Two of New York City’s biggest sales so far this year closed in July, including a pair of co-ops sold together for $101 million by the estate of Paul G. Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft who died nearly four years ago.
The sale, to an anonymous buyer, consists of a penthouse and a full-floor unit just below it on the 11th floor at 4 East 66th Street, the exclusive limestone apartment house designed in the early 1920s by James E. R. Carpenter on the corner of Fifth Avenue.
Mr. Allen, a real estate aficionado, had accumulated numerous properties around the country. He acquired the penthouse in 2011 for $25 million, and the 11th-floor unit in 1996, reportedly for $13.5 million.
Another penthouse several blocks away — this one built more recently inside the century-old Crown Building, on Fifth Avenue and 57th Street — sold for $75.9 million, also to an anonymous buyer. Two other sizable closings took place in that condo development, known as Aman Residences New York.
Sales throughout the city heated up during the month of July.
Among the other big closings was a limestone mansion built for a member of the Vanderbilt family that was sold by the antiques dealer Carlton Hobbs for $52.5 million.
Diandra Luker, a film producer and ex-wife of the actor Michael Douglas, found a buyer for her townhouse. Steven Bornstein, the former head of ESPN and NFL Network, and his wife, Carol Bornstein, bought an apartment.
Lee Seo-hyun, a daughter of the former chairman of Samsung, Lee Kun-hee, made a purchase in a NoMad condominium. On the Upper West Side, the actors Nathan Lane and his husband, Devlin Elliott, became new co-op owners.
And in Brooklyn Heights, the comedian Amy Schumer bought a grand brownstone that had been featured in the 1987 film “Moonstruck,” paying over the asking price.
The $101 million estate sale on 66th Street, a.k.a. 845 Fifth Avenue, was the largest so far this year (not counting a $188 million duplex sale at 220 Central Park South that was finalized in late 2021 but not recorded until mid-January).
It was also a record price for a city co-op, far exceeding the previous record, a $77.5 million sale in 2015 of the New York Jets owner Woody Johnson’s duplex at neighboring 834 Fifth Avenue.
The Allen apartments were bought and sold in private deals, so there aren’t many details about them — or the recent buyer. The purchase was made through the limited liability company Eleven-Twelve East.
But past sales in the building show that the full-floor units are around 7,500 square feet, and feature spacious entrance galleries, soaring 12-foot-plus ceilings, at least one wood-burning fireplace and oversize windows that provide views of nearby Central Park.
The penthouse is reportedly a bit smaller than the other full-floor units, though it comes with a wraparound terrace suitable for private parties with the very private neighbors. The 12-story building has been home to a number of prominent residents, among them the socialite Veronica Hearst and the financier and presidential adviser Bernard Baruch.
The year’s second biggest sale, the $75.9 million penthouse in the Crown Building at Aman New York Residences, also comes with lots of space, encompassing 6,791 square feet on the entire 20th floor.
And speaking of outdoor parties, this residence, called the Jala Penthouse, has enough room for a few of them on its two landscaped terraces, totaling 3,746 square feet. The largest terrace, off a roomy eat-in kitchen, features a Jacuzzi, a cabana with a half-bathroom and shower, and a 45-by-15-foot saltwater pool. The smaller one, off the massive primary bedroom suite, also has a Jacuzzi.
“It’s pretty rare in New York City to have a pool and a cabana,” said Patricia Vance, a broker with Douglas Elliman Real Estate who brought the buyer, identified only as Albatross Apartment LLC.
The penthouse contains four bedrooms in total, each with an en suite bathroom, along with a den, laundry room and a second powder room.
Other closings in the building, situated at 730 Fifth Avenue, include a three-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bathroom apartment that sold for $34 million, and a two-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bathroom apartment for nearly $13 million. Eric Wittouck, a billionaire heir to a Belgian sugar refinery, bought the smaller of those two units.
The 1921 Crown Building, known for its copper pyramidal roof, was recently converted into a hotel on its lower floors, with 22 condos on the 15th to 26th floors. The building once housed the Museum of Modern Art.
The Vanderbilt house, which closed at $52.5 million, is at 60 East 93rd Street, between Madison and Park Avenues. It was sold privately by Mr. Hobbs, the antiques dealer, to a buyer using the limited liability company Taboulehs.
Adam Modlin of the Modlin Group represented both the buyer and seller; he declined to discuss the deal, citing a nondisclosure agreement.
Five stories high and 57 feet wide, the neoclassical French structure contains around 23,000 square feet and is one of the largest mansions in the city. It was built in the 1930s for Virginia Graham Fair Vanderbilt, the wife of William Kissam Vanderbilt II, the president of the New York Central Railroad Company. The home has been on the National Registry of Historic Places since 1982.
Mr. Hobbs bought the building in 2002 for $10.6 million from the Lycée Français de New York, a French-English school. He had been using the property for his business and as a residence.
Ms. Luker, whose works include the 2008 film “Broken Lines,” got $17 million for her fully renovated townhouse at 114 East 65th Street, three years after first listing it for just under $20 million. The buyers were listed as Behzad Sajadi and Donyanaz Nazem.
The Beaux-Arts-style building, on a leafy street between Park and Lexington Avenues, is 20 feet wide and five stories high and includes a finished basement with separate staff quarters and laundry room.
The home has five bedrooms, five full bathrooms and a powder room. The primary bedroom suite takes up the fourth floor and features a fireplace, one of five in the house, and any fashionista’s dream come true: an enormous dressing room with an extra walk-in closet and five additional closets.
Outside, is a 36-by-20-foot rear garden off the eat-in kitchen and a 42-by-20-foot rooftop deck.
Ms. Luker had bought the home in 2007 for $15.3 million with a former husband, Michael Klein. She was married to Mr. Douglas for 23 years.
Nearby, the Bornsteins paid $8.1 million for a full-floor apartment at 1059 Third Avenue, a.k.a. the Leyton, between 62nd and 63rd Streets.
Their new 2,713-square-foot home has three bedrooms and three bathrooms, plus a chalet fireplace. Floor-to-ceiling windows throughout the apartment and terraces off the great room and primary bedroom look out onto the Manhattan skyline and Central Park. With these kinds of views, who needs artwork?
Ms. Lee, one of South Korea’s richest people, purchased a spacious condo at 212 Fifth Avenue, on the corner of West 26th Street. She paid $10.5 million, slightly below the $10.9 million asking price.
Ms. Lee oversees the Samsung Welfare Foundation, a charity founded by Mr. Lee, her father, the former head of Samsung who died in 2020.
Her 3,000-square-foot apartment has three bedrooms and three and a half bathrooms, plus a great room with an open kitchen equipped with marble countertops and custom milled wood cabinets. She also gets to enjoy treetop views of Madison Square Park, which the building faces.
Oh, and she’ll also have Jeff Bezos as a neighbor. The Amazon founder bought up five units in the steel-frame tower, formerly an office building, including a triplex.
Mr. Lane and Mr. Elliott bought a restored prewar co-op at 171 West 71st Street, known as the Dorilton, for $4.1 million. The purchase comes just six months after the sale of Mr. Lane’s TriBeCa triplex for $4.3 million.
The Upper West Side apartment has gorgeous inlaid hardwood floors and lots of rich wood trim and moldings, along with four decorative fireplaces, French doors and Juliet balconies. There are two bedrooms and two bathrooms, along with a library that could be converted into a third bedroom.
The primary bedroom suite, which is actually two bedrooms combined into one, has an extra-large dressing room off the en suite bathroom.
Mr. Lane has appeared in film, on television, and on Broadway, and has won multiple awards for his work, including Tonys for his performances in “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” “The Producers,” and “Angels in America.”
He currently appears in the Hulu comedy, “Only Murders in the Building.”
Ms. Schumer, who also appears in the comedy, paid nearly $12.3 million for a refurbished brownstone, four stories high and 26 feet wide, on Cranberry Street in the Brooklyn Heights Historic District. This was above the most recent $11 million list price.
Inside there is around 5,568 square feet of space, with five bedrooms and three and a half bathrooms, along with two parlors and a library. The primary suite takes up the third floor and features a dressing room and two small offices. Outside is a rear garden. The home retains some of its original flourishes, like the crown molding, marble fireplace mantles and hardwood floors, with many modern updates.
Ms. Schumer, who is married to the chef Chris Fischer, has appeared in numerous other TV shows and films, including “Trainwreck” and “The Humans.”
The sellers were James B. Lansill, a broker with the Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group, and Jane M. Gorrell.
And in late-breaking closings, Jimmy Fallon, the host of “The Tonight Show,” and his wife, Nancy Juvonen, a film producer, sold their sprawling triplex at 34 Gramercy Park East for $10.8 million. Their recent asking price was $15 million.
The apartment encompasses around 5,000 square feet on the top three floors of the co-op building, which sits directly across from Gramercy Park. It has six bedrooms and five bathrooms.
The new owner made the purchase under 34 Gramercy Park East Trust.
