Bednar Only Posting Negative NYC Articles: Completely Ignoring Positive Ones

Here is another NYC real estate market article that Crazy Bednar neglected to post:

The New 30 Is Now 50
A report concludes the truly rich now need to think about spending $50 million to acquire a one-of-a-kind property in Manhattan.

By JOSH BARBANEL
Published: August 19, 2007
THE uncertainties on Wall Street may be sending shivers down the backs of hedge fund titans and their real estate brokers, but so far the upper reaches of the Manhattan property market have been so strong that a report concludes the truly rich now need to think about spending $50 million to acquire a one-of-a-kind property.

1060 Fifth Avenue
In a midyear report on the luxury market, Kirk Henckels, the director of Stribling Private Brokerage, said that only a year or two ago, a buyer needed just $30 million to buy a sprawling town house or legendary penthouse with the best views, and the most bragging rights. But with more money chasing fewer apartments, that price tag is now $50 million for trophy properties, not including decorating costs, he said.
Now, he said, “$50 million is the new $30 million — somehow $40 million was skipped.”

For example, property records show that in June the developer Harry Macklowe closed on the purchase of seven contiguous condominium apartments at the newly refurbished Plaza, with more than 13,000 square feet of space. He paid the sponsors a total of $52 million in two separate transactions, but his total costs were closer to $60 million.
The details of the purchase were pieced together from clues in the property records. The records show that six of the apartments were bought in a single transaction by a limited liability corporation for $50 million, while the seventh, a one-bedroom, was bought by a separate corporation, for $2 million.

Both transactions occurred on the same day, and both buyers were represented by the same real estate lawyer, Stuart M. Saft. It appears that the transactions were split because Mr. Macklowe was able to buy six apartments directly from the developer, El-Ad Properties, but was forced to buy out the interests of another buyer in the seventh apartment before closing, in order to create the space he wanted.

Mr. Macklowe’s transaction is one of two at the Plaza said by brokers to be for more than $50 million. (The other, which has not yet appeared in public filings, is for $56 million.)

The $50 million benchmark was first passed last fall with the $53 million sale of the Harkness Mansion on 75th Street near Fifth Avenue. More recently, a contract was signed for the sale of a 31-foot-wide town house owned by Edgar Bronfman Jr. on East 64th Street off Fifth Avenue. That sale, for $51 million, has not yet closed either.

And several real estate brokers say they have been told that a deal is in place for the sale of a 17-room duplex penthouse co-op at 1060 Fifth Avenue, at 87th Street, for close to the asking price: $48 million. Because the market for the most expensive and exceptional apartments is so strong, the owners of two separate apartments, a 12-room apartment on the 13th floor and a 5-room penthouse above with huge wraparound terraces with views of the Central Park reservoir, agreed to market their apartments together to a single buyer.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/realestate/19Deal1.html?ref=realestate