An enormous duplex at 740 Park Avenue, the epitome of luxury landmark addresses ever since John D. Rockefeller Jr. occupied a 34-room residence there, sold for $19.5 million and was the most expensive sale of the week, according to city records.
The 6,700-square-foot space, No. 4-5C, which has the towering ceilings, elliptical staircases and marble flourishes characteristic of the 1930 Rosario Candela-designed building, entered the market in estate condition at $35 million in 2008 and endured two price reductions, the more recent, to $23 million, this year.
The 15-room apartment, reached by a private elevator from the discreet side entrance at 71 East 71st Street, has a marble entrance gallery, a baronial living room, a walnut-paneled library with a fireplace, a renovated white-clad kitchen and, on the upper level, four bedrooms and four and a half baths. All of its rooms boast the palatial proportions attractive to maste r-of-the-universe-type buyers aware of the cachet and clout wielded by 740 Park Avenue.
Notable residents past and present include Stephen A. Schwarzman, John Thain, William Lie Zeckendorf and Ronald O. Perelman.
The apartment had belonged to Randolph L. Speight, for decades the president of 740 Park's notoriously choosy co-op board. Among those it famously turned down were Barbra Streisand, Joan Crawford, Barbara Walters and Neil Sedaka. The duplex was listed after the death of Mr. Speight's widow, June, and lingered on the market. After a summer face-lift revealed decorator-ready bones, its new $23 million price tag and move-in condition piqued the interest of buyers.
Because 740 Park does not permit shareholders to shield their identity through limited-liability corporations, the ownership of No. 4-5C is no secret: Jonathan S. Sobel, an investor and former Goldman Sachs partner, has already moved in with his family. In Augu st, Mr. Sobel sold his Gwathmey-designed penthouse at the Verona, on the Upper East Side, for $21 million without listing it.
Meredyth Smith and Serena Boardman of Sotheby's International Realty, the listing brokers, declined to elaborate, as did the buyer's broker, Roger Erickson, also of Sotheby's.
Big Ticket includes closed sales from the previous week, ending Wednesday.
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