Cityfile: New York's Most Notable and Influential

• Andrei Vavilov has officially exited the Plaza. The Russian financier, who sued the Plaza last year to get out of buying a $53.5 million penthouse spread—and ended up paying $11 million for a smaller apartment as part of a legal settlement—has taken a loss on the sale. Vavilov sold the apartment to an heir to the Goya Foods fortune for $8.4 million. [NYO]
• Investor Paul Cejas has dropped the price of his apartment at 834 Fifth Avenue, five months after he listed it for $18.5 million. The fifth-floor co-op is now on the market for $16.5 million. [Cityfile, BHS]
• Leona Helmsley's former Greenwich mansion has gotten another price chop. The 40-acre estate known as Dunnellen Hall is now $60 million, which is a whole lot less than its original listing price of $125 million. [Luxist, DO&A]
• Brandon Fradd, founder of the hedge fund Apollo Medical Partners, has sold his apartment at 68 Jane Street. The three-bedroom that Fradd listed for $4.45 million back in February sold for $3.7 million. [Cityfile]

• It seems another apartment at posh 834 Fifth Avenue is coming on the market. In addition to Broadway producer Hal Prince who listed his duplex last week, billionaire Charles Schwab is reportedly putting his 15th-floor apartment in the building up for sale. The "small" penthouse will be listed with Sotheby's Roger Erickson for $14 million. [NYO]
• Seymour Zises, founder of the investment advisory firm Family Management, and his wife Cathy, have closed on the sale of their five-bedroom apartment at 1016 Fifth Avenue. The second-floor spread, which was listed for $10.95 million when it went into contract back in May, was sold to investor Paul Orlin for $8.9 million. [Cityfile]
• Gail Elliott, the former British model and fashion designer, and her husband, Joe Coffey, have sold their condo at 40 Mercer. The buyers, club owner Bryant Yunker and his wife, paid $3.812 million for the fourth-floor pad. [Cityfile]

• Broadway producer Hal Prince and his wife Judy have put their 13th-floor apartment at 834 Fifth Avenue on the market. The 4,750-square-foot duplex, which is up for sale for $33 million, comes with two bedrooms, two terraces, and neighbors like Rupert Murdoch and John Gutfreund. [NYO, FRG]
• Richard Gere and Carey Lowell are expected to close on the sale of their Water Mill home this week. The 1.2-acre property, which they first put on the market in February, had been listed for $7.2 million when it went into contract last month. [Newsday, Stribling]More

• Leona Helmsley's former estate in Greenwich is now available at a discount. Priced at $125 million when it first went on the market last year, the 40-acre manor-style property known as Dunnellen Hall is now just $75 million. [GT, DO&A]
• Investor Paul Cejas has put his two-bedroom, fifth-floor apartment at 834 Fifth—the building that's home to Rupert Murdoch, Woody Johnson, and socialite Carroll Petrie—on the market for $18.5 million. [NYO, BHS]
• John Legend has cut the price of his apartment at 72 East 3rd Street, which he purchased in 2005 and originally listed for $1.245 million last December. The two-bedroom condo is now priced at $1.195 million. [NYM, PDE]

• Hedge funder Scott Bommer and his wife Donya have lowered the price of their 29th-floor apartment at the Ritz-Carlton, which they purchased for $28.5 million last July and put on the market for $35 million in November. It's now listed at $29.75 mil. [Cityfile, Corcoran]
• Jeff Koons has closed on the purchase of a six-story townhouse at 11 East 67th Street for $12 million, two years after he first went into contract. [NYP]
• Loews heiress Laurie Tisch—daughter Bob and Joan, sister of Jonathan and Steve—paid $29 million for a 13th-floor apartment at 834 Fifth Avenue. Her new upstairs neighbor? Rupert Murdoch. [NYO, previously]
• Former Lehman exec Jack Rivkin has put his 7,000-square-foot home off Further Lane in Amagansett on the market for $31 million. [Newsday, Sotheby's]More

• Society fixtures Dan and Cynthia Lufkin have sliced $3.5 million off the price of their apartment at 455 Central Park West, after first putting it on the market 10 months ago. The five-bedroom spread, which is located inside what was once a 19th-century chapel and features 28-foot-high vaulted ceilings and arched windows overlooking the park, is now listed at $14 million. [Cityfile, Sotheby's]
• The 13th floor apartment located directly below Rupert Murdoch's penthouse at 834 Fifth Avenue has reportedly found a buyer. The 13-room, two-bedroom, four-fireplace co-op, which belongs to the estate of Araxia Buckhantz, is expected to sell for $30 million. [NYO]
• Sandie Tillotson, the co-founder of Nu Skin Enterprises, has "quietly" listed her five-bedroom penthouse at the Time Warner Center for $80 million. Tillotson originally purchased the place for $29 million in 2005. [NYO]

• Want to share an elevator with Rupert Murdoch? Today is your lucky day. Les Wexner, the CEO of Limited Brands (and onetime mentor to Jeffrey Epstein), has "discreetly" listed his five-bedroom apartment at 834 Fifth Avenue for $60 million with brokers Serena Boardman and Larry Kaiser. Wexner and his wife Abigail originally purchased the co-op in "fixer-upper" condition for $9 million back in 1997. [NYO]
• Christopher Pesce, a managing director at Steve Schwarzman's Blackstone Group and the former global head of prime brokerage at Bank of America, has paid $6.3 million for a condo at 101 Warren Street in Tribeca. [Cityfile]
• Who says the Hamptons real estate market is dead? John Veronis, a co-founder of the boutique merchant bank Veronis Suhler Stevenson, has sold his six-bedroom, oceanfront home on Meadow Lane in Southampton for $27 million. [Newsday]More

• The 7,000-square-foot penthouse duplex at 1020 Fifth Avenue that's been on and off the market in recent years and was most recently priced at $46.5 million, has undergone a price cut. The five-bedroom spread, owned by heirs to the Kress retail fortune, is now listed at $39 million. [Cityfile, Corcoran]
• Wesley Vultaggio, who works at AriZona, the beverage company his father co-founded, has paid $6 million for a apartment at 47 Mercer Street. [Cityfile]
• Umberto Arpaia, the chef/owner of Cellini in Midtown and brother of fellow restaurateur Donatella Arpaia, paid $4.85 million for an 18-foot-wide townhouse at 242 East 68th Street. [Cityfile]More

• Rupert Murdoch may soon have a new neighbor: The 13th floor two-bedroom co-op located directly below his penthouse at 834 Fifth Avenue is expected to hit the market shortly with a price tag of around $30 million. [NYO]
• Diandra De Morrell Douglas, the ex-wife of Michael Douglas, has closed on the sale of her townhouse on East 71st Street for $9.38 million, two months after it was first reported that she'd gone into contract on the property. [Cityfile]
• William Taft V, the great-great-grandson of President Taft, and his wife Begum, have paid $2.6 million for a 14th-floor apartment at 255 East 74th Street. [Cityfile]More

Page Six Magazine published a handy little charticle on some of the most powerful co-op boards in town and the board members who stand between you and that $20 million co-op.

820 Fifth Avenue, Jayne Wrightsman
"Jayne has rejected fashion designer Valentino, as well as billionaires such as investor Ron Perelman and casino developer Steve Wynn."
740 Park Avenue, Charles Stevenson
"Barbra Streisand was rejected because the board thought 'she'd give too many parties.' Others denied include Joan Crawford, Elizabeth Taylor and Barbara Walters.
950 Fifth Avenue, Mort Zuckerman
"950 Fifth could be the city's most notorious bachelor pad. Robert Hurst and Mort Zuckerman are reportedly single, and ex-residents Loews Hotel CEO Jonathan Tisch and former Tyco head Dennis Kozlowski were bachelors when they resided here."