Real Estate Titan Benjamin Winter’s Sizzling 765 Park Deal: $12 M. for 11 Rooms
By Chloe Malle February 24, 2010 9:58 pm
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The lion in Benjamin Winter has roared, to the tune of $12 million for a three-bedroom, four-bathroom apartment at tony co-op 765 Park Avenue with his wife, Susan. Mr. Winter is co-chairman of the Winter Organization, one of the city’s more prominent and successful family-owned real estate companies. Started in 1901 by his grandfather, the Winter Organization is currently run by Mr. Winter and his brother, James, and owns several buildings in and around New York City, such as the Crown Building at 730 Fifth Avenue, the original home of the Museum of Modern Art—a good icebreaker for Mr. Winter when riding the elevator with fellow 765 Park resident Agnes Gund (MoMA’s president emerita).
The Brown Harris Stevens listing crows of the Winters’ apartment, “this classic 11-room residence commands 80 feet of Park Avenue frontage and is a vision of elegance and Old World grandeur.” The apartment in the landmark Italian Renaissance building, designed by Rosario Candela, master of the Upper East Side apartment house, offers “grand scale rooms with a graceful layout accentuated by magnificent original architectural details.”
A “sprawling” 33-foot corner living room with a woodburning fireplace has views of Park Avenue and 72nd Street, and welcomes “a veritable bouquet of sunshine” into the room, which is graced with high ceilings and “flawless” herringbone flooring. Every adjective in the listing description—sweeping, soaring, sprawling—harkens back to the vast and boundless parameters of the pre-war apartment, including the “sumptuous oversized master suite,” “abundance of closet space,” and the “vast eat-in kitchen” with “ample room for dining.”
Brown Harris Stevens broker John Burger had the listing but robotically told The Observer over email, “Thank you for your message. There is a signed confidentiality agreement surrounding this sale.”
