Most expensive NYC apartment sells for $88M

NEW YORK - The family of a Russian billionaire has bought a New York City penthouse apartment for $88 million.

The Wall Street Journal says the property at 15 Central Park West in Manhattan is now the most expensive apartment in New York.

The Journal reports that the price paid was 66 percent above that the previous record sale.

The seller was Sanford I. Weill, the former head of Citigroup Inc.

It was bought by a trust for Ekatarina Rybolovleva, 22, a college student and daughter of Dmitry Rybolovlev. Rybolovlev, who is now based in Monaco, made a fortune in potash fertilizer.

The Journal reports the previous record residential sale in Manhattan was the 2006 purchase of a townhouse on East 75th Street by J. Christopher Flowers, a private-equity investor.

The largest condo deal was the $51.5 million purchase of a series of apartments at the Plaza Hotel by developer Harry Macklowe in 2007.

Features of the apartment include a wraparound terrace.

The Journal says the sale generated nearly $2.5 million in city and state taxes. The brokers' commission: about $3.5 million. The deal closed on Wednesday.

Weill previously said he plans to donate the proceeds of the sale to charity.

[venusvegasvada]

The seller was Sanford I. Weill, the former head of Citigroup Inc.

One of the jack@sses that nearly wiped out the world's financial system taking another cut of the pie. Nice to see he's enjoying his jail time. Oh, that's right! My Bad! Nobody went to prison because everything he did was "legal".

Do us a favor. Repeal the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act and disassemble these monster financial institutions that are too big to fail (and who's leaders are too rich to send to prison).

Citigroup Inc. on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citigroup

[IEtOut]

People don't BUY apartments. They rent them. People BUY condos.

[DavetheDeal]

Actually if you own a co-op you get issued a proprietary lease for an apartment-

[TwinCamSubiedriver]

Entire populations could have retired on the commission.
You can almost hear the sound of that $88 million landing on a very expensive solid walnut desk somewhere in Manhattan. Whoever decided that cold-war Russia's arms stock was phony didn't figure on a bomb like this. They've just blown the roof of the market past the Moon.

[TwinCamSubiedriver]

Entire populations could have retired on the commission.
You can almost hear the sound of that $88 million landing on a very expensive solid walnut desk somewhere in Manhattan. Whoever decided that cold-war Russia's arms stock was phony didn't figure on a bomb like this. They've just blown the roof of the market past the Moon.

[Bojax39]

"The family of a Russian billionaire has bought a New York City penthouse apartment for $88 million."

Fools and money soon part company, irregardless of nationality. I know billionaires live on a different financial scale, but that much jack for an apartment is moronic.

[Transatlantique]

I'd like to have been the broker. I could have retired off of that one sale.

[Jhihmoac]

I would think $88M would surely buy something much more luxurious out in the country...Maybe less property tax, too...Oh well, it's only money, right? :P

[sandiegopete]

This just goes to show that under Obama the country has come back from the recession. How else to explain that an apartment, an apartment for goodness sake, is now worth $88 million? Happy days are here again. The wealthy have nothing to complain about.