By Al Barbarino
A partnership comprised of Astoria Realty Partners LLC and Mornos Realty LLC has won a bidding war for a nine-story apartment building at 35 West 64th Street, paying $26 million, sources said.
The investment group, which owns several multifamily apartment buildings in Manhattan and Queen, was among upto eight parties bidding on the property over the course of the past three weeks, said Eric C. Roth, managing partner at Friedman-Roth Realty Services, the firm that represented the buyer.
The seller brought the property to market expecting $22 million, but “it just kept going up and up and up,” said Roth, who declined to name the other bidders. The deal closed within 30 days of an executed Contract of Sale, he added. There are 68 residential units in the building which houses Michelin-rated restaurant Picholine on the ground floor. The highly-regarded eatery is equipped with a 2,500 bottle wine room and a “cheese cave.”
The building, situated between Central Park West and Broadway, is the former Hotel Monticello, where in 1930 elusive Irish-American gangster Jack “Legs” Diamond, who spent his life running from cops and rival goons, was shot five times by a rival mob but survived. It was one of four attempts on his life he survived before his ultimate murder the following year.
Joseph A. Smith and Nadeem Haque, both of Friedman-Roth, represented the purchaser. Jude Dayani, of Orsid Realty, represented the seller.
