NEW YORK, November 3 (RIA Novosti) - The owners of Brooklyn's priciest penthouses are hoping Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov will snap up at least one of them, The New York Post reported on Tuesday.
The 2.06-meter-tall Prokhorov is set to buy the New Jersey Nets basketball team. As a major shareholder in Norilsk Nickel, he funded the Euroleague champions CSKA Moscow, before selling his stake in the metals giant last year.
"Banking on the Moscow mogul wanting a Brooklyn bachelor pad so he can be close to the Nets' planned new arena, the landlords contacted Prokhorov's representatives last week about their triplexes," the paper said.
One penthouse sits atop an 18-story clock tower and costs $25 million, or more than double the biggest residential sale in borough history, the paper said.
"The second I heard Prokhorov was buying the Nets, I knew this space was made for him because he's known for throwing some incredible parties," the paper quoted developer David Walentas, who lives in the penthouse a floor below and is "more than willing" to embrace the billionaire as a neighbor.
The other is a slightly smaller residence in a new 14-story development within an 85-acre waterfront park now under construction in an isolated area of nearby Brooklyn. The penthouse's price tag is more modest at $7.5 million, the paper said.
Ian Levine, chief operating officer of RAL Companies, was quoted by the paper as saying that the second 4,638-square-foot, four-bedroom penthouse was a "great investment" that should pay dividends once the park was built and also satisfy the party-loving Prokhorov.
"You don't get any better than a 1,000-square-foot roof deck with sweeping views [of the Manhattan and Brooklyn skylines] to hold parties," he said.
According to the paper, both Walentas and Levine said they've yet to hear back from Prokhorov, while a Prokhorov spokesman said he "won't speculate on whether [the billionaire] would be interested."
The highest sale price on record for a Brooklyn home is $11 million for a mansion sold in 2006 in Gravesend, and the highest price shelled out on a condo is $7 million for a 14th-floor loft at the Clock Tower last year, the paper said.
