

Thus the floorplan has wonderful phrases like "DRESSING ROOM / ROTUNDA," and other hidden goods. (The best room, though, is the golden "LIVING ROOM / BALL ROOM.")

UPDATE: The sale was registered in public records today, and the price was an even $8.5 million.

- Max Abelson