PLAZA SWEET !
Macklowe pad breathtaking at $55M or $107M
They’re squabbling over the price tag, but one thing’s for certain — jilted billionaire wife Linda Macklowe will get one of the city’s grandest apartments from her soon-tobe-ex-hubby, Harry.
The couple duked it out in court on Thursday as they offered wildly different appraisals of their palatial, 14,000-square-foot Plaza Hotel condo, which has its own art gallery, panoramic views from 54 windows and one of the largest master bedrooms in the metro area.
Linda, 79, claimed the luxury digs are worth a relatively measly $55 million — about half the $107 million Harry says it’s worth.
The real-estate developer’s lawyers say his wife is low-balling the pad so she can take more cash from her husband’s estimated $2 billion fortune when the split is finalized.
Whatever its exact worth, the home’s beauty seemed to have blown away even a veteran appraiser who took the stand Thursday to testify on Linda’s behalf.
“It’s a wide open, almost loft-like space that looks to me like an art gallery,” testified Jonathan Miller, who’s been appraising property in the city since 1986.
“It’s extremely large,” he said of the master bedroom. “It’s probably the largest master bedroom I’ve ever been in in my career.”
The home occupies unit No. 710, and was gut renovated a decade ago after the 1907 landmark hotel’s partial condo conversion.
“The master suite and part of the living area faces north, and then the art gallery, which is about twothirds or three-quarters of the space, faces generally east over the Plaza fountain and then past that is Fifth Avenue,” he said.
“It all fronts on the park and there’s a bathroom and there’s dressing rooms and an office,” Miller continued. There’s also a conference room, maid’s room, guest bedroom, and library filled with art books.
Miller admitted that he didn’t even count the bathrooms — there are five — but said he had a hard time appraising the property because “there aren’t apartments like this configuration in the market.”
Harry Macklowe’s lawyer, Dan Rottenstreich, pressed Miller on why he left out The Plaza’s luxe building amenities, like a spa, room service and valet parking.
“There are amenities. Every building has amenities,” Miller said.
Harry Macklowe, 80, has said he’s giving up this dream home for an apartment a few blocks away. He’s already secured Department of Buildings plans to turn the 78th floor of his 432 Park Avenue skyscraper into a love nest for him and his French mistress, Patricia Landeau, 62.