Time Warner Center

The Time Warner Center often rightfully gets credit for sparking Columbus Circle’s renaissance and laying the groundwork for at least eight new condo developments in a five-block radius since it opened in 2003. So you can’t help but wonder if developer Related Companies ever gets peeved when the buildings it paved the way for come in and steal its thunder—that means you, 15 Central Park West!

The Zeckendorf-developed, Stern-designed condo appears to have done just that: Sportscaster Bob Costas and wife Jill Sutton have sold their 61st-floor Time Warner condo (and a storage unit) for $8.  read more »

Supermodel Gisele Bundchen and her boyfriend, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, have re-listed their respective Manhattan apartments, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Ms. Bundchen is now asking $5.9 million for her West Village penthouse with Hudson River views--a little bit more than half the original asking price in September 2007. Marie Schmon of Corcoran has the listing.

Mr. Brady wants roughly 10 percent more for his Time Warner Center condo than he asked last year. Raphael De Niro (Robert's son) and Claudine DeMatos of Douglas Elliman are handling the now $18.29 million listing.

The Time Warner Center, that stylish mall at Columbus Circle, has been dubbed the "2008 Office Building of the Year" by the Mid-Atlantic Conference of Building Owners and Managers Association.

The 2.8 million-square-foot Center won in the exclusive 1 million-square-feet-and-over category, after an earlier qualifying win in a statewide competition.

The Center, completed by Stephen Ross' Related Companies in 2004, has 80 floors of residential and retail (think Whole Foods and Sephora), super chichi restaurants (think Per Se and Masa), and lots of fancy offices where famous people work (think Anderson Cooper).

BOMA determined the winner based on a scale of 80 points, for categories ranging from "energy and environmental management" to "tenant relations."

Now, the Center has the chance to compete in that buildings competition to beat all buildings competitions: the national BOMA awards.

Here's the release:  read more »

Back in 2002, when Steven Feder’s “Miss Cleo” empire was crumbling under federal lawsuits, the man known as the Psychic Hotline King probably foresaw that things would shine brightly for him again in a few years.

Late last month, eons after his Psychic Readers Network was brought down (and he agreed to forgive $500 million in customer bills), Mr.  read more »

The Time Warner Center condo that pop throb Ricky Martin sold last year for $9.75 million is back on the sales market, according to today's Wall Street Journal.

The condo's current owner, an art collector, is listing it for $18.9 million. Mr. Martin bought the condo from the developer in 2004 for about $6.8 million. (Those were the days, huh? A 65th-floor, seven-room Time Warner Center condo for well under $10 million.)

Elizabeth Lee Sample and Brenda Powers of Brown Harris Stevens have the listing.

For the record, I don’t care for shopping malls. Or Starbucks.  read more »

When Manhattan Transfers broke the story about Verna Harrah's sale at the Time Warner Center, the listing broker said her apartment "sold for close" to the $25 milion price tag.

But according to newly filed city records, the buyer (listed on the deed as the Armstrong Family Trust) got quite a discount. The closing price was $22.5 million--which bought

a nice living room on Central Park, a family room overlooking the Hudson, a foyer of "gold leaf with 17th century columns," six marble bathrooms and two powder rooms, too.

Don't fret for Ms. Harrah: she only paid $8,823,018 for the apartment three years ago. (Click above for a bigger picture of the posh domain.)

- Max Abelson

• The Time Warner Center's "expensive sheen" is still glittery, pushing the asking price of neighborhood apartments into posh new levels. S. Jhoanna Robledo has a precise list of Columbus Circle sheen. [New York]
• "Big Old East Village Book Party" sounds like fun, especially to people who live in expensive, but punky downtown apartments. [L Magazine]
• DUMBO has hit that coveted way-over-supersaturation point. First the 'hood popped up in Vanity Fair and Vogue; now it's in Ford Edge ads and Men's Health. [DUMBO NYC]
• Eagle-eye commenters on Brownstoner were right about the Brooklyn birthplace of New York rap uber-legend The Notorious B.I.G.: according to his biography, young Christopher Wallace grew up in "a spacious apartment" on St. James Street. (Photo above, and more at Clinton Hill Blog). [Brooklyn Vegan]
- Max Abelson
• 0 comments

Did you hear? The Mandarian Oriental in the Time Warner Center is being sold to Istithmar. Or so they say.

The Mandarian Oriental rumor has been the juiciest real estate one floating around New York for the last several weeks, but trying to parse reality from fiction has been tricky.

The execs at Istithmar are keeping typically quiet. "We do not comment on market rumors," wrote David Jackson, the CEO at Istithmar, in an email to The Real Estate.

That's the same response a Mandarin Oriental spokeswoman gave The Observer a month ago.

"Several industry sources" told The Real Deal it was a done deal; "sources" told the Post the same.

One Real Deal source has each room being sold at $1.4 million; another has it at $2 million. A Post source has it at "approxiamtely $1.6 million."

To say the least, the details are murky.

If you listened to the rumors, the Mandarin Oriental's been in contract since late October. But with a masterful stroke in keeping this deal very quiet, we have a feeling no one will know if it's truly done -- and for how much -- until it closes.

- John Koblin

The view from the new steakhouse Porter House New York, tucked up on the fourth floor of the Time Wa  read more »

One day in late 2007, the 34-story Veneto will be the most voguish luxury condo in the East 50s. It happens to be east of Third Avenue, and it happens to now be a mammoth construction site, but that hasn't stopped Midtown-ers from dropping $125 million on the condo in only three months, filling up 50% of its residences.

To celebrate, developer Related served lunch at Le Cirque--not far from Veneto's 250 East 53rd locale. Writers from The Times and Town & Country downed their champagne and buttery halibut next to happy developers and sales reps.

Why Le Cirque? The restaurant was designed by Adam D. Tihany, the man behind the Veneto's "Terzo Piano resident lounge" and Arcobaleno children's playroom (and, of course, fitness center).

Incidentally, Mr. Tihany also designed Per Se for chef Thomas Keller at the Time Warner Center--a little building managed by Related.

"I get two calls a week, at least, from developers who want me to design their condos," Mr. Tihany said to the table. "I get a feeling that they don't look at me as a person or a designer, but as $200 extra per square foot."  read more »

- Max Abelson

So Denzel Washington has apparently given up on the idea of living in a church-turned-condominium, and has grabbed an apartment at 15 Central Park West, according to the Wall Street Journal. (And it's nice that The Journal is free this week so we can actually link to their stuff).

Mr. Washington's 3,000-square-foot pad includes three bedrooms, four bathrooms, and a terrace (facing the park).  read more »

And how is 15 C.P.W. stacking up against the nearby Time Warner Center in terms of early sales? Pretty good, if you ask a Zeckendorf:

At the Central Park West condo, two-thirds of its 200 units have received signed binding contracts since going on sale in September, its developer, Zeckendorf Development, says. In comparison, the nearby Time Warner Center took four years, until March, to sell its 201 units.

- Michael Calderone

The entrance to the Plaza Hotel is now completely stockaded with chain-link fencing and plywood, the  read more »

The entrance to the Plaza Hotel is now completely stockaded with chain-link fencing and plywood, the  read more »

Jay-Z is heading over to the celebrity-filled Time Warner Center, according to the New York Post. The rapper and music and clothing entrepreneur will be renting a four-room apartment for $40,000 a month.

Embattled media mogul Conrad Black recently sold his co-op at 635 Park Avenue to developer Marty Berman for $10.5 million, according to New York magazine. And Hugh Jackman has been looking around some pricey properties lately, most recently in Harvey Weinstein’s old building on Mercer Street.  read more »

Actor Samuel L. Jackson recently paid $4.8 million an Upper East Side previously owned by the former basketball player Greg Anthony and his ex-wife, the novelist Crystal McCrary, according to the New York Times.

Who else is better to profile in the The Times Habitats column than the self-described “queen of New York real estate?” Take a walk inside Barbara Corcoran’s Park Avenue apartment with an audio slide show. Believe it or not, you don’t even need TimesSelect!

Butai, a new Japanese restaurant that has opened near Union Square, has a style all its own."Thank G  read more »

Wall Street financier and big-time Democratic donor Roy Furman recently purchased a luxury apartment  read more »

Gray Kunz is indisputably a great chef, but I wonder if this restaurant is the best showcase for his  read more »

Even as a tiny child, Hillary L. Beckman was mesmerized by diamonds.  read more »

Don’t touch my food.  read more »

Paintball Pinhead TriesTarget Practice at Mayor's Mansion  read more »

The Feb.  read more »

Stepping off of an escalator recently, I found myself in a refulgent summer garden-snapdragons, carn  read more »

The estate of Kay Jeffords, the maverick owner of the star-chaser Lonesome Glory, just went to contr  read more »

In the marble-floored lobbies of Manhattan's brassiest, newest condominium developments, where the r  read more »