220 Central Park South

220 Central Park South is in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, just east of Columbus Circle and south of Central Park. It has frontage on 58th Street to the south and Central Park South to the north, in the middle of a city block bounded by Seventh Avenue to the east and Broadway to the west. The building carries the alternate addresses of 225-231 West 58th Street. The building sits on an L-shaped site covering four land lots: three on West 58th Street measuring a combined , and a fourth lot between Central Park South and 58th Street measuring . The site has frontage of along 58th Street and along Central Park South, with the Central Park South wing on the far eastern portion of the site. Nearby buildings on the same block include Gainsborough Studios and 240 Central Park South to the west, as well as 200 Central Park South, the Helen Miller Gould Stable, and the firehouse of Engine Company 23 to the east. 220 Central Park South is across from the Central Park Tower, the American Fine Arts Society (also known as the Art Students League of New York building), the Saint Thomas Choir School, and the Osborne Apartments to the south. 220 Central Park South is one of several major developments around 57th Street and Central Park that are collectively dubbed Billionaires' Row by the media. Other buildings along Billionaires' Row include 432 Park Avenue five blocks southeast, 111 West 57th Street and One57 one block southeast, and the adjacent Central Park Tower. ==Architecture==

Robert A.M. Stern Architects designed the massing and exterior of 220 Central Park South, although SLCE Architects is listed in building documents as the architect of record. The building is one of several skyscrapers designed by Stern in Manhattan, which include 15 Central Park West, a few blocks to the north; 30 Park Place in the Financial District; and 520 Park Avenue, east of Central Park. Thierry Despont designed the interior spaces. Other firms involved in construction included structural engineer DeSimone Consulting Engineers and general contractor Lendlease. The porte-cochere is accessed by a pair of gates. The main structure, on 58th Street, is tall, rising 70 stories above the ground. The upper floors rise above the southern section of the site, both because of the light restriction and because the position of the floor slabs would enable all the residential units to face north toward Central Park. During construction, three alternatives for the massing and twenty-three alternatives for the floor slabs were studied. This section is 18 stories tall, with a deep setback above the sixth floor and several smaller setbacks on upper floors. Portions of the Villas' facade contain metal balconies in front of the windows. Both buildings have a limestone facade similar to other buildings by Stern, such as 15 Central Park West. 220 CPS's facade of Alabama "Silver Shadow" limestone has a "marbled" appearance (in contrast to 15 CPW's more uniform Indiana limestone). The usage of limestone was intended to blend with the more traditional facades of other buildings on Central Park's perimeter. According to Stern, 220 Central Park South's design was to "belong to the family of buildings that have framed Central Park for generations". To maximize usable space on the upper floors, and thus maximize revenue from apartment sales, the mechanical equipment was placed at the base of the main tower on 58th Street. The mechanical equipment occupies six stories, each with ceiling heights of , taking advantage of a zoning provision to maximize the tower's height. Accordingly, the mechanical equipment takes up of the tower's height, and the lowest condominiums in the main tower are above ground level. The roof of the main tower contains a slosh damper, which uses a huge tank of water to reduce vibrations. The damper weighs . The second floor has a communal amenity suite with a double-height ceiling and a fireplace. This space has an saltwater swimming pool, private dining rooms, an athletic club, a juice bar, a library, a basketball court, a golf simulator, and a children's play area. The building also has a wine cellar. most of which are duplex apartments. The apartments contain features such as oak flooring, custom millwork, and marble cladding of the kitchen islands and restrooms. while according to The New York Times, the Villas has 10 condos. Details of interior designs are scarce; The Wall Street Journal reported in late 2018 that the building's developer, Vornado, refused to publish renderings of apartment interiors. Some of the upper floors are designed so that they contain a single unit on each floor, or units spanning multiple floors. Some of the units have been combined to create larger penthouse or duplex apartments. The top four stories of the Villas also comprise a single apartment with a spiral staircase connecting each floor. ==History==

Planning Acquisition of old building The previous building at the address 220 Central Park South was a 20-story structure with either 120 or 125 apartments, constructed in 1954. Real estate investor Sarah Korein ultimately came to own the old 220 Central Park South, operating the building as a rent-stabilized development. In early 2005, Korein's estate placed the old building for sale. Because of the valuable air rights involved, one uninvolved broker estimated that the property would sell for as much as $160–175 million. At the time, the building had 47 tenants in rent-stabilized apartments, and 40% of the units were vacant. The Clarett Group was interested in purchasing the old 220 Central Park South, but did not have enough money to pay for the building up front. Warren Fink, the chief investment officer of the Clarett Group, contacted Vornado CEO Steven Roth and Vornado president Michael D. Fascitelli to join in the purchase. or $136.6 million for it in August 2005. The developers intended to demolish the building and erect a 41-story glass tower. Many of the remaining rent-stabilized tenants were elderly people without the means to easily relocate, and they refused to vacate, filing a lawsuit against Vornado. Although the New York Supreme Court initially ruled in favor of the tenants in 2008, determining that a proper environmental review had not been conducted, this was overturned upon appeal. The developers ultimately settled with tenants in December 2010 Each of the remaining residents received up to $1.56 million for their apartments. Following the 2008 financial crisis, Clarett lost nearly the entire premium that it had received, and Vornado bought out Clarett's stake in 2011, assuming total control of the project. and mosaic blocks from the old building were salvaged and placed into storage. Garage dispute By 2011, Vornado had acquired nearly all of the land, except the parking garage under part of the old building's site. Extell Development had leased the parking garage in 2006, and the lease did not expire until 2018. Back in 2009, Barnett had also submitted plans to the New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) for an 18-story, 58-apartment building above the garage, which was now squeezed between two of Vornado's lots. Extell was represented by Rozenholc, who claimed that the eviction was a ruse to clear the site for Vornado's new building; While the court cases proceeded, Barnett had privately suggested to Roth the possibility of constructing an office building on Extell's 57th Street site, leaving Vornado's Central Park South site available for residential development. Publicly, neither developer was willing to cede to the other. A court enjoined the eviction in July 2013, permitting Extell to continue holding the garage. As part of the deal, 220 Central Park South would be shifted slightly westward and Central Park Tower would be cantilevered slightly eastward, giving the latter a direct view of Central Park. Without Central Park Tower's cantilever, 220 Central Park South would have blocked the first of Central Park Tower. or . Including construction costs of , the building was estimated to cost . There were concerns about the project's viability; The New York Times cited one skeptical broker as asking, "Are there enough billionaires to fill all these spaces?" Roth eventually decided against developing a glass tower, as he believed that a more classically-styled limestone building would lure potential residents away from existing, masonry-clad cooperatives on Park Avenue and Fifth Avenue. He hired Robert A. M. Stern to create updated designs for 220 Central Park South, having been impressed by Stern's earlier design of 15 Central Park West. The Zeckendorf family, which had previously hired Stern to 520 Park Avenue in the same style, were reportedly annoyed that 220 Central Park South's design was so similar to that of their own building. Roth hired Thierry Despont as the interior designer; at the time, Despont had designed few high-rise developments, being more well-known for his work on individual residences. The plans called for 83 apartments to be built inside a 69-story, tower at the site, and an additional 10 apartments in an adjoining 10-story "Villa". Site excavation was underway by May 2014. Lendlease was hired as the general contractor. The building was so close to the Central Park Tower that Lendlease (which was also working on the Central Park Tower) devised a system to prevent the two structures' construction cranes from colliding. Sales and completion Sales began in early 2015; As late as that April, there was little publicly-available information on the project, which was still planned to have 93 total apartments. By the next month, the building was proposed to contain 118 apartments. The large amount of sales activity at the building increased Vornado's stock price greatly. That September, Vornado increased its Bank of China loan by $350 million and terminated a commitment for a $500 million mezzanine loan. This loan came with an interest rate of 2%, much lower than the rates on loans obtained by the developers of other Billionaires' Row towers. Half of 220 Central Park South's units were under contract by the end of the third quarter of 2015. The base of the tower was under construction by late 2015. Aboveground work reached 15 stories in February 2016 and 25 stories by that May. In November 2016, Justin Casquejo, a thrill-seeking teenage free solo climber and stunt performer, hung from the not-yet-completed tower. The construction process was generally secretive, and Roth did not host any press events for the building, nor did he invite reporters inside or reveal many of the design details. The real estate magazine The Real Deal reported in July 2018, "It has now been two years, eight months and 28 days since Vornado Realty Trust deigned to update Wall Street on sales at 220 Central Park South." According to Roth, the lack of updates was an intentional move for "competitive reasons". Brokers and lawyers uncovered floor plans and proposed prices by reviewing an offering plan filed with the Attorney General of New York, while reporters filed Freedom of Information Act requests to recover data from the offering plan. By the end of that month, approximately 83% of the condominium units were under sales contracts, and closings were scheduled through 2020. The first residents started moving into the building in late 2018, and Vornado extended its $750 million unsecured term loan at that time, pushing the loan's maturity from 2020 to 2024. By July 2019, exterior finishes were being placed on 220 Central Park South, and Vornado had repaid its full $950 million loan to the Bank of China. Later the same year, The Wall Street Journal called the building a "positive sign" for an otherwise unfavorable luxury real estate market, even though, at the time, most of the building's pending sales contracts were from buyers who had agreed to buy their units several years prior. By September 2020, the last exterior panels were being installed. and there were concerns that people would not buy the few remaining unsold units. Thirty condominiums remained to be sold by September 2020, including thirteen sales totaling $598 million between January and July. During the third quarter of 2020, the building accounted for nearly one-third of the $1.85 billion of condominium sales recorded in the entire borough of Manhattan. Relatively few of these buyers were brand-new; many of them had indicated their intention to buy condominiums several years prior. Vornado planned to use sales income from 220 Central Park South to finance capital expenditures of its other properties. ''Crain's New York'' wrote in late 2023 that, while Vornado's office portfolio had been losing money in the early 2020s, the building at 220 Central Park South was "something of an outlier" because many of the condos had actually appreciated in value. By then, Roth had shifted his focus to Vornado's office portfolio, having said that Vornado's development of 220 Central Park South was similar to "winning the Kentucky Derby by ten lengths". By January 2025, all except one of the condos had been sold. That June, residents of the neighboring Gainsborough Studios sued Vornado, claiming that Vornado had agreed to pay for damage caused by 220 Central Park South's construction but that the company had not done so. ==Residents==

Many of the buyers at 220 Central Park South remained anonymous. and neither Vornado nor the building's selling agent Corcoran Group were willing to divulge buyers' identities. Byron Allen, CEO of Entertainment Studios; Eric Smidt, CEO of Harbor Freight Tools; Other buyers have included billionaire hedge fund managers Daniel Och and Kenneth C. Griffin; real estate developer David Mandelbaum; musician Sting and his wife, producer and actor Trudie Styler; real-estate investor Ofer Yardeni; Because Roth wanted to maintain the building's reputation for exclusivity, Richard Steinberg of the brokerage Douglas Elliman said, "Even if you had the money, it wasn't guaranteed you could get a visit." Apartment sales The first sales contract closed on October 24, 2018, on a unit selling for $16.4 million. The first apartment in the Villas was sold the following year, in May 2019. and the unit was sold at that price in September 2021. An August 2025 analysis by The Real Deal found that, of the original owners who had resold their apartments so far, all had made a profit. The most expensive singular residence in the United States, belonging to Ken Griffin, is located at 220 Central Park South. He finalized his purchase of a four-floor "mega condo" for $238 million in January 2019. Griffin's unit was valued at $9.4 million for tax purposes. Besides Griffin's purchase, 220 Central Park South has had some of the most expensive residential real estate transactions in New York City's history. An anonymous individual's $100 million purchase of a duplex atop the building became the third costliest residential purchase in New York City; the deal was finalized in July 2020. In June 2021, two full-floor units at floors 60 and 61 were sold for a combined $157.5 million to Joe Tsai; both units had traded for a combined $100 million just the previous year. In January 2022, Tsai bought Daniel Och's penthouse at floor 73 for $188 million, the second-most-expensive residential unit in the United States. Another unit sold in August 2023 for $80 million, making it the city's highest-priced sale of the year. In addition, two apartments sold for a combined $82 million in June 2024, and Byron Allen sold his condo in 2025 for $82.5 million. ==References==