A $72 Million Penthouse on Central Park Leads Sales in November

In one of the year’s most expensive sales, a brand-new penthouse near the top of 220 Central Park South sold for $72 million.

The full-floor aerie was acquired in an apparent off-market deal by an anonymous buyer, who also picked up a smaller unit on a lower floor of the skyscraper, which holds the country’s record for the highest price paid for a single residence.

Across town, at the boutique condominium at 150 East 78th Street, another big penthouse sale took place — this one a new duplex selling for $33.4 million. Also, Suzy Welch sold the Fifth Avenue duplex that she and Jack Welch, the former head of General Electric, had bought two years before his death. And Eric Adjmi, who runs an athletic apparel company, bought two floors at a new condo on Third Avenue.

Among New York City’s other prominent closed transactions in November, all of them co-ops, the restaurateur Simone Falco and his wife, Katy Brodsky Falco, traded in their West Chelsea apartment for a full-floor unit on Park Avenue. The real estate developer Charles Bendit and his wife, Karyn Bendit, acquired a double-size apartment on the Upper West Side.

And the actress Daphna Kastner, wife of the actor Harvey Keitel, sold an apartment at 55 Hudson Street in TriBeCa. This was another off-market deal, and little information was available about the unit, except that it sold for $5.2 million, and the buyers were Johnny S. Donadic and Nicole Blaskovic.

The Central Park South penthouse that closed at $72 million sits on the building’s 75th floor and encompasses 5,021 square feet.

The apartment has three bedrooms, four full bathrooms and a powder room, according to the most recent offering plan by the developer, Vornado Realty Trust. Plus, there’s a 312-square-foot terrace with nosebleed views of the park, city skyline and beyond.

The new owner, under contract since early May, made the purchase through the limited partnership 220 CPS PH75. The entity also bought a 917-square-foot suite on the 19th floor, with one bedroom and one bathroom, paying $3 million.

The penthouse sale is the city’s third biggest in 2022. The most expensive? A pair of co-ops sold together for $101 million by the estate of Paul G. Allen, a founder of Microsoft, at 4 East 66th Street, and a penthouse atop the Crown Building at 730 Fifth Avenue, for $75.9 million.

The limestone-clad 220 Central Park South, designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects, broke the record for the most expensive sold home more than three years ago with the hedge fund manager Kenneth Griffin’s nearly $240 million purchase of four floors.

The Upper East Side duplex penthouse that sold for $33.4 million, and was the month’s second biggest sale, takes up the top two floors of the 25-unit building at 150 78th Street and Lexington Avenue, also from the drawing boards of Robert A.M. Stern Architects.

The rambling, 7,288-square-foot apartment comes with eight bedrooms, eight and a half bathrooms, and two kitchens, a godsend for holiday entertaining. The 1,500 square feet of outdoor space includes terraces off the living room and one of the kitchens.

The buyer used the limited liability company MF 150 Holdings in the purchase.

Ms. Welch, an author and TV commentator, sold her duplex, at 834 Fifth Avenue, between East 64th and 65th Streets, for $21 million, a $4 million reduction from last year’s initial asking price. She and Mr. Welch had bought the home in 2018 for almost $18.8 million, then spent the next several months renovating; he died in 2020.

The buyers were John Vogelstein, a venture capitalist, and his wife, Barbara Vogelstein. They made the purchase through a trust.

The apartment has around 5,040 square feet and contains a total of three sizable bedrooms, four full bathrooms and two half bathrooms. The primary bedroom suite features a windowed dressing room large enough to hold wardrobes for every season, as well as two onyx bathrooms.

Off the enormous eat-in kitchen is a stairway that leads to a guest suite, with one of the bedrooms, a full bathroom and an extra room that could be used as another bedroom or office.

Throughout the apartment are ornate moldings, hardwood floors and prewar mantels on the two wood-burning fireplaces.

The apartment closing comes a little more than a year after Ms. Welch’s $22.8 million purchase of a 40-foot-wide townhouse with a two-car garage and rear garden on East 81st Street.

Mr. Adjmi bought two full floors at 1059 Third Avenue, a.k.a. the Leyton, between 62nd and 63rd Streets on the Upper East Side, for $16.8 million, presumably to combine into a duplex. They have a total of six bedrooms, three full bathrooms and two powder rooms, and around 6,100 square feet, according to StreetEasy.

Each floor has walls of windows and outdoor terraces that provide painting-worthy vistas of the East River, Central Park and Midtown skyline.

Mr. Adjmi is the chief executive of the Adjmi Apparel Group, which manufactures brands like Champion, Izod and Fila.

The Falcos sold their home at 177 Ninth Avenue in West Chelsea for nearly $12.3 million, then turned around and bought another residence, at 800 Park Avenue in Lenox Hill, for almost $11.9 million.

Their old apartment, measuring around 3,176 square feet, has four bedrooms and four and a half bathrooms, and is situated between West 21st and West 22nd Street. The buyers were Jin Chung Ha and Sung Wook Chung.

The Park Avenue apartment, which takes up an entire floor, is between East 74th and 75th Streets. The former owners, John Drouet Fennebresque and Christie Schiff Fennebresque, made a tidy profit on the sale of the unit, for which they had paid $8.7 million in early 2020.

The freshly renovated home has five bedrooms, each with an en suite bathroom, along with a laundry room and two powder rooms.

But probably the best part — at least for Mr. Falco — is the expansive, windowed kitchen, which comes equipped with top-of-the-line appliances (including a wine fridge and two dishwashers), custom cabinetry, Carrara marble countertops and center island, and a spacious butler’s pantry.

Mr. Falco, a veteran restaurateur and chef, currently runs Simo Pizza, an Italian restaurant with locations in Greenwich Village and the Meatpacking District.

At 15 West 81st Street, the Bendits also got a discount on their apartment, paying $10.5 million, below the initial $12.9 million asking price from last year.

Their spacious new home has around 5,000 square feet, which includes five bedrooms, five and a half bathrooms, a den, formal dining room with a wall of bookshelves, and a separate laundry room and home office. There’s a ton of storage throughout the unit, with walk-in closets in all but one of the bedrooms. And then there are the stunning views of Central Park and the nearby American Museum of Natural History.

The biggest room, measuring around 32-by-18 feet, is the kitchen, and it’s outfitted with high-end appliances, a large center island and a breakfast nook. Another great spot for holiday cooking.

Mr. Bendit is a chief executive and co-founder of Taconic Partners, whose numerous citywide projects include the Essex Crossing mixed-use development on the Lower East Side.

The seller was Clara Bingham, an author and documentary film producer.