A penthouse at the Manhattan megatower 432 Park Avenue is slashing its price by more than 20% to $130 million, according to the listing agents.
Owned by the Saudi retail and real-estate magnate Fawaz Al Hokair, the roughly 8,200-square-foot condo unit first hit the market for $169 million in July 2021 but was delisted in May 2022, according to listings website StreetEasy. Tal Alexander of Official Partners, one of the property’s listing agents, said his firm has been quietly shopping the property off market for about six months, but is now formally relisting it for sale with the $39 million discount.
Al Hokair bought the Billionaires’ Row penthouse in 2016 for $87.66 million, one of the highest prices ever paid for a New York apartment, records show. The unit has never been lived in; the seller hasn’t spent the night there once, Alexander said. A representative for Al Hokair declined to comment.
Alexander said the seller “did the right thing by heeding our advice to adjust to meet the market.”
The price cut is just the latest in the building, which has seen allegations of construction defects in recent years. Earlier this month, Mitch Julis of hedge fund Canyon Capital Advisors reduced the price of his apartment at 432 Park Avenue to $92 million from $135 million, according to StreetEasy and people familiar with the situation.
It is unclear whether price decreases in the building are a result of reports of construction defects or simply reflective of overall market shifts, Alexander said.
Al Hokair’s unit has six bedrooms, Alexander said, along with 12.5-foot ceilings and panoramic views of the city and the Hudson and East rivers. It also has a library, formal dining room, private elevator entry and a 93-foot-long great room for entertaining. The primary bedroom suite has two walk-in dressing rooms and two marble bathrooms.
The building is one of the tallest and most luxurious residential towers in the world. In September 2021, 432 Park’s residential condo board filed suit against the developer, an entity controlled by Los Angeles-based CIM Group, alleging that the building had problems with noise, severe flooding and elevator malfunctions.
The developer has called the suit “ill-advised” and “an effort to wrest unwarranted payments” from the sponsor. In court papers filed in response to the suit, the company said the building is “without a doubt, safe” and that many of the issues cited by the board have already been resolved. An attorney for the board said that, rather than waiting for the litigation to be resolved, the board is working with a construction firm to rectify what it alleges are remaining issues.
The New York luxury market has fluctuated over the past year, but Alexander said he sees signs that it is picking up. He said he has a lower-level unit at 432 Park in contract for close to its asking price of roughly $12 million. “We felt like it was the right time to come back on,” he said.
Recent data from Olshan Realty showed that 40 Manhattan contracts were signed at $4 million and above last week, the highest number since the first week of May 2022.
Alexander, who also rents a unit at 432 Park as a personal residence, said he hopes that the new price will help garner more interest for Al Hokair’s unit.
“We’re in an environment now where no one necessarily wants to pay the asking prices. People want to make a deal,” Alexander said. “At its current ask, I think we’re in the realm where a buyer will think they are getting a fair deal.”
He is listing the property along with his brother Oren Alexander.
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