Why can’t the listing sell? One broker who has worked in the building suggested the price was not just aspirational but had been plucked out of thin air all those years ago — untethered to anything as prosaic as, say, comps. “Look at the StreetEasy history. That will tell you everything you need to know,” she says.
“It’s overpriced,” says one broker with a laugh. “There are a lot of newer, high-end buildings in the neighborhood — 641 Fifth is just a dated building. It’s well-run, but it’s dated. It’s not an amenity-rich building. They have a high number of staff, so it’s high-touch, but for that price, people want something newer. It was built in the ’70s. It’s old. And, at least on the lower floors, the Mandarin cuts the view of the park a little.
Carlos wouldn’t disclose the owner or say why they won’t budge from the asking price, but he did say he thought that the price, while too high in the past, was achievable now. “When it was first on the market, what was in that price range? 432 Park, 15 CPW. It was off. It was aspirational. But now, when we talk about $35 million, $45 million, $75 million — it’s not unusual anymore. The buyers are there. And this apartment is huge, it’s sprawling, it’s over 9,000 square feet.
“People shoot for high numbers there, but they don’t get them,” says a broker. They may have owned for a long time and don’t fully understand where Olympic Tower falls in the pecking order. Many sellers are also international and not so in touch with the nuances of the local market. “They think,