NYC apartment could list for $250 million

Associated Press

NEW YORK

Billionaires’ Row.

That’s what New York real-estate experts have dubbed a lineup of a half-dozen new super-luxury skyscrapers overlooking Central Park that are home to some of the world’s most-expensive apartments.

One penthouse on the 89th and 90th floors of a skyscraper near Carnegie Hall that went for more than $100 million seems almost a bargain compared with what will appear next year in a high-rise being built on Central Park South: a 23,000-square-foot, four-story apartment offered at a $250 million.

That jaw-dropping price was contained in documents the developer filed with the state attorney general’s office. Floor plans show 16 bedrooms, 17 bathrooms, five balconies and a massive terrace.

The multimillion-dollar question is: Who can afford to buy these places?

“These are the trophy buildings of our era, and the foreign buyer clearly fuels this very, very high-end condominium tower market,” says John Burger, a broker for such properties with the Brown Harris Stevens real estate firm.

The novelty is the prestige of living in sleek, breathtaking skyscrapers with 360-degree views of New York City.

Coming in 2018 is the Central Park Tower at 111 West 57th St., which at 1,438 feet aims to become the tallest residential edifice in the Western Hemisphere.

The 54-story tower at 520 Park Ave. – also set for a 2018 completion – will be what its architect, Robert A.M. Stern, describes as “an elegant spear of asparagus rising out of the ground.”

On the financial front, such properties often serve as a “safe haven” for investors from turbulent regions of the world with shaky economies, says Richard Jordan, vice president of global markets for Douglas Elliman, New York’s largest residential real-estate brokerage.