BY Owen Moritz DAILY NEWS Sunday, February 28th 2010
It’s where New Money hangs with Big Money.
When Yankee slugger Alex Rodriguez moved to 15 Central Park West, he joined an A-list of bankable stars and star bankers who have settled at one of Manhattan’s hottest addresses.
The imposing limestone at Central Park West and W. 61st St. also serves as a pied a terre for Denzel Washington, Bob Costas, Sting, Norman Lear, Goldman Sachs honcho Lloyd Blankfein, former Citigroup boss Sandy Weill and a handful of Asian tycoons.
Rodriguez was beaten to a three-bedroom, 35th-floor apartment renting for $40,000 per month – so he slid into a two-bedroom $30,000 unit next door.
His reps had the temerity to ask for a discount, but landlord Leroy Schecter turned them down.
“We just said, ‘No, there is no negotiating,’” Schecter’s agent, Emily Beare, told the New York Observer about the deal. “And they said, ‘Fine.’”
Even with the economy in the tank, owners can play hardball at 15 CPW, designed by the eminent Robert A.M. Stern. Built between 2006 and 2008, it has 201 units ranging from one to eight bedrooms and is a throwback to New York’s great pre-war buildings.
A 19-story section known as “the house” sits in front, while behind is a 43-story tower. A glass-enclosed lobby links the two.
Selling points include supersized rooms, a 75-foot lap pool, lavish wine cellar, Hollywood-style screening room, private dining room and a private driveway that keeps out the paparazzi.
Then there’s the big three: location, location, location. That’s something New Yorkers appreciate.
Two-time Oscar winner Washington, originally from Mount Vernon and Fordham, has a $12 million condo. Sportscaster Costas, the pride of Commack, L.I., paid $11 million for a pad on the eighth floor.
Norman Lear, the sitcom genius who created “All in the Family,” has a $10 million condo that only Archie Bunker would call “a house of ill refute.”
Even though 15 CPW is only two years old, units are being flipped like gourmet pancakes.
Roberta Campbell, ex-wife of Intuit chairman William Campbell, reportedly paid $17.5 million cash for an 11th-floor condo.
And when Israeli-born entrepreneur Beny Alagem sold his three-bedroom to YouTube investor Stuart Peterson, he made a quick $4 million profit.
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15 Central Park West is a luxury apartment building erected in 2006-8 by Robert A.M. Stern located at 60th Street and Central Park West.
It was built by developers Arthur and William Zeckendorf. 15 CPW is New York’s most prestigious addresses. The location has been described as “the most expensive site in Manhattan”, ($401 million in 2004) an entire, albeit smallish, city block on Central Park formerly occupied by the somewhat dilapidated Mayflower Hotel and a vacant lot. The Mayflower was a 1926 Neo-Renaissance building by Emery Roth.
The building is divided into two sections, a 19-story tower on Central Park West known as “the house”, and a 43-story tower on Broadway joined by a glass-enclosed lobby. It includes such amenities as a private driveway to screen residents from paparazzi, a 20 seat cinema and a 75-foot swimming pool.
According to New York Times architecture critic Paul Goldberger, 15 CPW was designed to “echo” Central park West’s many notable late Art Deco buildings.[5] He describe the building in Vanity Fair as an “ingenious homage to the classic Candela-designed apartment buildings on Park and Fifth Avenues.” He compares 15 CPW to the great apartment houses of the 1920′s, 834 Fifth Avenue, 778 Park Avenue, 1040 Fifth Avenue and 740 Park Avenue.
Celebrity residents include Sting, Norman Lear, Denzel Washington, Madonna, Bob Costas, Goldman Sachs executive Lloyd Blankfein, former Citigroup executive Sandy Weill , venture capitalist Jim Laffey and professional Dominican baseball player Alex Rodriguez.
Source- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/15_Central_Park_West
