Edward Caruso for The New York Times A two-bedroom at 15 Central Park West, center, and a townhouse on the Upper East Side sold for the same amount. The similarities end there.In a photo finish for the most expensive residential sale in the final week of 2013, the two winning properties, built in different centuries and in different genres, are similar only in their abundance of luxury amenities. An impeccably renovated Upper East Side townhouse and a two-bedroom condominium at the predictably prestigious 15 Central Park West both traded for $15.5 million, according to city records.
The townhouse, a five-story home at 159 East 61st Street, between Lexington and Third Avenues, has six bedrooms, six baths and two powder rooms, as well as custom wood finishes throughout and a formal garden showcased by double-height windows clad in bronze on the exterior. The focal point of the 6,300-square-foot townhouse, decorated in the British Arts and Crafts mode and renovated with enhanced ceiling heights in mind, is a grand new wooden staircase; the library shelves, carved from a single walnut tree, further the theme. The home was briefly listed in August at $15.9 million and had sold in 2007 for $14.67 million.
The 2,367-square-foot condo, No. 26B, in the limestone tower portion of 15 Central Park West, at 62nd Street, had been listed for $16.88 million; the monthly carrying costs are $5,615. There are two bedrooms with en suite baths and cityscape views, a powder room off the gallery, an eat-in kitchen, a formal dining room and an expansive living room with windows and a Juliet balcony on the park.
The seller of the townhouse, represented by Barbara Stone of the Corcoran Group, was listed in city records as the Robert Patrick Kelly Revocable Trust, with Robert Kelly and Rose Marina Kelly named as trustees. Mr. Kelly, the former chief executive of the Bank of New York Mellon, was the catalyst for Mellon’s merger with the Bank of New York after he became Mellon’s chief executive in 2006. The anonymous buyer, using a limited-liability company, 159 East 61st Holdings, was represented by Michael Kafka of Douglas Elliman Real Estate.
Setsuko Hattori and Masae Fujimoto of Douglas Elliman Real Estate represented the seller at 15 Central Park West, identified as the Fintech Corporation and Fintech N.Y., both based in Cranbury, N.J. The anonymous buyer, shielded by a limited-liability company, Bon Air West, was represented by Elizabeth Lee Sample and Brenda S. Powers of Sotheby’s International Realty.
Big Ticket includes closed sales from the previous week, this week ending Tuesday.
