An incoming Extell supertall at 655 Madison could ruin the west-facing views for the wealthy apartment owners next door at 520 Park.
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When sales at 520 Park opened in 2015, the pitch was clear: The Robert A.M. Stern–designed tower, 54 stories of limestone lording over Central Park, was for Masters of the Universe. William and Arthur Zeckendorf had paid a pretty penny for the address itself because, as they wrote at the time to then–Manhattan borough president Scott Stringer, its prominence in the skyline called for something grander than 45 East 60th — a mere “midblock building.” A listing asking $100 million for the top-floor penthouse duplex (carved out of a triplex that had previously asked $130 million) boasted of an “unprecedented” solarium, a custom staircase, and five bedrooms. And because it was at the tippy-top of a supertall, “panoramic views from all four exposures.” A-Rod (and then-girlfriend Jennifer Lopez) were reportedly intrigued. The vacuum billionaire James Dyson bought a sponsor unit for just under $74 million. Sale records were set as the building’s “mansions in the sky” filled up.
Enter: 655 Madison Avenue, the incoming supertall being developed by Gary Barnett’s Extell — purveyor of all things tall, skinny, and expensive. Barnett was initially tight-lipped about his plans for the lot, which Extell purchased this past October for nearly $160 million, but its scope came into focus after his firm acquired the adjacent properties. In July, Extell revealed a pair of renderings for the supertall, one of which appears to put a new 84-story tower close enough to 520 Park that each building’s residents could reasonably look in on the other. (Extell’s second rendering, at 74 stories, includes setbacks that would give some space between the two high-rises.) But perhaps worst of all, the new tower meant 520 Park could lose its west-facing views. No more panorama!
Of course, someone sued. The owner of 520 Park’s top-floor penthouse didn’t even wait for the renderings — a suit on his behalf was filed just a few weeks after the March news that Extell had picked up the lots next door. That owner, later revealed to be billionaire Orlando Bravo and his wife, filed a lawsuit alleging the Zeckendorfs had committed “brazen fraud.” Per the suit, the developers had “rushed” to close the nearly $80 million sale because, as members of a “small circle of major New York City real estate developers,” they had insider information about Extell’s plans for the neighboring tower. “That skyscraper is all but certain to ruin the Penthouse’s unobstructed Central Park view, the unit’s defining feature,” according to the suit. The view was the penthouse, it continued: “Needless to say, had Buyer known the development was in the works, Buyer never would have purchased the Penthouse — let alone for close to $80 million.” (The developers’ attorneys called the lawsuit “buyer’s remorse masquerading as a complaint.”)
Whether the 520 buyers are victims of a nasty little trick or just foolish for thinking they could control the skyline, shifting views are not an uncommon problem. New buildings go up all the time in the city, so it’s nearly impossible to know what you might be looking at from your kitchen window ten years from now. “I cannot tell you the amount of buildings where I have drawn lot-line windows, and they have beautiful views, and they just … disappear,” says Alex Loyer Hughes, co-founder of Kurv Architecture. “It’s frustrating, but if you’re going to drop that many millions on a condo, you need to be looking at the fine print.” Asher Alcobi, who recently sold the building’s 31st-story unit, believes the views at 520 Park ultimately are “not going to be blocked” by 655 — though perhaps “compromised.” (Another real-estate type, however, was less generous — the view of the park wasn’t the problem; it was looking at the neighboring tower itself that would hurt: “Extell buildings are historically ugly.”)
Would the incoming supertall have an impact on sales? Depends who you ask. “This is common sense,” says Jonathan Miller, president of the appraisal firm Miller Samuel. “If you paid for 360-degree views and you get 270, there’s some sort of discount inferred, and maybe you’re seeing that in some of the lower-price sales in a market where the high-end is rising.” The unit Alcobi sold, which was listed in April for $26.95 million, closed at $22 million in late July — $4 million less than what the seller had paid in 2022. Another unit, which came on the market in October 2024, saw its asking drop from $26.95 million to $25 million before it was delisted less than two weeks after Extell put out its renderings for 655 Madison.
So what’s a 520 Park resident to do if they want truly unobstructed views? Well, move. Wealthy apartment buyers do it all the time — over a downgraded view, a noisy neighbor, a shiny new object that beckons from elsewhere in Manhattan. If you have the money, it doesn’t take much. “Even if they’re taking a loss,” the real-estate type who hates Extell’s aesthetic tells me, “they’re getting out of there.”
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