Tina Fineberg for The New York Times 944 Fifth AvenueAnother in the skein of palatial domiciles with Central Park vistas and/or impeccable Fifth or Park Avenue pedigrees that named their price in a resurgent 2012 luxury market and received it without the nuisance of negotiations, a full-floor co-op at 944 Fifth Avenue that sold for $50 million was the most expensive sale of the week, according to city records. And it wasn't even a penthouse with wraparound terraces. In fact, it is not a penthouse nor does it possess any outdoor space.
But the apartment, No. 11, spans 5,000 square feet and commands an impressive 70 feet of frontage on Fifth Avenue above the treetops of Central Park - shown to full advantage by s even oversize picture windows that transform western views into seasonal portraits - so it does possess ample trophy attributes.
With four bedrooms, and renovated to impress a dozen years ago by Thad Hayes, the go-to designer for deep-pocketed avatars of “timeless†good taste like the Lauder family, the apartment rambles from front to back for a grand total of 12 rooms, not counting a separate but equally elegant two-bedroom, two-bath guest suite on the ground floor.
The main apartment, with wide-plank oak floors, has a private elevator landing and 30 windows to capture all four exposures; each bedroom has its own private windowed bathroom, and the master bedroom, with a fireplace and park views, also has a walk-in closet with a south-facing window. The library, which faces the park, is flanked by the master on one corner and a 27-foot living room on the other; pocket doors connect, or dis creetly segregate, the three rooms with prime Fifth Avenue frontage. The monthly fees are $20,804.
The sellers, the investor David T. Hamamoto and his wife, Martha, bought the co-op and its downstairs adjunct 14 years ago, and with their two children they moved in after a two-year tweaking by Mr. Hayes. Mr. Hamamoto, who resigned last fall as the executive chairman of the Morgans Hotel Group, is the longtime chairman of the NorthStar Realty Finance Corporation, which with Deutsche Bank acquired the landmark John Hancock Center in Chicago last year. When the Hamamotos listed the apartment in June, their broker, John Burger of Brown Harris Stevens, said the couple had opted to downsize because their children were grown and they no longer needed such an opulent space.
Citing a confidentiality agreement, Mr. Burger declined to comment on the sale or verify the identity of the buyer. But the buyer was named in public records as Frank McCourt, provoking not-so-idle speculation that the Frank McCourt who was sufficiently flush to pay the full listing price in December is very likely the former owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball franchise, which was sold to an investment group headed by Magic Johnson for a record $2.15 billion last spring after filing for bankruptcy.
Mr. McCourt, who made his fortune in parking lots, bought the club for $430 million in 2004 but had since been maligned as an imprudent team owner whose bitter public detractors include his ex-wife, Jamie. Also a former chief executive of the Dodgers, she filed suit last fall requesting that the terms of their divorce be set aside because Mr. McCourt had undervalued his assets.
I n Los Angeles, his venture into sports ownership was decried as an ego trip, but Mr. McCourt apparently received a warm welcome at 944 Fifth, a 14-story white-glove limestone establishment designed by Nathan Korn and built in 1925, and lately a favorite of financiers and investors who prize their privacy. All of the upper units occupy full floors. It seems Mr. McCourt has switched coasts and traded one sort of trophy for another. All it took was $50 million.
Big Ticket includes closed sales from the previous week, ending Wednesday.
