it's the 2020s
and we're living in an age where people
are willing to pay over a hundred
million u.s. dollars for a view of New
York's Central Park in fact hedge fund
billionaire Ken Griffin paid two hundred
and thirty-eight million dollars for the
penthouse in the 220 Central Park South
Tower last year now the lavish
three-story apartment between levels 129
and 131 of Central Park Tower the
world's tallest residential building
could become one of the most expensive
real estate deals in the city's history
so how did we get here and what makes an
apartment like this so expensive
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with its booming economy and huge
diverse jobs market New York City is one
of the most desirable places to live in
the United States and property prices
are considerably higher than other parts
of the country standing at the heart of
this popular city and as a small island
with limited space available Manhattan
is the extreme of the extreme real
estate prices here are often double that
of neighboring New York boroughs and the
cost of living is 148 percent higher
than in other major US centers
the average price of parking a car for a
month in Manhattan is higher than the
average monthly rent in Colorado with
property prices already high offering
space luxury and a view of Central Park
quickly takes apartments into a
different league that's what's on offer
at billionaires row a new district
that's emerged around 57th streets as
several developments have capitalized on
engineering breakthroughs and the
ability to stack air rights acquired
from neighboring sites onto their own
small plots the result has been the rise
of several super slender towers from 157
and 432 Park Avenue 253 W 53 and 111 W
57 the world's thinnest skyscraper but
tallest of all is the 472 meter Central
Park Tower topping out in 2019 and now
the tallest residential tower on earth
the super tall skyscraper has a roofline
higher than one World Trade Center
rising from a Nordstrom store at its
base an heir rights deal allows the
tower to cantilever over the Art
Students League of New York building
increasing floor area and improving Park
views that would have been partially
blocked by the 290 meter 220 Central
Park South development
this building scale is matched by its
luxury there's everything from pool
terraces to screening Suites sparse and
cigar rooms but it's the apartments
themselves that take prices skywards and
the penthouse breaks new limits spread
over three levels between the 129th and
130 first floors the 1,400 square metre
property has six bedrooms 11 bathrooms
staff quarters a sweeping staircase a
private ballroom and an outdoor terrace
that situated more than 450 meters above
street level it's impossible to live
anywhere higher in New York or in the
Western Hemisphere for that matter and
such height means some pretty incredible
views of the world's most famous skyline
though the exact list price has not been
published single-story penthouses on
lower levels are available for 95
million dollars with the 220 Central
Park South penthouse going for 238
million in 2019 and the two-story
penthouse at 157 selling for a hundred
million dollars in 2015 it's easy to
imagine this much larger and higher
property listing at well over 200
million dollars but the city's real
estate boom is cooling off prices began
to fall in 2019 an expert suspect that
an excess supply of luxury apartments
may have saturated the market coupled
with the economic impact of the pandemic
in 2020 several developments along
billionaires row may actually end up
completing at the wrong time in response
some luxury properties in other towers
are being reconfigured into smaller
units in an effort to shift them despite
the market changing it's unlikely this
apartment will fall much below its
estimated list price it's normal for
properties of such value to take several
years to sell and the unique nature of
its size height and address will keep it
comfortably in nine figures
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the arguably larger threat to
developments of this type is shifting
public opinion around the value they
actually add to our cities with studio
apartments in the lower levels of
Central Park Tower starting at 1.5
million US dollars and some property
purchases simply used as a way of
investing wealth schemes of this type
can be accused of driving up real estate
prices and city centres forcing people
to move out to other neighborhoods at
the expense of the city's soul the very
thing that gave it its appeal in the
first place while projects of this scale
inevitably attract controversy the
ability of engineers to meet the demands
of such an extreme property markets with
an apartment like this demonstrates the
innovative nature of the construction
industry while nodding to the bold
frontier breaking approaches that made
New York the home of the skyscraper if
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