The Booms and Busts in Billionaires’ Row Resale Market

Ten years ago, Billionaires’ Row was born. 

The skyscrapers that dot 57th Street marry developer ambitions and the ultra-wealthy’s appetite for secure, if not also flashy and headline-worthy, investments. 

But as with all real estate acquisitions, nothing is a sure bet. Years later, some of those sky-high safety deposit boxes appear to be safer than others.

An analysis of public records by The Real Deal shows the wide disparity in the returns that original buyers in five key Billionaires’ Row properties received once they resold units. The analysis compares the prices achieved by sponsor sales, or the first buyers from a developer, to the first time the unit is up for sale by the original owner in five buildings: 220 Central Park South, 432 Park Avenue, 157 West 57th Street, 217 West 57th Street and 111 West 57th Street.

These properties are not the only addresses that comprise the slice of the city that changed the market, but are emblematic of the submarket, having been selling for long enough to show how their first buyers fared. Among trophy market observers, Billionaires’ Row is generally agreed to extend beyond the stretch of 57th Street, and Billionaires’ Rectangle just doesn’t roll off the tongue the same.

As a market metric, resale performance is indicative of a systematic miscalculation by developers around the city, according to appraiser Jonathan Miller. 

“The whole premise of it was based on a mistaken assumption that the market was wide enough and deep enough for a lot of buildings to come on simultaneously,” said Miller. 

Ultimately it was, according to Miller, a “you had to be there” moment. 

“This was a moment in time that has passed, and this submarket will be around for a long time, and there will be other buildings built, but the frenzy that the market experienced is unlikely to be repeated,” he said. 

More than 10 years after earning its moniker, Billionaires’ Row presents a rather bleak picture for the current owners of these units who bought into these developments with the bet that their prices — and appeal — would keep climbing.

Corcoran’s Kane Manera, who is currently leading sales at Central Park Tower, says that there is time yet for these buildings to appreciate. 

“The time horizon of purchasing any property, 57th Street or anywhere else, shouldn’t be two, three or four years — ideally you want something over five or seven years,” he said, pointing to outside factors like the recent rush of new development inventory across the city.  

Assessing resale performance comes with its own quirks, where views, layouts and design can all play a role, according to Donna Olshan of Olshan Realty. After taking over from the developer, a unit is at the mercy of its owner’s taste. 

She also pointed to what she called “the elephant in the room” when trying to assess market performance: concessions. 

“A sponsor might also hang on to a price, but there might be a lot of givebacks at the end of the deal,” she said. “Very often, the price that’s recorded is not the actual price.”

Such was the case with the priciest penthouse at 432 Park Avenue. The unit sold for $88 million in 2016, but only after the co-developer CIM Group provided the buyer with a $56 million loan. 

It’s often even simpler than that: newest equals best.

“The bottom line is, it’s the next new building,” said Douglas Elliman’s Richard Steinberg. “It’s not that there’s anything wrong with these buildings or the layouts, but everyone wants new, fresh, clean and improved amenities.”

But time comes for all buildings, and years after the developers have cashed out their chips, the legacy of these buildings will be driven by who still wants to live there — and what price they will pay to do so.

220 Central Park South (Average price change: +43 percent)

Steve Roth’s 80-story limestone obelisk needs no introduction. In 2020, TRD wrote a 4,000-word paean about the “world’s most profitable condo tower.” 

And while it made its name on the strength of its sponsor sales, including the most expensive home ever sold in the country, it has solidified its standing with unrivaled resale figures. Despite the sales team raising prices a dozen times between 2015 and 2018, which in theory could hinder resales, the first-time sellers in the building have yet to take a loss. 

Steinberg said the “only exception” to his hot new building rule is 220 Central Park South, along with another Robert A.M. Stern-designed building, 15 Central Park West. 

“220 [Central Park South] is 15 CPW on steroids,” he said. “Robert Stern design just holds its own in New York City.”

The most noteworthy resale in the building came in 2022 when billionaire financier Daniel Och sold his penthouse to Alibaba co-founder Joe Tsai for $188 million, more than double what Och paid for the unit in 2019. 

Even excluding that outlier trade, the building has still on average had resale units go for 36 percent above their sponsor sale price. 

432 Park Avenue (Average price change: +2.3 percent)

Harry Macklowe’s slim supertall on the eastern end of Billionaires’ Row, which launched sales in 2013, is the only other building on this list with a positive performance in the resale market, if just barely. 

The 125-unit building has been trending in the wrong direction in recent years, however. 

Of the building’s first 13 resales, which spanned 2017 and 2018, only three went for less than the buyer originally paid. Those trades included a two-bedroom on the 53rd floor that sold for $10.8 million, up 80 percent from the original price. 

With its unique Rafael Viñoly-designed facade, towering views and high-end amenities, the 

sales team at the building still discounted units when other buildings started popping up “because they could see the tsunami of supply coming,” Miller said, which helped steady the boat.

Its success in resales has largely played out in the background of complaints from tenants, as Miller said, “putting aside all the litigation that seems to be going on.”

That litigation includes two separate lawsuits filed by the 432 Park Avenue condo board. The first, filed in 2021, alleged construction defects including flooding, broken elevators and noise from the building’s sway. The board sued again this year, claiming Macklowe and CIM Group knew about the alleged defects. 

Compounding possible effects from the original lawsuit was a preceding deluge of luxury condos that had hit the market and fallout from the pandemic.  

On average, sales by original buyers since 2021 went for almost 1 percent less than they paid for their sponsor units. And of the 16 units resold for the first time since 2021, 10 went for a loss. 

The largest dollar value drop came after billionaire financier Thomas Peterffy sold his 84th-floor unit for $13.5 million in 2024, almost 40 percent less than what he paid for it in 2016.

But that unit, outfitted with patterned gray rugs and chromatically-tiled walls, points to an issue in assessing resale performance in condo buildings that Olshan pointed out when I called her for this story: “there’s no accounting for taste.” 

157 West 57th Street (Average price change: -24.2 percent)

Gary Barnett’s glass tower, dubbed One57, holds a couple of titles: the first Billionaires’ Row tower, the most sales by original owners and the steepest drop in resale prices among the five condo buildings. 

For a short period, One57 was in a league of its own when it launched sales in 2011. Billionaire financier Bill Ackman purchased a duplex penthouse for $91.5 million in 2012, setting the record for the city’s priciest sale. But before that deal could close, Dell Technologies CEO and founder Michael Dell one-upped him with a $100 million penthouse purchase in the building that closed in 2014, one year before Ackman’s deal hit city records. 

But the tower was a victim of its own success, spawning its successors that place above it on this list. 

“It was the tallest condo building ever built,” said Corcoran’s Ryan Kaplan. “We were all enamored by it, and now, when you look at the 57th Street skyline, it gets dwarfed.”

The first two sellers out of the building — one in 2014 and one in 2015 — netted tidy margins of 11 and 21 percent, respectively. Those sales came right as the condo market began to turn with a glut of inventory, and buyers began eying newer offerings like 432 Park Avenue and 220 Central Park South. 

Since then, a staggering 32 of the next 35 sales by original owners have traded for losses. One57 also has the 10 steepest discounts in absolute dollars of the buildings on this list. 

Some owners did not even try to recoup their losses, and still couldn’t get their asking price. The seller of an 81st-floor unit, who bought the apartment for $55.5 million, listed the home for $42 million in April 2021. It ultimately sold for $35.5 million later that year. 

But a few bargain hunters who scooped up discounted resale units have managed to turn a profit. Last year, investor and “Shark Tank” star Robert Herjavec sold his condo for $39 million for a 21 percent gain from what he paid in 2021. 

The lackluster resales also haven’t discouraged some intrepid owners in the building. The buyer of two 64th-floor units, which cost a total of $46 million, listed the combined full-floor unit for $90 million in June.  

111 West 57th Street (Average price change: -16.6 percent)

217 West 57th Street (Average price change: -9.7 percent)

We’re lumping together two buildings that can’t quite make it on the resale list on their own because they’re still churning through sponsor sales. 

Both buildings launched sales in 2018 as the luxury condo market had turned back into a pumpkin. 

Another Barnett project, 217 West 57th Street, known as Central Park Tower, is what Miller described as the other bookend, along with One57, to the Billionaires’ Row phenomenon.  

The tower, which was over two-thirds sold in December according to a TRD analysis, has become well-known for its hefty sponsor discounts. It has still managed to achieve some of the city’s priciest sales, including a $115 million penthouse that closed in June 2024 (don’t ask about the $250 million penthouse).

The building has recorded just three resales, two of which traded at almost exactly their initial sale price. The third, a $40 million sale in June, went for $6 million less than the seller paid only six months prior. 

At 111 West 57th Street, where the development team of JDS Development and Property Markets Group spent nearly half a decade wading through legal challenges, things have started to turn around under Sotheby’s International Realty’s Nikki Field, who took over sales of the building’s final 27 units last summer. 

The 59-unit tower was down to its last 10 units in April, likely aided by the aggressive price cuts Field has taken since taking over. 

The building has seen just two sales by original owners, one of which went for 2 percent over its original sale price of $9.3 million. The other, which the seller bought for $26 million in 2022, was listed for $24.5 million last year and sold for $20.4 million in June.