With closing in progress, condo may be on market already
Italian businessman Luigi Zunino, who is in contract to buy an apartment at New York's Plaza condominium, is already seeking someone to pay $100 million for it, people familiar with the matter say.
Zunino, chief executive of Milan-based property company Risanamento SpA, hasn't yet closed on the third-floor apartment of 10,000 square feet, the people say. The agreed-upon purchase price couldn't be learned, but Plaza condos have sold for $4,000 to more than $6,000 per square foot. A spokesman for Zunino confirmed the condo contract but declined to elaborate.
The storied 1907 Plaza Hotel has recently reopened as a mix of hotel and condo units. Owners include Bear Stearns Chairman James Cayne and developer Harry Macklowe, who bought an apartment for nearly $60 million last June. A $100 million price, or roughly $10,000 per square foot, would test the upper limits of Manhattan's market. The residential record there is likely an apartment at The Pierre that sold for $8,000 per square foot, several brokers say.
Price drops for Streep's former house
Just two months after listing it at $16.8 million, the owner of Meryl Streep's former New York City townhouse has slashed the price by $3 million, or 17.5 percent.
But the new asking price of $13.85 million is still $1 million more than what the current owner paid six months ago. The listing marks the third time in four years that the 25-foot-wide, five-story town house in the Greenwich Village neighborhood has gone on the market. It measures 6,800 square feet with seven bedrooms and has a garden and roof terrace.
Streep bought the 1840s Greek Revival house, with many original details, in the mid-1990s for $2.2 million. In late 2005, the Oscar-winning actress sold the house for $9.1 million to pharmaceutical heiress Elizabeth Ross "Libet" Johnson. In September 2007, Johnson, who had made no improvements to the house, sold it to an undisclosed investment buyer for $12.85 million, 41 percent higher.
Six months later, the investor listed the home for $16.8 million, a 31 percent price increase. But he recently cut the price to signal he is a serious seller, according to his listing agent, George van der Ploeg, of Prudential Douglas Elliman.
GE executive's Key Largo house for sale
The Key Largo, Fla., home of the General Electric aviation executive Brian Rowe, who died in February at age 75, is on the market for $18.9 million.
The property spans a double-sized 1.3-acre lot and has six bedrooms, an elevator, a pool and a spa. Rowe and his wife, Jill, paid $4 million for the oceanfront property in 1995, the year Rowe retired as chairman of GE's aircraft-engine division. The 1989, 8,000-square-foot house is in Ocean Reef, a private development popular with U.S. business leaders. Russell Post, of Sotheby's International Realty, has the listing.
Hedge funds' Paulson trades up in Hamptons
Last year, hedge-fund manager John Paulson pocketed billions by betting the housing market would collapse, but in the Hamptons he's just listed his three-acre retreat for $19.5 million, more than 50 percent above what he paid for it two years ago.
The founder of Paulson & Co., managing roughly $32 billion, recently bought a 10.4-acre lakefront compound less than a mile away for $41.3 million. The seller was Rodney Propp, chairman of a Manhattan property firm.
Last year, Paulson made as much as $3 billion to $4 billion for himself -- thought to be a record one-year payday on Wall Street. This year the former Bear Stearns Cos. investment banker bet against the financial sector and profited from weakening among banks, including Bear.
The Southampton, N.Y., house he's listed is a seven-bedroom "cottage" on three acres with an enclosed pool and sauna and a detached garage. He bought it two years ago from Jurgen Friedrich, a director of clothing company Esprit Holdings, for $12.75 million, records show. Michael Shaheen, of Prudential Douglas Elliman, has the listing.
The trader's 15,000-square-foot new house was built in 1911 and fully renovated, and comes with separate staff quarters, two other houses, a three-car garage and a pool. The property, called "Old Trees," has about 450 feet on Lake Agawam and ocean views. It was listed for $48 million in 2006. The most recent listing agent, Harald Grant of Sotheby's International Realty, declined to comment.
"Friends" actress cuts ranch price
"Friends" actress Jane Sibbett has cut the price of her 17-acre Topanga, Calif., hilltop horse ranch again. It's now $5.2 million, 26 percent below the original listing price last fall of $7 million.
The 45-year-old actress (who played Ross's lesbian ex-wife, Carol) and her husband, 48-year-old writer and producer Karl Fink, bought the property about 10 years ago.
Located in Topanga, an artist and bohemian enclave about 10 miles from Santa Monica, the 6,400-square-foot, four-bedroom house has plank floors of timber salvaged from the Puget Sound. In 2005, the couple renovated extensively according to the mathematical proportion known as the golden ratio and embedded short blessings ("fun," "laughter") within the walls. The couple are in contract to buy a $2 million farm in Hawaii, but the purchase is contingent on this sale, according to their California listing agent, Jaime Estes, of Amalfi Estates. They first cut the price 10 percent in December.
Art dealer in talks on house listing
Disgraced art dealer Lawrence Salander is in negotiations to list his Millbrook, N.Y., second home for $6.2 million, a person familiar with the talks says.
Salander, once one of New York's most prestigious art-world figures, now faces a host of irate clients and business partners who claim he and his gallery owe them tens of millions of dollars for failing to pay clients for works he sold on consignment and other improprieties. He filed for protection in November under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.
Salander has already listed for $25 million his six-story townhouse on Manhattan's Upper East Side, about half a mile north of the now-shuttered Salander-O'Reilly Galleries. Millbrook is a popular second-home destination about 90 miles north of New York City.
Salander paid $4.75 million for the Manhattan house in 2004. It's listed with broker Leslie J. Garfield & Co.