Harry Macklowe Wants to List His $75 Million N.Y.C. Home, But He Doesn’t Own It Anymore

In recent weeks, legendary real estate developer Harry Macklowe worked with real-estate brokerage Douglas Elliman to prepare his own home at 432 Park Avenue, the embattled skyscraper on Billionaires’ Row he helped build, for sale. He told the firm he wanted to list it for $75 million.

There was just one problem: he doesn’t actually own the property.

Bankruptcy records show Macklowe was forced to surrender his equity in the LLCs he used to buy his apartments at 432 Park to a secured lender tied to the building’s sponsor, Los Angeles-based CIM Group, in June. The CIM-linked entity loaned Macklowe the money to buy three apartments at the building, two on the 78th floor and a smaller unit on the 28th floor that could be used for staff. He closed on the three units for a combined roughly $47 million in 2022, records show.

CIM initiated a foreclosure on the units in 2023, alleging that Macklowe was living lavishly while defaulting on $46 million in loans it provided for the purchases. A spokesperson for CIM declined to comment on the situation.

A real-estate agent for Macklowe approached The Wall Street Journal on July 10 offering the exclusive news that Macklowe was planning to list the units for sale.

Real-estate developer Harry Macklowe in 2018

Macklowe is perhaps best known for his role in developing the Apple cube on Fifth Avenue,  or for having lost two real estate empires, one during the commercial real-estate crash of the early 1990s and the other during the 2008 financial crisis. Both times he rebounded strongly.

Macklowe initially shared a statement on the listing via the agent, Shari Scharfer Rollins of Douglas Elliman. “Happy to share what I created knowing it will continue to be enjoyed by another in the best and most beautiful building in New York City and the world,” he wrote. His office didn’t respond to requests for comment once the change in the ownership of the units became clear.

When Elliman initially approached The Wall Street Journal about the listing, Rollins said Macklowe, who is in his late 80s, was selling the 78th floor spaces because “it was just time.” He is a frequent traveler and splits his time between places like New York, Paris and the Hamptons.

Spanning about 8,300 square feet, the 78th floor is divided into two apartments, a fully-finished roughly 7,000-square-foot, four bedroom unit and a raw, roughly 1,200 square-foot space, according to information provided by Elliman. The smaller of the two units was originally intended for Macklowe’s ex-wife, Linda Macklowe, but she ultimately did not close on the space amid their contentious divorce in the 2010s. Macklowe remarried in 2019, to Patricia Landeau. A notorious showman, Macklowe famously put a 24-foot by 42-foot portrait of himself and Patricia on the facade of 432 Park to mark their engagement.

The second unit could  be “seamlessly combined or maintained as a separate guest apartment,” according to materials provided by Elliman.

Listing images, provided by Elliman but later withdrawn, show the apartment decked out in Macklowe’s signature style: minimal furnishings and heaps of contemporary art.

Macklowe once put a 42-foot-high photo of himself and his wife, Patricia Landeau, on the side of the Park Avenue building.

The apartment has all the design hallmarks of units at 432 Park—such as a series of 10-foot by 10-foot windows with recessed seating nooks built in—but with a few Macklowe flourishes. Most of the units have a sculptural egg-shaped bathtub; Macklowe had his custom made out of blue glass. In the living room, he replaced wood floors with Rosa marble ones, giving it the look of an art gallery.

Rollins said she believes the apartment is at the perfect height in the 96-floor building. On the upper floors, you are so high up that residents have to stand to admire the city views. When seated, they can only actually see the sky, she said.

Macklowe helped develop the glass cube atop the Apple store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

While Macklowe has historically been the face of 432 Park and worked for years on the design and development of the building, CIM was always the controlling sponsor of the project. Macklowe’s battle with CIM for control of the units is one element on the cloud of litigation that has surrounded the building in recent years.

In a 2021 lawsuit, the condominium board alleged that the 125-unit building represented one of the worst examples of developer malfeasance in the history of New York City, with noise issues, leaks and malfunctioning elevators. The developers have denied most of the allegations and in legal filings called the suit “an effort to wrest unwarranted payments.” The case, which is still ongoing, has cast a shadow on the building, hampering sales and dragging down values.

The most recent major sale in the building was a $65.6 million transaction for hedge funder Mitch Julis’s apartment in 2023. He originally listed the property for $135 million in 2021. StreetEasy shows there are currently nine units on the market at the tower. A listing for the $90 million penthouse was recently taken down.

Macklowe has also been trying to sell his home in East Hampton, N.Y., which is currently listed for $32.5 million. The only problem with that one: As a result of unresolved permitting issues, the property doesn’t have a certificate of occupancy, meaning it can’t be legally lived in. Macklowe didn’t respond to a request for comment on the Hamptons house.