Category — Co-op Boards

Another Upper West Side co-op apartment was just sold during the end of a marriage, giving former owners Nina Brodsky and Kenneth Roth some cash towards paying New York City divorce lawyers to help them put the finishing touches on ending their marriage.

The generously sized 7-room apartment on a high floor of 315 West 106th Street sold for $1.925 million. Unlike many sales noted here over the last year, however, there was no real discount from the original $1.95 million initial list price. The co-op was on the market for only a month before it went into contract in October 2009.

Public records show that Nina Brodsky, a Manhattan lawyer at Continuum Health Partners, filed for an uncontested divorce last month against Roth, an attorney and the Executive Director of Human Rights Watch. A former federal prosecutor, lawyer in private practice, and Iran-Contra affair investigator Roth reportedly receives an annual salary of $350,000 at HRW. Who imagined that working at a non-profit could actually be…well…profitable?

Brodsky and Roth lived at the co-op since 1993, having moved in from just a few blocks away.

The buyers are Stuart Warshaw and Karina Warshaw, the owners founders of Rauw Energy, resellers of a home energy savings device.

Brown Harris Stevens brokers Janet Garson Gifford and David Anderson had the exclusive for the apartment.

The enormous living room and all of the bedrooms have a light-filled wonderful southern exposure, with views looking westward towards the Hudson River and Riverside Park. Thankfully, for this kind of money, it also appears that you get to use a washer and dryer in the kitchen.

The co-op board at 315 West 106th permits dogs, but only after they pass muster at the interview. The pre-war building was built in 1925.

The highest recorded sale in the building was in 2007 when Arnold ‘Arnie’ Eisen and Adraine Leveen paid $2.45 million for a low-floor apartment in the co-op after Eisen became the new Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary .

As part of their recent divorce settlement, Merle Wolf obtained the co-op apartment that she and her now ex-husband David T. Wolff owned on the eighth floor of The Majestic at 115 Central Park West. Public records show that the matrimonial property transfer was valued at $2.475 million.

The Majestic is one of the most prominent co-ops on the Upper West Side, standing at the corner of 115 Central Park West and West 72nd Street. It was built by Irwin S. Chanin during the Great Depression. Although he originally envisioned a 45-story apartment building in 1929 — before the stock market crash — he subsequently modified his design to erect the 32-story apartment in 1931.”

The co-op restricts buyers at The Majestic to financing 50% of the purchase price. Shareholders are treated to multiple doormen staffing a host of entrances to the block-long building. The Majestic has 234 apartments, and it’s a pet-friendly co-op.

The co-op is conveniently located at the A,B, and C subway stops, and is just two blocks form the 1, 2, and 3 trains at 72nd and Broadway.

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Noteworthy current and former residents have included:

• Executive J.R. ‘Pitt’ Hyde, III and Barbara Hyde, hallway neighbors of Merle Wolff. The Hyde’s paid $11.75M for their Majestic co-op this past spring.
• Hotelier Ian Schrager
• NYC landscaping and horticultural magnateMadelyn Simon
• Gangsters Meyer Lansky, Lucky Luciano and Frank Costello
• Comedian Milton Berle
• Newspaper and radio commentator Walter Winchell
• Broadway actor Zero Mostel
• David Tolley, the Blackstone Group, paid $8.94 million for two co-op apartments on The Majestic’s 31st and 32nd floors.

According to New York City records, David Wolff filed for a contested matrimonial divorce on March 31, 2008.  He was represented by Manhattan divorce lawyers at Sheresky Aronson Mayefsky & Sloan, LLP.

Merle Wolff was first represented by matrimonial attorneys at Bronstein Schuck & Poller, which subsequently became part of the Matrimonial Law Group at the now defunct Dreier LLP, the law firm overseen by the now convicted felon Marc Dreir.

Dreir is serving 20 years in federal prison for pleading guilty in May 2009 to conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud; securities fraud; multiple counts of wire fraud; and of money laundering.

Rosemary Vrablic, the Managing Director of Deutsche Bank’s U.S. Private Wealth Management (PWM) business, is the proud owner of a duplex penthouse co-op apartment at 1001 Park Avenue.

The apartment formerly belonged to convicted felon and former REFCO CEO Phillip Bennett and his wife Valerie Bennett. The couple handed their penthouse pad over to the federal government in a connection with his 2008 guilty plea to a host of white collar criminal charges from his role hiding hundreds of millions of dollars in REFCO debt from the company’s shareholders and auditors.

When his money laundering, securities fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud, and related criminal charges were discovered in late 2005, Bennett “seven Ferraris; a $20m plane; luxury homes and more than $29m in artwork”. Behind bards, Bennett’s only source of ‘income’ comes in the form of “mackerel or macks,” plastic pouches of fishies that Ft. Dix inmates buy at the prison commissary.”

Elliman agents Daniela Kunen and Sabrina Saltiel had the exclusive.

Vrablic knocked down the price more than 27% from the original $5.9 million listing when it hit the market in March. One month after the listing price dropped to $5,125,000 in August, Vrablic negotiated a $825,000 price reduction to seal the deal.

The grand duplex is surrounded by outdoor terraces on both floors, and boasts views to the west, south and north. The apartment’s monthly maintenance was listed at $4,412.

The 16-story pre-war co-op has only 21 apartments. According to The New York Times, one of the original shareholders in the building was “Lillie P. Bliss, the art collector who was one of the founding officers of the Museum of Modern Art in 1929.” The penthouse now owned by Vrablic was part of the triplex that Bliss owned at the time.

Vrablic’s new neighbors at 1001 Park Avenue include:

• Lasik eye surgeon Robert Ditkoff
• Journalist Nancy Tilghman who paid $2.25 million for her apartment in June 2006
• Caroline Morrison Lowndes, a member of the Tindall Corporation concrete dynasty
• Jeweler Ralph Esmerian
• Deborah and Ivan Moskowitz. He is a real estate lawyer at Schiff Hardin, with considerable commercial leasing experience.