The owners of the Apthorp, the historic building on 79th street and Broadway, want to build four penthouse apartments on top of the building.
The 12-story building was constructed in 1908, and it’s had lots of famous residents, including Al Pacino and Nora Ephron. In the past five years, many of the apartments have been converted from rentals into condos, although 67 of the 154 apartments are occupied by rent-stabilized tenants, according to The Real Deal, which broke the story about the penthouse plan. The building is owned by lenders Area Property Partners.
The penthouse apartments would be triplexes and duplexes, selling for $2,200 to $3,300 per square foot. From the drawing above, they look like they’re being built for a Roman emperor, or as we call them these days, “hedge fund manager.”
Preservationists are watching the plans closely — the idea is still preliminary and will likely go before Community Board 7 next month and the Landmarks Preservation Commission in October.
“I really have to study it more, but I’m really concerned about the impact of this,” state Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal told The Real Deal.
But will the penthouses resemble the gleaming white duplex on top of everyone’s favorite 71st street brownstone?
Image of penthouses via Linda Rosenthal’s office.
Are the rich never satisfied?
I could never dream of affording an existing apartment in that gorgeous building. And now they need more and Bigger and BETTER??
Isn’t enough enough?
cato…you beat me to it…will the greed in this city/world ever end…not in our lifetime
I wish them good luck. They’ll need it. But I hope they’re successful. If the CB7 or the LPC are against it, then I’m all for it.
If the penthouses are architecurally harmonious with this handsome building, I don’t see why not. I doubt they will be visible from the street. Saying that, I also agree with Cato and Bill – but, really, free enterprise is like the tide. It comes in and it will (thanks to overbuilding) go out. Hopefully during my lifetime.
As long as theres a armed centurion in the block house, I’m in.
Does it have it’s own Duane Reade, Pinky’s and Chase branch?
I’m in!
There’s been a Chase branch on that corner for years. Better than Duane Reade, the Apthorp Pharmacy, also in the building, is one of the last remaining of the good-old-fashioned full-service drug stores. No Pinky’s (yet), but there’s a Tumi store right there, handy for those last minute weekend trips where you *just* have to have a new thousand-dollar overnight bag in *just* the right color!
You can see there are plenty of empty apartments in the building. It is a beautiful building, but most of the windows are filthily.
The more rich people move in, the better. The large amounts of real estate, income and sales taxes they pay lessen the daily burdens on the less fortunate. Everyone gripes about some oligarch buying a $50 million pad, but the $3-4 million in annual real estate taxes he pays subsidizes a lot of less fortunate people in this city
Bravo! The comments full of jealous, short-sighted sour grapes are ridiculous.
The problem is a lot of luxury housing like 15 CPW is tax abated.
Shhhhhh…. You don’t want the “jealous, short-sighted sour grapes” middle class to realize their pockets are being picked….
Hear, hear!
There goes the neighborhood.