Category — Duplex Co-ops

Lara Gorton sold her incredible penthouse duplex co-op apartment at 310 Riverside Drive for $1.905 million, according to New York City records.

Gorton is the Director of Institutional Sales at the Telsey Advisory Group.

Given that she sold her co-op for $110,000 over the $1.795 million original list price, it appears that Gorton may have benefited from bidding wars for an apartment that commands stunning views of the Hudson River, Riverside Park, and the Upper West Side.


The buyers are Bernd Schmitt, a professor at Columbia University’s Business School, and Hisako Fujii. Schmitt directs the Business School’s Center on Global Brand Leadership. He focuses on customer experience management. and heads a consulting firm.

Halstead brokers Amelia Gewirtz and Andrew Phillips had the exclusive.

The duplex co-op penthouse has incredible views all around the apartment. You can have coffee in the kitchen over the Hudson at breakfast, and drinks on the upstairs terrace in the evening.

The co-op went into contract quickly last fall. According to SteetEasy, it was first listed on Sept. 24, 2009, and had an accepted offer less than a month later on Oct. 19, 2009.

The apartment comes with a washer and dryer on the upper level, a real plus considering the premium that the buyers paid for this cooperative.

The main floor with the apartment’s entrance has the kitchen and one bedroom. The kitchen is a cook’s dream, chock full of gorgeous, high-end appliances:

• A Subzero fridge with a glass front
• Wolf double wall ovens
• A sleek glass top range with five burners
• Those cute Fisher Paykel dishwashers that are actually drawers
• A disposal!
• A wine refrigerator

The semi-circle upstairs level has the master bedroom, storage area, and huge living room facing the Hudson.

There is also a custom sound system wired, and the apartment is wired for HDTV

While the pre-war co-op is pet friendly, there is one potential drawbacks with this apartment. Having a penthouse with a rooftop terrace increases the risk for roof leaks into your apartment. Just ask co-op shareholders who have ever owned a penthouse apartment. You are likely to find a few stories about roof leaks they may have been unlucky to face.

Photo credits: Halstead

After a year and a half on the market, multiple brokers, and many more price drops. David Fleiss and Karen Fleiss sold the lower floor of their former duplex co-op apartment at 1030 Fifth Avenue for $8.898 million.


The sales price for the 10-room, 4 bedroom, 3 bath Fifth Avenue apartment is a pittance compared to the $47 million that the Fleiss’s originally sought for the duplex. Monthly maintenance on this pre-war co-op is $6,950

Karen Fleiss is a Barnard College trustee. David Fleiss is an orthopedic surgeon who describes his work as “devoted to getting the weekend warrior back into his or her sport.”

Dolly Lenz at Prudential Elliman closed the deal for the Fleiss’s. Their first broker was Corcoran’s Sharon Baum, followed by Fritizi Kollip at Brown Harris Stevens.

The buyers are Richard ‘Duke’ Buchan, III and Hannah Buchan.

Duke is the principal of investment fund Hunter Global Investors. According to New York CIty records, the Buchan’s sold their 840 Park Avenue co-op for $10.75 million last May, having bought it just 2½ years earlier for $9.55 million. The Buchan’s put serious money into renovating that apartment before selling it and renting before buying at 1030 Fifth.

The Buchan’s new neighbors at 1030 Fifth include:

• Robert Redford
• Diane Sawyer and Mike Nichols
• Blue Ridge Capital’s John Griffin and Amy Griffin
• The Blackstone Group’s Prakesh Melwani and Anjali Melwani
• Producer Wendy Finerman and David Peterson

Photo credit: Google Maps

A sky-high duplex penthouse co-op apartment on the 37th and 38th floors of 860 U.N. Plaza just sold for $3.4 million, a nearly $600k decrease from the $3.995 million initial list price.


The 4 bedroom, 4 bath Sutton Place area co-op was sold by Evelyn Nasser and brokered by Lois Nasser of Sotheby’s

The buyer was Leon Wagner, a founding partner and Chairman of Golden Tree Asset Management.