David Copperfield’s Illusion: The Magic Condo Disappearing Act

August 26, 2024
  • The Magician Moved Out Of His “Greenhouse On Stilts” In 2018
  • The Condo Association Is Suing Copperfield For Damage Originating From His Unit
  • The Penthouse Owner Likely Thought His Exit Would Eliminated Future Problems

Sometime in the early 1990s, our firm received a request to appraise a four-story Manhattan penthouse at the Galleria condominium on the 54th through 57th floors. I estimated the date because I remember thinking about the then-recent 1991 tragedy of Eric Clapton’s son on the 53rd floor. Clapton recorded “Tears in Heaven” soon after the tragedy, and I still get choked up whenever I hear the song on the radio. The penthouse was built for Stewart Mott, the eccentric General Motors heir, but reportedly he never moved in. The condo reminded me of a greenhouse on stilts full of dehumidifiers. In 1997, magician David Copperfield bought the unit for $7.4 million after it languished on the market for years at more than double the price. A significant flood occurred in 2015 in the penthouse and spilled down several floors below. Copperfield physically abandoned the condo in 2018 which left the door open for future problems to occur.

Source – Forbes via ScoutingNY.com

The Seller, Stewart Mott, Was Quite The Eccentric

Mr. Mott bought the Galleria condo from the developer in the 1970s after “Mr. Mott’s fellow shareholders in the 800 Park Avenue Association charged in State Supreme Court that he was creating “great hazard and endangerment” by overloading the roof with “vegetation, livestock, soil, mulch, feed, pots, plants, trellises, cages, boxes, machinery, furniture, fencing, lumber, bricks, stones, and construction equipment.” The Galleria penthouse was supposedly built with 10,000 square feet of room for gardening and strengthened for the two feet of soil they would hold.

The 57-story Galleria Condominium was built in 1975 and was the precursor to the Midtown supertalls that are nearly twice the height today. For the next 30 years, residential condos were generally maxed out in the 50-story range. An improvement in material technology and structural engineering over the past twenty years has pushed building heights significantly higher.

Source: Wikimapia

Galleria Condo Association Sues David Copperfield

The New York Times piece chronicled the lawsuit: David Copperfield Vanished. The Problem of His Penthouse Remains.

“A lawsuit filed earlier this month in New York accuses Mr. Copperfield of abandoning his penthouse apartment in a “trashed” state and allowing a valve to fail, flooding apartments and common areas below. And not for the first time.”

I’ve been in many penthouse units or units that sit under terraces during my career where there was severe water damage and opined on the damage to value. The impact on value is swayed by how significant the source of the damage is to repair. What’s interesting about this litigation, according to the NY Times article, is that Copperfield has literally moved out, abandoning the space, and the interior of the unit continues to deteriorate, elevating the potential to cause even more damage to other units in the building. It looks like Copperfield thought his exit from the penthouse would eliminate future problems created by the space. In reality, they continued and probably won’t go away until he deals with it more directly.

I assume that he continues to pay the monthly HOA charges since this wasn’t mentioned in the piece. I am wild guessing his monthly common charges and real estate taxes using recent sales, proportional to square footage, suggest the monthly costs are well above $30,000 or nearly $400,000 per year. However, the absentee owner still has responsibilities to the association, and it sounds like he has given up on fixing anything. In order for him to sell or pay someone to take the unit and remove the burden of ownership, I would imagine he’s got to invest more money into his unit. I would guess that this “greenhouse on stilts” would have to be gutted to the studs by a new owner to be habitable if the recent NY Times piece is accurate.

Oof. No magic tricks will work for this situation. He needs to make the unit saleable and move on. Just do the math.

Monday Mailboxes, Etc. – Sharing recent reader feedback on my housing notes.

August 23, 2024 What? Florida Buyers Purchased Largest Out-Of-State Share Of NYC Luxury Properties In 2024

  • “I have to wonder: Consider at least some of the folks who sold their homes in NY and moved to Florida )and established permanent residence in the Sunshine State) over the past four or five years because of lower taxes. Could they now be buying SECOND OR THIRD homes for vists to NY?  Could the world have turned upside down? Just a thought.”
  • “Regarding Floridians comprising the largest share of out of state purchases, most likely those people aren’t Floridians – they’re New Yorkers who have established residency in Florida for tax reasons.  They still need to be in NYC frequently for business, family, and friends, so they get themselves a place in the city.  And for those in investment banking and asset management $3 million is not a big check.  Blackstone and Goldman Sachs have significant operations in Miami, and I’m sure others do as well.  Meanwhile us regular folks toil away and pay the full NY tax rates.”
  • “I like this methodology too and that Property Shark went through the addresses on deeds and mortgages.”

Did you miss Friday’s Housing Notes?

August 23, 2024

What? Florida Buyers Purchased Largest Out-Of-State Share Of NYC Luxury Properties In 2024

Image: Chat & Ask AI

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