Witchcraft on the West Side

Dear Diary:

I had just learned the reason for the strange feelings and sounds in my prewar apartment on the Upper West Side: The previous resident, a young, handsome doctor, had committed suicide there. Lost in thought in the West 80s, I passed a small witchcraft shop in a brownstone near Broadway. Intrigued, I walked in and was immediately entranced by the smells and the colors, the candles, the jars full of mysterious-looking powders and the sign that read: “Spells and potions available on request.” The shop was run by two sisters, a redhead and a brunette, who were “witches.”

I blurted out: “I think my apartment might be haunted.” I explained about the former tenant’s suicide. “Is there a spell for this?” She smiled and said, “That’s easy.” She began mixing colored powders together, gave me a candle and instructed me to pour the mixture into a dish, light the candle, walk into all corners of my apartment with the burning incense and recite the words she wrote down for me.

I felt that perhaps she was getting ready to rip me off, but she rang up $2.87 â€" a bargain indeed!

I went home and did exactly as she said. In the days that followed, I felt as if the apartment had changed; it somehow felt happier.

One day I thought I should go back into the shop and thank the witch. I went back to where I thought the shop was, but nothing was there. So I strolled block by block through the entire neighborhood and nothing. I can only suppose it was like Harry Potter’s Room of Requirement, perhaps? It was there when I needed it and then vanished into the subway steam.

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Big Ticket | A Home in the Sky for $30.5 Million

Jason Szenes/European Pressphoto AgencyThe 90-story One57 tower

A three-bedroom unit on the 60th floor of One57, the Extell Development Company’s 90-story spike of bluish glass that does not scrape the Midtown sky as much as puncture it, sold for $30,551,000 and was the most expensive sale of the week, according to city records.

The monthly carrying costs for the apartment, a 4,483-square-foot residence at 157 West 57th Street, a condominium tower strategically placed to capture Central Park views, are a relatively painless $7,487. (There’s possibly nothing quite as satisfying as earning a tax abatement just by investing in a $30 million pied-à-terre.)

The apartment, No. 60A, has four-and-a-half marble baths and the ultimate view magnet, 60 feet of park frontage in the living/dining/entertaining area. The master suite has his-and-hers baths and bird’s-eye views of the city and the Hudson River. The custom eat-in kitchen by Smallbone of Devizes has hand-painted white cabinetry (although buyers at One57 do have the option of choosing a Macassar ebony color scheme). By this summer, buyers will also have the option of room service and other in-house amenities from the Park Hyatt hotel at the base of One57, which was designed by Atelier Christian de Portzamparc, the French architect responsible for the slender LVMH Tower on East 57th Street.

The week’s runner-up was the nearly identical downstairs neighbor, No. 59A, which traded for $30,041,875. The carrying costs on the three-bedroom four-and-a-half bath residence are $7,429 (the slight difference in monthly charges can be chalked up to a view premium for the higher floor.) Otherwise the apartments are virtual twins with similar layouts and views, except that the buyers of No. 59A opted for the Macassar ebony kitchen.

The Extell Marketing Group handled both sales; the buyer of No. 60A, identified through a limited liability company, Efstalmar, was represented by Claude Davies of the Fox Residential Group. The buyer of No. 59A was a Hong Kong-based entity, Rainbow Choice International Limited; the buyer’s broker was Marlene Marcus of Brown Harris Stevens.

Jeff Dvorett, a senior vice president for development at Extell, said that One57, which has 94 residential condominiums, is 75 percent sold; at least two units are in contract for more than $90 million.
Big Ticket includes closed sales from the previous week, ending Wednesday.

A version of this article appears in print on 04/13/2014, on page RE2 of the NewYork edition with the headline: A Home in the Sky.

Big Ticket | A Home in the Sky for $30.5 Million

Jason Szenes/European Pressphoto AgencyThe 90-story One57 tower

A three-bedroom unit on the 60th floor of One57, the Extell Development Company’s 90-story spike of bluish glass that does not scrape the Midtown sky as much as puncture it, sold for $30,551,000 and was the most expensive sale of the week, according to city records.

The monthly carrying costs for the apartment, a 4,483-square-foot residence at 157 West 57th Street, a condominium tower strategically placed to capture Central Park views, are a relatively painless $7,487. (There’s possibly nothing quite as satisfying as earning a tax abatement just by investing in a $30 million pied-à-terre.)

The apartment, No. 60A, has four-and-a-half marble baths and the ultimate view magnet, 60 feet of park frontage in the living/dining/entertaining area. The master suite has his-and-hers baths and bird’s-eye views of the city and the Hudson River. The custom eat-in kitchen by Smallbone of Devizes has hand-painted white cabinetry (although buyers at One57 do have the option of choosing a Macassar ebony color scheme). By this summer, buyers will also have the option of room service and other in-house amenities from the Park Hyatt hotel at the base of One57, which was designed by Atelier Christian de Portzamparc, the French architect responsible for the slender LVMH Tower on East 57th Street.

The week’s runner-up was the nearly identical downstairs neighbor, No. 59A, which traded for $30,041,875. The carrying costs on the three-bedroom four-and-a-half bath residence are $7,429 (the slight difference in monthly charges can be chalked up to a view premium for the higher floor.) Otherwise the apartments are virtual twins with similar layouts and views, except that the buyers of No. 59A opted for the Macassar ebony kitchen.

The Extell Marketing Group handled both sales; the buyer of No. 60A, identified through a limited liability company, Efstalmar, was represented by Claude Davies of the Fox Residential Group. The buyer of No. 59A was a Hong Kong-based entity, Rainbow Choice International Limited; the buyer’s broker was Marlene Marcus of Brown Harris Stevens.

Jeff Dvorett, a senior vice president for development at Extell, said that One57, which has 94 residential condominiums, is 75 percent sold; at least two units are in contract for more than $90 million.
Big Ticket includes closed sales from the previous week, ending Wednesday.

A version of this article appears in print on 04/13/2014, on page RE2 of the NewYork edition with the headline: A Home in the Sky.

Mobilizing Against a Common Core Test

Michael Nagle for The New York TimesStudents and parents protested at Public School 11 in Chelsea, Manhattan, saying an exam in E.L.A., or English language arts, that third, fourth and fifth graders took recently, was poorly designed. Principals had urged the families to protest.