There is one school of thought that says uptown luxury Manhattan real estate brokers typify a dying breed of pristine professionalism, and another that considers them a terrifying swarm of overpowered and underprincipled bullies. The truth is in between: High-end New York City real estate is a wonderful and strange little world of artfully ambitious salesmanship.
Take the new Rushmore condo on Riverside Drive, where well over 30 buyers are reportedly fighting to get out of their contracts for new apartments. One executive who was going to buy two condos for $6.9 million, for example, sued over the developer’s closing deadline, certificate of occupancy and construction defects, according to a Real Deal article.
But when you look at the floor plan for the building’s 7,200-square-foot duplex—a gorgeous floor plan, a poetic floor plan—you’d never guess that anything could even potentially ever be wrong here. The maid’s bedroom leads to the kitchen, to the breakfast area, and to the family room, which opens up—through double doors—to a palatial dining room/living room. That takes you to the multimedia room, then to the cellar, to the study and the guest room, to the walk-in closet and then, beautifully, back to the maid’s room.
And that’s just the first floor.
Upstairs there’s a 42-foot-long master bedroom suite, where you walk past the two walk-in closets to get to the 15-foot-long spa, which leads to the two-sink master bathroom. This is a world of foyers and double ovens, a world that seems to know no pain or recessions or lawsuits. And it can be yours for only $13,250,000—which, as the listing with Nestseekers points out, is a full $1 million less than the original asking price. — Max Abelson
