Why This Super-Tall Tower Is Home to NY’s Most Expensive Real Estate

Completed in 2019, Vornado Realty Trust’s 70-story 220 Central Park South holds the record for the most expensive home sale ever recorded in the U.S. — hedge-fund billionaire Ken Griffin’s purchase of a four-floor penthouse for $238 million in 2019.

The limestone-clad, ultra-luxury property (which has 118 apartments, mostly duplexes) is also seeing units resell at stunning premiums over the past 12 months, partly due to it being the only building in Billionaires’ Row that sits directly on Central Park. Corcoran Group’s Deborah Kern, leads sales at 220 CPS.

$188M

After buying a 9,800-square-foot penthouse (plus a lower-floor, one-bedroom unit) in 2020 for around $95 million, hedge-fund billionaire Daniel Och resold the properties in December for a stunning $188 million, almost doubling what he had paid for them. The buyer was later revealed to be Alibaba Group co-founder and Brooklyn Nets owner Joseph Tsai.

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$157.5M

Last June, an unnamed seller — who bought two full floors (levels 60 and 61) in 2020 for $102.3 million — flipped them for a combined $157.5 million. The buyer? Also Tsai.

$66M

In September 2021, an unknown buyer plunked down $66 million for two separate units (a duplex and a studio), paying about $15.6 million more than the previous owner, who had bought the properties just a year earlier. (The buyer’s neighbors include Sting, who bought a penthouse for $65.75 million in 2019.)

$33M

Also in September, financier Richard Leibovitch of Arel Capital sold a 3,700-square-foot, 31st-floor apartment for $33 million. He had paid $26 million in December 2018 for the unit, making for an appreciation of 21 percent in less than three years.

This story first appeared in the May 17 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.