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\n Photo-Illustration: Curbed; Photo: Getty\n <\/p>\n
Just about everyone can agree that it\u2019s a bad time to be 432 Park. In the years since the New York Times published<\/a> a damning story about the structural woes<\/a> plaguing the ultra-high-end, super-tall\u00a0\u2014 broken elevators, creaky walls, noisy trash chutes \u2014\u00a0there\u2019s been a drip-drip of unpleasant details about the building along with a pair<\/a> of lawsuits<\/a> filed against the developers, CIM Group and Harry Macklowe. There are languishing<\/a> eight-figure listings and embarrassing price cuts. And, oh, concerns about \u201cconcrete hand grenades<\/a>.\u201d What was once marketed as a frictionless life on Billionaire\u2019s Row now appears, at least from the outside, to be a bit of a mess. So what\u2019s it like being a broker there? Well, it depends on who you ask.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope I get ten more listings,\u201d says Claire Groome, an agent with Sotheby\u2019s. Earlier this month, Groome closed a sale at No. 432 for a two-bedroom, two-and-a-half bath at just a hair shy of $8.7 million. \u201cI had no problem selling,\u201d she says of the property, which went for 17 percent below the initial listing price. \u201cI had it on for less than six months, and I had several offers.\u201d Groome raves about the \u201cboutiquey\u201d building. \u201cThe way it\u2019s run \u2014 the staff are super, the concierge, they do everything for you,\u201d she says. It\u2019s got a great restaurant and\u00a0\u201cas opposed to all the other super-talls \u2026 there are some people who have apartments they use as pied-\u00e0-terres there, but there are a lot of people who live there.\u201d What about the building\u2019s PR issues? \u201cAll these super-talls have problems,\u201d she says. \u201cThey just don\u2019t all get the kind of press that 432 does.\u201d<\/p>\n A fair enough point. Clients paying this kind of premium for their apartments are notoriously hard to please. And other towers along this glossy stretch of the West 50s have faced some public bruising<\/a> over, say, neighboring buildings suing<\/a> over construction damage. None, though, have anything close to the barrage of trouble that seems to follow the Rafael Vi\u00f1oly\u2013designed all-white 432 Park.\u00a0\u201cEvery time we tried to show, there was some article that would be really negative about the elevators or the structure,\u201d a former broker in the building tells me. \u201cI\u2019m so traumatized.\u201d To this broker, the question seemed to be: How do you try to solicit a client\u2019s highest and best offer when the image of an elevator stalled above the cloud line is somewhere in their heads?\u00a0This person listed one unit a couple of times, and showings seemed to go well enough. Except, when the offers came in from the prospective buyers, they were invariably lowballs \u2014\u00a0sometimes nearly 40 percent below asking.\u00a0\u201cThe sellers would get really anxious,\u201d this broker says. \u201dThey\u2019re trying to list something that is just such a depreciating asset.\u201d<\/p>\n Other agents who have done deals in the building said it\u2019s not entirely a matter of lawsuits or bad press \u2014\u00a0there\u2019s also just a lot of competition in the market right now. In the decade since sales opened up at 432 Park, more ultraluxury buildings have come online \u2014 Central Park Tower, 111 West 57th Street, and 220 Central Park South, to name a few. \u201cBillionaire\u2019s Row has recently been about what\u2019s the latest and greatest,\u201d says Abraham Sarway, a Douglas Elliman agent who was been on the buyer side of a sale at 432 last year and currently has the rental listing for the same unit Groome just sold.<\/p>\n Whatever the reason, 432 Park has been struggling lately: An UrbanDigs analysis of resales in 2024 and 2025 against the trio of aforementioned buildings found that 432\u2019s apartments, on average, spent the longest time on the market\u00a0(524 days) and had the highest discounts percentage (27.1 percent) and the lowest price per square foot ($3,617). \u201cResales at 432 Park Avenue are facing sustained pressure across every key metric,\u201d UrbanDigs\u2019s co-founder, John Walkup, says. Much of which points to another issue several brokers shared with me: Sellers have unrealistic expectations about what their condos are worth. \u201cThese people bought for crazy numbers,\u201d one broker tells me. \u201cIt\u2019s time to come back down to earth.\u201d<\/p>\n So who is looking to live at 432 right now? Well-funded renters, for one. \u201cPeople are fighting to get in,\u201d says Compass\u2019s Jason Haber, who has handled three rentals in the past few years. While Haber declined to share his clients\u2019 backgrounds,\u00a0the \u201ctraumatized\u201d broker mentioned that executives splitting their time between New York and elsewhere liked 432 Park as an option for furnished, ultraluxury housing near their Manhattan offices \u2014\u00a0all on their company\u2019s dime, of course.\u00a0\u201cThey\u2019re not fully aware,\u201d this broker says. As for those who want to buy? Brokers tell me it\u2019s often people who are already living there. They want more space or an apartment for their kids. There\u2019s even been quite a few boomerangs, apparently. \u201cA lot of the showings that I had for that listing were people who had already lived in the building who wanted to come back,\u201d Groome says. \u201cThat\u2019s just how great the building is.\u201d<\/p>\n One seasoned broker who has handled deals in other towers on Billionaire\u2019s Row had this to say: Just wait it out. \u201cIt\u2019s too valuable not to be fixed,\u201d they tell me. But right now, while the press is still bad and the lawsuits are still dragging, sellers should take a breath. Which is also what this broker is doing \u2014 they\u2019ve declined all representation requests coming from 432. \u201cIt\u2019s still too toxic,\u201d they say.<\/p>\n Sign Up for the Curbed Newsletter<\/p>\n A daily mix of stories about cities, city life, and our always evolving neighborhoods and skylines.<\/p>\n Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice<\/p>\n