After being on the market for two years, the 79th-floor unit at 432 Park Avenue has been sold for less than half of its original asking price. Property records reveal that the 8,000-square-foot apartment in the Macklowe-CIM supertall building was purchased by an undisclosed buyer for $65.6 million.
This is a significant drop from its initial asking price of $135 million when it was listed two years ago. As part of the transaction, two studio units were also sold separately, bringing the total sale price to $70 million.
The asking price was reduced to $92 million in May, and it entered into a contract in August. Interestingly, the final sale price is roughly what the sellers paid for the apartment back in 2016.
The 79th-floor unit, designed by Japanese architect Hiroshi Sugimoto, features weather-beaten stones imported from Kyoto and old-growth Canadian Hinoki Cypress wood. This five-bedroom, five-bathroom residence also includes a tea room and a bonsai plant sculpture.
The sellers, who have remained anonymous behind a shell corporation, are not the first in the building to reduce their asking price. It remains uncertain whether the price reductions are due to overly optimistic initial pricing, a high-profile lawsuit involving condo defects, a slowdown in the ultra-luxury market, or other factors.
The lawsuit filed by the condo's board blames developers CIM and Macklowe Properties for problems like flooding, strange noises, and an electrical explosion within the building.
Notably, Fawaz Alokair, a Saudi retail magnate, initially listed his top-floor penthouse for $170 million in 2021, then took it off the market before re-listing it at $130 million last year. Additionally, the owners of an 84th-floor unit, who paid $21.4 million in 2016, have reduced their asking price from $18 million to $15 million.
There's also a legal battle between the development partners, CIM and Macklowe Properties CEO Harry Macklowe, where CIM seeks to foreclose on Macklowe's personal residences in the building, alleging that he defaulted on $46 million in loans for three units. Macklowe, in turn, claims that CIM owes him $110 million in developer distributions and has delayed a foreclosure auction on his units by placing them in bankruptcy protection.