Dividing to Conquer

Money manager Martin Zweig has decided to split up the Manhattan triplex apartment that he's had on the market for a year at $70 million -- into two apartments he plans to sell for $11 million and $59 million.

The move represents a retreat from Mr. Zweig's attempt to test the extreme upper end of New York's real-estate market with a listing carrying the highest price tag ever put on a New York home. Mr. Zweig bought the penthouse apartment in 1999 for $21.5 million from Australian publishing heiress Lady Mary Fairfax.

The split means that five rooms of the first floor of the triplex, which sits atop the Pierre Hotel on Fifth Avenue, will be priced at $11 million. The remaining rooms on the apartment's first, second and third floors -- 13 in all -- carry a $59 million price tag. The penthouse had been one of the most expensive single-family listings in the country. Other residents of the building include Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Michael Eisner. The 75-year-old building includes 224 hotel rooms and 74 owned apartments.

The former chairman of Zweig Funds published the popular investing newsletter the Zweig Forecast during the 1980s and 1990s and the book "Winning on Wall Street" in 1999. The same year, Mr. Zweig sold his company; now he's president of mutual-fund investment manager Phoenix/Zweig Advisers LLC.

Mr. Zweig has done little to promote the listing, routinely declining requests to profile the apartment in national TV programs and magazines. Elizabeth Sample and Brenda Powers of Brown Harris Stevens have the exclusive listing. Mr. Zweig declined to comment.

After the split, the triplex portion of the penthouse will have three master bedrooms and three full bathrooms. It has 360-degree views, four fireplaces and a living room -- formerly the hotel's ballroom -- with 23-foot ceilings and 20-foot French doors. The other parcel, the five-room suite, will have a master bedroom, kitchen, wet bar, home theater and wood-burning fireplace. Both apartments come with room service, housekeeping and other amenities.

Though Manhattan prices are still setting records, brokers say the Zweig penthouse was simply priced too high. They also point to the $40,000-plus monthly maintenance and the fact that the Pierre is a cooperative, meaning that prospective owners must go before the building's board for approval. That usually requires disclosing complete financial details -- something foreign buyers are sometimes reluctant to do. (The median price for all sales in Manhattan reached a record of $750,000 in May, a rise of 23% from a year ago, according to New York real estate brokerage firm Halstead Property.)

Go Your Own Way

Former Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham and his wife, Kristen, sold their Bel Air, Calif., home for close to its $21.5 million asking price.

Mr. Buckingham purchased the property in 1980, when a 1940s Contemporary home stood on it. In 1999 the couple tore down the existing house and spent the next three years building a new home with Los Angeles-area architect Kevin Clark. The 10,000-square-foot house, with wrought-iron balconies and terra-cotta floors, has five bedrooms and eight bathrooms on 1.25 acres.

The property also has a swimming pool and a recording studio used by the 55-year-old Mr. Buckingham. A buyer was not named. Jeff Hyland and Mark Wollman, of Hilton & Hyland in Beverly Hills, had the listing. Mr. Wollman says the couple recently purchased another home in the area. The Buckinghams declined to comment.

Home View / Condos in the Lead

The median price of condominums and co-ops hit a record in May, rising about 15% to $221,000, the National Association of Realtors said. That's $21,000 above the price of a single-family home. Meanwhile, sales of existing co-ops and condos surged 2.2% in May, to a record seasonally adjusted annual rate of 922,000 units, from April's level; in contrast, overall existing-home sales fell 0.7%, the Washington-based Realtors group said.

May's condo and co-op sales activity increased 10.6% from May 2004. New condo construction in "vastly appreciating" markets such as Miami, New York and Las Vegas is helping to spur sales, says Lawrence Yun, an economist for the Realtors group.

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