Price Cuts
For apartments priced at $20 million or more, the average price cut was 12 percent last year, compared with 15 percent in 2008, according to StreetEasy.
Steven A. Cohen, the billionaire founder of SAC Capital Advisors LP, is still seeking a buyer for his 9,000-square-foot penthouse at One Beacon Court, on the market since April. He initially sought $115 million for the duplex -- the only one in the 53-story tower, according to StreetEasy -- for which he paid $12.9 million in 2005.
In December, he knocked down the price to $98 million, or $10,888 a square foot, for the four-bedroom property, described in the listing as “a unique NYC treasure” with interiors designed by Charles Gwathmey. Two walls of windows in its double-height living room overlook Midtown and Central Park.
Cohen’s brokers, Deborah Grubman and David Dubin of Corcoran Group, declined to comment.
Pierre Hotel
A five-bedroom penthouse spanning the 41st through 43rd floors at the Pierre Hotel on Fifth Avenue is on the market for $95 million, down from April’s asking price of $125 million, according to StreetEasy. The triplex co-op has four adjoining terraces, five fireplaces and includes the hotel’s original ballroom.
To justify a stratospheric price, “you just best have a product -- an apartment, a house, a co-op -- that truly has unique features so that buyers can fall in love with it,” said Paula Del Nunzio, a luxury broker with Brown Harris Stevens, whose listings include a five-bedroom condo at 15 Central Park West.
The seller of that property, Leroy Schecter, chairman of metalworks firm Marino/Ware Industries Inc., initially sought $95 million. Eighteen months and at least two price cuts later, he changed brokers and now is asking $65 million.
Unobstructed Views