The gory fallout from the mortgage crisis is more nightmarish in Middle America—where there are “Foreclosures R Us!” ads (with actual exclamation points) in some local real estate sales pamphlets—but be sure to pity Park Avenue, too.
Earlier this month, The Observer pointed out that four Lehman Brothers executives had spent, before their firm’s fall, a combined $46.58 million on spreads in one Manhattan building alone. Besides the fact that the city suddenly has a lot less super-rich home buyers to snatch super-expensive real estate, there’s the question of what will happen to the marble-floored mega-apartments that all our freshly fallen executives bought at their peaks.
The gory fallout from the mortgage crisis is more nightmarish in Middle America—where there are “Foreclosures R Us!” ads (with actual exclamation points) in some local real estate sales pamphlets—but be sure to pity Park Avenue, too.
Earlier this month, The Observer pointed out that four Lehman Brothers executives had spent, before their firm’s fall, a combined $46.58 million on spreads in one Manhattan building alone. Besides the fact that the city suddenly has a lot less super-rich home buyers to snatch super-expensive real estate, there’s the question of what will happen to the marble-floored mega-apartments that all our freshly fallen executives bought at their peaks.
Mark Goldstein, a veteran Bear Stearns leveraged finance banker who became the co-head of its European investment banking last year, spent $5,275,000 in 2006 to buy two apartments (one was sold by the parents of star Harvard law professor Noah Feldman, incidentally), plus a connecting hallway, at 1000 Park Avenue.
It’s the kind of building that sends out memos about weight limits for tenants’ dogs; at least two ladies there are said to have inspired the evilly Lilly-Pulitzer-ed “Mrs. X” housewife in The Nanny Diaries, whose co-author once lived in the building with her parents. A neighbor sighed to The Times in 2002, “And now we learn one of our residents was a snitch.”
Mr. Goldstein is asking $12 million for his 10-room apartment in the building, more than twice what he paid. But according to the Corcoran listing, his renovation work was pricey: The living room and dining room were combined into one long entertaining space off the marble foyer; then there are four bedrooms; a kitchen with double Sub-Zeros, two dishwashers, a gas and an electric oven; a marble foyer; and a maid’s room.
Mr. Goldstein could not be reached on deadline through his broker.
A few blocks down the avenue at 610 Park (pictured), home to Daniel Boulud’s eponymous restaurant, Lehman’s ousted president and chief operating officer Joseph M. Gregory has already sold his place. According to city records, Mr. Gregory, who was saddled with blame for the firm’s hefty mortgage bets when he lost his top job in June, bought the two-bedroom apartment for $2.85 million back in 2004, and sold it earlier this month for $4.4 million.
That’s only $50,000 less than his asking price, which suggests that the city’s fallen financiers won’t be suffering too awfully. On the other hand, Mr. Gregory still has to sell his Bridgehampton estate, reportedly on the market for $32.5 million. He didn’t return calls to a house in Lloyd Harbor.
mabelson@observer.com
