Michael Kirby Smith for The New York Times One Madison at East 22nd Street Rupert Murdoch, the newly single media tycoon, has acquired the triplex penthouse that crowns One Madison, the 60-story sliver of bronze glass designed by CetraRuddy, for $43,010,000. A 6,850-square-foot sponsor unit, it was the most expensive sale of the week, according to city records.
The listing price for the condominium, on the southeast side of Madison Square Park at East 22nd Street, had been $50 million. But Mr. Murdoch preferred to buy it as raw space, in so-called white-box form, to orchestrate the finishing touches with his handpicked design team; hence the discount. Raw or not, it has monthly carrying costs of $17,801.
The five-bedroom, five-and-a-half-bath triplex, which has a 568-square-foot wraparound terrace on its north and east sides, fulfilled Mr. Murdoch’s enthusiastic appetite for panoramic views and demand for total privacy, but it lacked the abundance of square footage â€" 10,000 square feet â€" he deemed appropriate to house himself and his extensive art collection. To remedy that, in an accompanying and not-yet-closed transaction, he has also bought the entire 57th floor, just below, to combine with his penthouse â€" in aggregate an impressive $57.25 million commitment to his accustomed master-of-the-universe lifestyle. The reason the three-bedroom, 3,318-square-foot downstairs unit has not closed in city records is that unlike the triplex, it is being delivered to its new owner fully finished and is not quite done.
Dolly Lenz, Mr. Murdoch’s broker, said the penthouse was the only property that met her client’s numerous requirements: “I was brought along to satisfy a complicated and extensive wish list, but from everything we looked at, this apartment was the star. There was an instant attraction, and it was also important to Mr. Murdoch that there is a very credible developer behind the property.â€
Leslie Wilson, a senior vice president of Related sales and the director of sales at One Madison, represented the sponsors, the Related Companies, the CIM Group, and the HFZ Capital Group, which rescued One Madison, formerly One Madison Park, from fiscal-collapse limbo. Ms. Wilson says that Mr. Murdoch’s embrace of One Madison signifies its residential merit and investment potential.
“The fact that he was bedazzled by this penthouse at this location is a major statement about the growing allure of downtown,†she said, “and for us it’s a very important statement about the perceived quality of the product we’re offering, because we’re aware that a billionaire of his stature has lots of options.â€
Ms. Wilson described the penthouse as “this sort of snow-globe with panoramic views of every iconic landmark in Manhattan. It’s like infinity-pool views.â€
Big Ticket includes closed sales from the previous week, ending Wednesday.
A version of this article appears in print on 03/16/2014, on page RE2 of the NewYork edition with the headline: Bachelor Pad Extraordinaire .