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Once the City’s Priciest, Manhattan Apartment Gets $20M Price Cut

Listed for $120M in 2016, it’s now $76M

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As another peak listings season begins, Manhattan has seen many of its most high-end homes returning to the market with very significant price cuts. The latest example is a 12,000-square-foot Fifth Avenue co-op apartment, once the most expensive listing in the city when it went on the market for $120 million in April 2016.

The asking price was reduced $24 million to $96 million last September, according to listing history. Another $20 million reduction on Wednesday drops the price tag to $76 million.

The seven-bedroom duplex is still co-listed by Brown Harris Stevens and Key-Ventures, now part of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices.

More:Manhattan Super-Luxury Rental Market Remained Robust in August

"It’s the single largest remaining apartment on Fifth Avenue built as such," said John Burger, one of the listing agents from Brown Harris Stevens. "It boasts Central Park views in addition to the expansive space, and checks off every box in terms of what buyers expect in a trophy apartment."

Regarding the price cut, Mr. Burger said: "The price adjustment was positioned slightly below the last largest sale in the building of $77.5 million."

And September is a good time to regenerate interest, according to Mr. Burger. "A great part of the audience of this type of property was not in the city over the summer."

Just this week, there were a few noticeable price cuts across Manhattan’s luxury market, with at least two in the iconic Plaza Hotel: Tommy Hilfiger dropped the price of his penthouse to $50 million on Monday from the original $80 million asking price in 2013 (it was most recently listed for $58.9 million). And fashion mogul Jürgen Friedrich, the founder of the European operations of retailer Esprit Holdings, lowered the price of his spread in the building to $34.5 million from $39.5 million. It was originally listed for $55.5 million in 2008.

More:Not All $65-Million Manhattan Penthouses Are Made the Same

Another multi-million dollar price cut was taken by socialite Shafi Roepers on her full-floor Upper East Side co-op apartment on Fifth Avenue. It was relisted Tuesday for $55 million—$10 million less than what it asked in June.

Last Friday, a penthouse at One Vandam in SoHo cut the price to $21 million, a $7 million discount from the $28 million price tag it had when it went on the market in 2013. It was taken off the market temporarily and relisted in November 2016 for $25 million, according to StreetEasy.

Although each seller has his/her own rationale in offering a price cut, the stagnant market condition has made sellers of ultra luxury Manhattan homes more willing to meet buyers’ expectations.

In the second quarter of this year, luxury sales—which Douglas Elliman prices at $4.875 million or more and which accounts for the top 10% of the Manhattan sales market— sold for an average 10.4% less than their last listing prices. Additionally, they took an average of 231 days to find a buyer, according to the firm’s report.

For the 12,000-square-foot Fifth Avenue co-op apartment, the current asking price is a 21% discount from the last listing price.

The property was owned for decades by the late John Gutfreund, the former chief executive of Salomon Brothers nicknamed the "King of Wall Street," who died in March 2016 at age of 86. Soon after, his widow, Susan Gutfreund put the home on the market.

She couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

The duplex has seven bedrooms, 10 bathrooms, a living room with two fireplaces and a library with 17th-century leather walls. It features hardwood flooring, high ceilings and classic original moldings throughout, according to the listing.

Designed by architect Rosario Candela in 1931, the limestone-clad building is considered one of the most pedigreed co-ops in Manhattan.

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