Trophy Properties: The Penthouse
March 3, 2003
A penthouse was not always a penthouse. There was a time in the not-so-distant past when a penthouse was merely an afterthought, a glorified shed tacked on top of a building and used for storage or maid’s quarters.
But since World War II, the image of a Park Avenue penthouse as the ne plus ultra of city living has reigned supreme. “It is the essence of glamour,” says David Wine, vice chairman of the Related Companies, developers of New York’s newest penthouses at One Central Park, atop the towers of the AOL Time Warner Center. “A penthouse is simply the epitome of a luxury lifestyle.”
“A mansion in the sky,” says Bruce Weiner, president of Turnberry Place, the first luxury high-rise condominiums to be built in Las Vegas in nearly 30 years.
“The top of the heap,” says Clark Halstead, founder and chairman of Manhattan’s Halstead Property. “A trophy penthouse is a one-of-a-kind dwelling that inflames the desires of the true striver.”
Despite the heated passions that penthouses ignite, the market for these rarefied aeries has cooled considerably over the past year, especially in Manhattan, which is suffering from an overabundance
of high-priced real estate. “The pool of people who, two or three years ago, could spend $25 million on an 8,500-square-foot penthouse has dwindled markedly. So what you are seeing a lot more of is the ‘breakup,’ ” says Wolf Jakubowski, a broker with Brown Harris Stevens, referring to the recent trend of dividing large penthouses into two or three more affordable units. One of Jakubowski’s listings, an 8,600-square-foot, eight-bedroom Upper West Side penthouse owned by the late restaurateur Warner LeRoy (the Russian Tea Room, Tavern on the Green), was originally put on the market for $24 million. It has since been reduced to $14.5 million or is available as two separate four-bedroom penthouses, priced at $8.7 million and $5.9 million.
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