[NYguy]

https://www.curbed.com/article/520-p...l-lawsuit.html

A Park Avenue Scuffle Over an $80 Million View


By Matthew Sedacca
September 9, 2025

When sales at 520 Park opened in 2015, the pitch was clear: The Robert A.M. Stern–designed tower, 54 stories of limestone lording over Central Park, was for Masters of the Universe. William and Arthur Zeckendorf had paid a pretty penny for the address itself because, as they wrote at the time to then–Manhattan borough president Scott Stringer, its prominence in the skyline called for something grander than 45 East 60th — a mere “midblock building.” A listing asking $100 million for the top-floor penthouse duplex (carved out of a triplex that had previously asked $130 million) boasted of an “unprecedented” solarium, a custom staircase, and five bedrooms. And because it was at the tippy-top of a supertall, “panoramic views from all four exposures.” A-Rod (and then-girlfriend Jennifer Lopez) were reportedly intrigued. The vacuum billionaire James Dyson bought a sponsor unit for just under $74 million. Sale records were set as the building’s “mansions in the sky” filled up.

Enter: 655 Madison Avenue, the incoming supertall being developed by Gary Barnett’s Extell — purveyor of all things tall, skinny, and expensive. Barnett was initially tight-lipped about his plans for the lot, which Extell purchased this past October for nearly $160 million, but its scope came into focus after his firm acquired the adjacent properties. In July, Extell revealed a pair of renderings for the supertall, one of which appears to put a new 84-story tower close enough to 520 Park that each building’s residents could reasonably look in on the other. (Extell’s second rendering, at 74 stories, includes setbacks that would give some space between the two high-rises.) But perhaps worst of all, the new tower meant 520 Park could lose its west-facing views. No more panorama!

Whether the 520 buyers are victims of a nasty little trick or just foolish for thinking they could control the skyline, shifting views are not an uncommon problem. New buildings go up all the time in the city, so it’s nearly impossible to know what you might be looking at from your kitchen window ten years from now. “I cannot tell you the amount of buildings where I have drawn lot-line windows, and they have beautiful views, and they just … disappear,” says Alex Loyer Hughes, co-founder of Kurv Architecture. “It’s frustrating, but if you’re going to drop that many millions on a condo, you need to be looking at the fine print.” Asher Alcobi, who recently sold the building’s 31st-story unit, believes the views at 520 Park ultimately are “not going to be blocked” by 655 — though perhaps “compromised.” (Another real-estate type, however, was less generous — the view of the park wasn’t the problem; it was looking at the neighboring tower itself that would hurt: “Extell buildings are historically ugly.”)