Big Ticket | Sold for $ 11.5 million

Big Ticket | Sold for $ 11.5 million

Marilynn K. Yee / The New York Times
Sales were picking at 15 Union Square West, the building that once housed Tiffany & Company.
Highlights estate
In the section of this week: Vivian Toy, a Times reporter who visited nearly 600 Manhattan apartments, shared his thoughts and fields your questions about buying, selling and related concerns.
Go to the section »
A duplex penthouse apartment overlooking Union Square, with an outdoor fireplace and an infinity pool on its more than 2,000 square feet of terrace, was the biggest sales week flat at $ 11.5 million according to the records of the city.

The sale not only reflects the continued demand for penthouses ultraluxury, but also the resurgence of a building that had seen hard times at the beginning. Three bedrooms 3164 square foot condo was under contract in the spring of 2008, when sales in the building, 15 Union Square West, were first announced. But the market collapsed in the fall, the contract failed, and transactions in the building stalled.

More than three years later, that same apartment sold for more than the price of the contract at the forefront of the market in 2008, said Shlomi Reuveni, a broker at Brown Harris Stevens, who is in charge of sales in the building.

The buyer purchased the property into a limited liability company, limited, according to the records of the city.

"We had one month really incredible year," said Mr. Reuveni. The building is now 80 percent sold, he said, five units remain.

Buildings occupying this Union Square West have taken various forms over the years, but they have all been associated with luxury and money.

In 1837, Charles Lewis Tiffany opened a stationery and fancy goods shop on the corner. As business flourished in 1869, it has funded the construction of a grand, which the New York Times described at the time as a "building iron monster."

Tiffany & Company eventually moved uptown, and the building was sold to Amalgamated Bank. In 1952, an accident involving a falling piece of iron leads to rob the bank façade and cover with a white skin brick.

When the bank sold the building in 2006, the purchaser, Brack Capital Real Estate, decided that he could restore the original cast iron façade, and also use a skin colored glass.

The result has met with mixed criticism. But with more than $ 70 million in sales during the last six months, the money passed, and he seems to be saying former palace of Tiffany jewelry unique to the elite of this era.

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