220 Central Park South
Midtown | built 2016
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Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1954
A 20-story apartment house is completed on the site
Before the current tower, this address held a 20-story apartment building finished in 1954. The J. H. Taylor Management Corporation developed it, with Albert Mayer and Julian Whittlesey as architects, and it had about 120 apartments. It had a concrete frame and white brick, and two slabs joined by a promenade and a garden. By the 2000s the building was rent-stabilized, and Robert A. M. Stern, who later designed its replacement, said few tears would be shed over its loss.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2005
Vornado and Clarett buy the rent-stabilized building to replace it with a glass tower
In 2005 the partnership of Vornado Realty Trust and the Clarett Group paid $131.5 million for the apartment building at 220 Central Park South. They planned to demolish it and put up a 41-story glass apartment tower. The building had rent-stabilized tenants, which set up a legal fight over clearing it.
Source: nypost.com
- 2009
An appeals court sides with developers in the battle over the building's tenants
The Madave Properties partnership of Vornado and Clarett had been held up by two lawsuits before the same Manhattan judge as it sought to empty the building for demolition. In 2009 the Appellate Division unanimously ruled that when the state housing agency approves a landlord's request not to renew leases, it may weigh only the points the rent-stabilization law lists. The tenants' lawyer, Jack Lester, said they would try to win permission to take the case to the Court of Appeals.
Source: nypost.com
- 2010
Vornado settles with the last rent-stabilized tenants of the old building
Vornado Realty Trust and the Clarett Group bought the old building in August 2005, planning to replace it with a glass tower. Elderly tenants refused to leave and sued, and a court ruled for them in 2008 before an appeals court reversed that decision. In December 2010 the developers settled. The 26 remaining residents agreed to leave by early 2011, with payments of up to $1.56 million each, and demolition began in 2012.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2013
Vornado pays Extell $194 million for a garage, and two towers shift to share the view
Extell held a lease on a garage beneath part of the site until 2018, and its chief, Gary Barnett, would not budge. The dispute likely arose because Vornado's tower would block views from Extell's planned Central Park Tower to the south. In October 2013 the companies settled: Vornado paid $194 million for the garage and some air rights, 220 shifted slightly west, and the neighbor's tower was cantilevered slightly east.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2014
Robert A. M. Stern's limestone design is approved for Billionaires' Row
Vornado's chief, Steven Roth, dropped the glass-tower idea and hired Robert A. M. Stern, whose 15 Central Park West had impressed him. The design, approved in March 2014, was built as a 70-story tower on 58th Street joined to an 18-story wing on Central Park South, both clad in Alabama limestone. Thierry Despont designed the interiors. Mechanical floors fill the base of the tower, which puts its lowest condominiums 190 feet above the ground.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2015
About a third of the apartments are in contract at $1.1 billion before sales open
By May 2015, construction had just risen above ground level, and the tower was reported to hold 118 apartments. Roughly a third of the units were already under contract, worth $1.1 billion together, although public sales had not yet begun. The apartments still unsold were priced from $12.25 million to $100 million.
“About a third of the units were already in contract, representing a combined $1.1 billion, even though public sales had not yet started.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2016
A teenage climber films himself hanging from scaffolding on the unfinished tower
In November 2016 Justin Casquejo, who had been arrested at age 16 for climbing One World Trade Center, posted a video of himself ascending the unfinished tower at night for the sunrise, hanging from high scaffolding. Signs at the site warned of surveillance cameras and a worker said security was always present. The NYPD's Midtown North Detective Squad investigated, and no arrests had been made when CBS reported the climb.
Source: cbsnews.com
- 2018
The first apartment sale closes in a tower sold through a secretive process
The first sales contract closed on October 24, 2018, for a unit priced at $16.4 million, and the first residents moved in that year. Roth gave the building no advertising and no public website. Buyers had to answer a questionnaire and, if they passed, meet him for an interview, and many bought through anonymous companies. Confirmed buyers include Sting and Trudie Styler, Byron Allen and Daniel Och.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2019
Sting and Trudie Styler buy a penthouse for $67.5 million
In July 2019 the singer Sting and his wife, Trudie Styler, bought a penthouse in the tower for $67.5 million, according to reports at the time. The reported price came six months after Ken Griffin spent $238 million in the same tower in January 2019.
Source: businessinsider.com
- 2019
Kenneth Griffin completes a $238 million purchase of four floors
The hedge fund manager Kenneth C. Griffin wanted space on the middle floors and agreed in 2015 to buy three floors for $200 million. In January 2019 he finalized a four-floor unit, assembled from a duplex and three units above it, for $238 million. It was then the priciest home ever sold in the country.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2020
An anonymous buyer closes on a 76th-floor penthouse for $99.9 million
An unidentified buyer closed on the 76th-floor penthouse on July 23, 2020, paying $99.9 million against an asking price of $108 million. The unit has four bedrooms and almost 850 square feet of outdoor space. Public records showed that the purchase, made through a limited partnership called 76CPS LP, had first gone into contract in May 2017.
Source: businessinsider.com
- 2020
Vornado books $1.52 billion from 46 condo sales during the pandemic year
Vornado took in $1.52 billion from 46 condominium sales at the tower in 2020, thirteen of them ($598 million) closing between January and July. In the third quarter the building made up almost a third of the $1.85 billion in condominium sales recorded across Manhattan. Vornado planned to use the sales income to pay for capital work at its other properties.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2021
Joe Tsai pays $157.5 million for two full floors
In June 2021 two full-floor units on the 60th and 61st floors were sold to Joe Tsai for a combined $157.5 million. The same two units had traded for about $100 million together just the year before.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2022
Joe Tsai buys Daniel Och's 73rd-floor penthouse for $188 million
In January 2022 Joe Tsai bought the penthouse on floor 73 from the hedge fund manager Daniel Och for $188 million. At the time it was the second-most-expensive residential unit sold in the United States.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2025
Residents of Gainsborough Studios sue Vornado over construction damage
In June 2025 residents of the neighboring Gainsborough Studios sued Vornado. They claimed the developer had agreed to pay for damage caused by the construction of 220 Central Park South but never did so.
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- 220 Central Park SouthWikipedia
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