A nearly 1,000-foot-tall tower rising on the southern edge of New York’s Central Park, 220 Central Park South is widely considered the city’s most exclusive and expensive new development. PHOTO: ALLISON SCOTT/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
A nearly 1,000-foot-tall tower rising on the southern edge of New York’s Central Park is widely considered the city’s most exclusive and expensive new development. It may also be the most secretive: The developer has refused to release images of unit interiors, and its chief executive refuses to be interviewed about it.
But as construction nears completion on 220 Central Park South—where sale prices range from about $12 million to $250 million, according to an offering plan filed with the Attorney General’s office—identities of some of its high-profile buyers are beginning to emerge.
Billionaire Daniel Och, chairman of Och-Ziff Capital Management , the largest U.S. publicly traded hedge fund, is a buyer, as are Andrew Zaro, chairman of financial services and investment company Cavalry Portfolio Services, and his wife, actress Lois Robbins, according to people familiar with the building. Ofer Yardeni, chief executive of Stonehenge Management, a Manhattan-based real-estate company that boasts a portfolio in excess of $2 billion, also purchased a unit, those people said.
Billionaire Daniel Och, chairman of Och-Ziff Capital Management, is one of the buyers in the building, where prices range from about $12 million to $250 million. PHOTO: KIMBERLY WHITE/GETTY IMAGES
As has been reported in other publications, musician Sting and his wife Trudie Styler are buyers, confirm people familiar with that deal. Hedge-fund manager Ken Griffin signed on to spend more than $200 million on several apartments there, The Wall Street Journal previously reported. If he were to combine the units into one mega-home, the resulting unit could become the most expensive home ever sold in the United States.
It couldn’t be determined what any the buyers paid for their units; all declined to comment on their purchases or couldn’t be reached. A spokesman at publicly traded Vornado Realty Trust , the company building the tower, declined to comment on the identities of any of the buyers at the building, as did a spokeswoman for Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group, the company selling the units.
Many of the signed contracts date to the heady days of 2015, when the Manhattan real-estate market was booming; they are closing now as the building nears completion. With the market currently on a downward slide amid a glut of high-end Manhattan inventory, some real-estate agents hope the record-breaking closings will be a boon to market sentiment. Frances Katzen, a luxury real-estate agent, said she hopes it might take the edge off some of the “doom and gloom” in the market and facilitate the beginning of a “pendulum swing.”
Musician Sting and his wife Trudie Styler are also buyers in 220 Central Park South. PHOTO: VITTORIO ZUNINO CELOTTO/GETTY IMAGES
Others argue 220 Central Park South is too unusual to inform any other part of the market. Real-estate agents predict that the building, which has an 18-story “chalet” fronting the street and a 79-story tower rising behind, will set a record for the highest price-per-square-foot ever obtained for a New York City apartment. The current record is the $13,000-a-foot recorded at nearby condominium 15 Central Park West in 2012, when financier Sanford I. Weill sold his penthouse for $88 million to a company tied to Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev.
“This building cannot be considered a proxy for the market. It’s its own country,” cautioned Donna Olshan of Olshan Realty, adding that the closed sales at 220 Central Park South could artificially skew quarterly market statistics going into 2019.
Steven Roth, Vornado’s chairman, announced in a third quarter filing and subsequent earnings call that the building is 83% sold, with 26 of the 27 full-floor apartments, all of which were priced at $50 million or above, under contract. More than half of those deals were done within a year of sales launching in 2015. The company is set to make roughly $1 billion from sales at the building. “220 Central Park South has exceeded all expectations, and is well into a record-setting territory,” Mr. Roth said on the call.
While the vast majority of developers attempt to generate sales by trumpeting the finishes and amenities of their homes, Vornado has taken the opposite approach and has kept the details of the units under wraps.
Real-estate agents predict that the building will set a record for the highest price-per-square-foot ever obtained for a New York City apartment. PHOTO: ALLISON SCOTT/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
The secrecy strategy is one that worked well amid a rising market, but likely wouldn’t be as effective today, Ms. Olshan said. “What used to work in those markets does not work now,” she said.
The skyscraper was designed by Robert A.M. Stern, the same architect behind 15 Central Park West, and the interiors were done by French designer Thierry W. Despont. The exterior is clad in Alabama Silver Shadow limestone and the amenities include private dining rooms, an athletic club, a juice bar, a library, a basketball court, a golf simulator and a children’s play area, according to people familiar with the building.
Real-estate agents frequently compare 220 Central Park South to 15 Central Park West, describing it as a taller and more elaborate version of the ultrasuccessful project, which dates back to the mid-2000s and attracted billionaire buyers and celebrities. Sting sold his unit at the building to Karen Lo, a Hong Kong heiress whose family started the Vitasoy beverage empire, for about $50 million earlier this year. Records show Mr. Och also owns a unit in the building.
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