Big Ticket | Sold for $17.5 Million

September 14, 2012, 3:52 pm

By ROBIN FINN

From Real Estate

In this week's section: A growing number of modest but more affordable properties are popping up in the Hamptons for $500,000 or less, creating opportunities for second-home buyers who were previously priced out.

A starkly modern penthouse duplex with a Pop Art pedigree - the Andy Warhol alumna Jane Holzer once owned it - which fills the top two floors at the Volney, a former hotel built in 1928, sold for $17.5 million, making it the most expensive sale of the week, according to city records.

The pe nthouse, at 23 East 74th Street, between Fifth and Madison Avenues, had been on the market since 2011, but a $5 million price reduction to $18.5 million this spring inspired a trio of serious bids.

The upper level of the five-bedroom five-bath co-op showcases a 35-foot living room that opens to 1,800 square feet of terrace space. Ms. Holzer reconfigured several smaller apartments at the Volney to create the penthouse, which she sold for $14.1 million in 2009 to Jason Rabin, a clothing entrepreneur.

Last year, Mr. Rabin and his wife, Nicole, dressed the penthouse in Pop Art and put it back on the market with a $23.5 million asking price, but it failed to sell. Judi Lederer, a senior vice president of Town Residential, readjusted the price after getting the listing. “The timing was right, the price was right,” she said, “and we had three people who really wanted a penthouse, and this is the happiest apartment you'd ever want to s ee.”

The out-of-town buyer, represented by the broker Frans H. Preidel of Brown Harris Stevens, opted for anonymity through a limited liability company with a Jackson, Wyo., address, Varenne 2012 Revocable Trust.

Big Ticket includes closed sales from the previous week, ending Wednesday.