Cityfile: New York's Most Notable and Influential

• More than a year after listing it for $27.9 million, Tommy Hilfiger has finally found a buyer for his 20,000-square-foot manse in Greenwich. The estate, which is known as Stone Hill, was purchased by the fashion mogul for $18 million in 2005. Now an unidentified buyer is taking it off his hands for $20 million. [WSJ]
• Former Ariba CEO Lawrence Mueller and his wife Mary Kay have gone into contract to sell their condo at 15 Central Park West. The three-bedroom spread, which the couple first listed for $16.5 million in May and reduced to $15.5 million in October, went into contract earlier this week. [Cityfile, PDE]
• Alex Acquavella, the son of top NYC art dealer Bill Acquavella and his heir apparent at the tony UES gallery, has paid $3.9 million for an apartment at 50 Gramercy Park North. The two-bedroom spread features a wood burning fireplace and private terrace, along with views of Gramercy Park. [Cityfile]
• Melvyn Blum, a retired EVP at Vornado Realty Trust, has sold his 28th-floor apartment at the Trump International for $6.4375 million. The buyer is technology executive Sanjiv Ahuja and his wife Anju. [Cityfile]

• Actress Dana Delany has picked herself up an apartment in the Village. The California-based Desperate Housewives star has paid $1.8 million for a penthouse at 30 Fifth Avenue. The two-bedroom apartment, which went on the market for $2.35 million back in April, features two terraces and a separate solarium that serves as a home office or studio. You can check out the listing here. [Cityfile]
• Seven months after he put his 44th-floor apartment at the Trump International on the market for $18.45 million, pharmaceutical exec Richard Ullman has finally found a buyer. He's reportedly selling the four-bedroom condo for "around $17 million" to an undisclosed buyer. [NYP]
• Starwood Hotels founder Barry Sternlicht has raised the price of his Greenwich mansion. The 5.8-acre estate, which Sternlicht listed for $8.25 million in June 2008, is now priced at $5.95 million. [Bloomberg via Real Deal]
• A secretive Asian hedge fund exec is reportedly the mystery buyer who has gone into contract to buy investor Ephraim Gildor's 7,758-square-foot apartment at the Park Laurel on West 63rd Street. [NYP, previously]

• Software titan Peter Norton has gone into contract to sell his 45th-floor apartment at Trump International for the second time. Norton originally found a buyer for the 4,415-square-foot apartment back in February when it was listed for $17.9 million. The deal fell through, however, and Norton later tried listing it together with pharma mogul Richard Ullman's spread for a combined $34.7 million. But the apartment was also available on its own—for the reduced price of $16.25 million—and now Norton has managed to find a second buyer to step up. Ullman's apartment, for the record, still hasn't been spoken for. It's currently listed at $18.45 million. [Cityfile, Corcoran]
• Warren Spector, the former co-president at Bear Stearns who was dismissed by ex-CEO Jimmy Cayne back in 2007, has sold his penthouse at 40 Fifth Avenue. The buyer, retired Goldman Sachs executive Scott Pinkus, paid $8 million for the two-bedroom apartment. [Cityfile]
• Famed architect Philip Johnson's oceanfront estate in Sagaponack, known as Farney House, has gone on the market. The 5,000-square-foot home is listed for $35 million. [Curbed Hamptons, BHS]

• The buyer who paid $37 million for Gerhard Andlinger's penthouse at the Time Warner Center—setting the record as the biggest real estate deal in 2009 thus far—has been revealed. It's Andrei Vavilov, the Russian financier who agreed to buy two penthouses at the Plaza last year for $53.5 million, but ended up suing the developer after his wife  wasn't pleased with the "attic-like" ceilings. (As part of a settlement, Valvilov agreed to purchase just one of the two apartments, and he's since gone into contract to sell it.) Hopefully, Vavilov's wife is happier with her husband's latest acquisition. The full-floor, five-bedroom penthouse on the 78th floor encompasses 8,300 square feet and comes with 14-foot ceilings. [NYT]More

• Publishing heir Robert Ziff has dropped the price of his three-bedroom condo at the Trump International. The 41st-floor pad, which Ziff picked up for $5 million back in 2001 before moving to 720 Park a couple of years later, first went on the market for $13 million in July 2008. It's now listed for $11.5 million. [Cityfile, Sotheby's]
• Selling the triplex penthouse at 895 Park that once belonged to the late producer Charles Evans hasn't been easy. The co-op's board, led by real estate developer Dan Brodsky, has turned down an offer for the third time. Now that the unidentified financier's $14 million bid has been rejected, the apartment is now back on the market for $15.5 million. [NYO, Stribling, previously]
• KKR partner Alexander Navab has put his four-bedroom apartment at the River House on the market for $24.5 million. The 4,806-square-foot co-op comes with terrace, private elevator, and river views. [Real Deal, Sotheby's]
• Real estate developer Andrew Heiberger has sliced 12 percent off the asking price of his townhouse at 161 East 63rd Street, which he bought for $8.15 million in 2004 and put on the market for $16.85 million in February. The six-story mansion is now listed for $14.85 million. [Real Deal, Sotheby's]

• Software entrepreneur Peter Norton and pharma mogul Richard Ullman have teamed up to list their condos at Trump International as a package deal for $34.7 million. Once combined, the two units—which had been listed separately for $16.25 million and $18.45 million, respectively—will feature 8,830 square feet of living space and 12 marble baths, along with $277,068 in annual maintenance fees. [NYO, Corcoran]
• Kay LeRoy—the second wife of late restaurateur Warner LeRoy and mother of Jennifer LeRoy, who oversees Tavern on the Green—paid $2.2 million for an 8th-floor condo at 65 West 13th Street, which is just next door to an apartment she already owns in the building. [Cityfile]
• Hedge fund manager Gad Grieve, who was accused of fraud by the SEC in February, has put his 5,700-square-foot limestone townhouse at 113 East 61st Street on the market for $12.885 million. [NYO, PDE]

• Jane Beasley, the ex-wife of former GE chief Jack Welch, has put her 3,663-square-foot condo at the Trump International up for sale. Beasley acquired the apartment in 2003 as part of her divorce settlement with Welch. It now can be yours for $28.8 million. [Cityfile, Trump Realty]
• Dr. Gary Roubin, an interventional cardiologist at Lenox Hill Hospital, and his wife Peta have gone into contract to sell their 6,800-square-foot carriage house at 168 East 73rd Street. The six-bedroom home, which includes penthouse terrace, garden, and outdoor basketball court, was most recently listed for $22 million. [Cityfile, SSNYC]
• Ernst & Young executive Deborah Whitmore and her husband Kenneth paid $4 million for a penthouse condo at 140 West 22nd Street. [Cityfile]

• It looks like Karen and David Fleiss are willing to try anything to unload their duplex at 1030 Fifth. The couple originally listed the apartment for $47.5 million last June. They then lowered their price twice and tried selling off just the bottom floor for $15 million. When that didn't work, they took the listing down and lowered the price of the entire eight-bedroom unit to $25 million. But that didn't work out either, so now they've re-listed the bottom floor once again, albeit for a more modest $12 million. [Cityfile, PDE]
• Frederick Hill, director of Berry-Hill Galleries, has sold his two-bedroom penthouse at 43 West 64th Street for $2.55 million. [Cityfile]
• The 24th-floor Trump International apartment once occupied by Rand Skolnick, the former CEO of Solgar Vitamins who died last year, has been discounted by $1 million after just a month on the market. It's now $7.75 million. [Cityfile, Trump Realty]

• Pharmaceutical exec Richard Ullman's $75 million duplex at 15 CPW isn't the only major listing he has on the market at the moment. He's also put his 44th-floor condo at the Trump International—which he picked up for $8 million five years ago—up for sale for $18.45 million. [NYO, Trump Realty]
• One Life to Live star Catherine Hickland and her estranged husband, fellow soap opera actor Michael Knight of All My Children, have sold their 12th-floor co-op at 255 West 84th Street for $2.3 million. [Cityfile]
• Broadway producer Marty Richards has paid $4.375 million for a three-bedroom apartment at 21 East 96th Street. [NYO]
• Glenview Capital partner Jeffrey Patterson and his wife Patricia have listed their four-bedroom triplex at 15 East 82nd Street for $12 million, less than a year after buying it for $9.9 million. [NYO, BHS]

• David Krell, who founded the International Securities Exchange and retired as the company's CEO in 2008, has paid $7.6 million for a 34th-floor apartment the Trump International on Central Park West. [Cityfile]
• I Trulli owners Astrid and Nicola Marzovilla have sold their six-story townhouse at 129 East 36th Street for $7.28 million. The buyer: The Republic of Chad on behalf of the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Chad to the United Nations. [Cityfile]
• Artist Robert Wilson has put his one-bedroom duplex at 3 Great Jones Street, where painter Mark Rothko once lived, on the market for $2.75 million. [WSJ]

• Software entrepreneur Peter Norton has gone into contract to sell his 45th-floor, 4,415-square-foot apartment at the Trump International, which had been listed most recently for $17.9 million. Norton probably won't have to worry about moving: He paid $6.8 million for a smaller condo on West 13th Street back in August. [Cityfile, Corcoran]
• Todd Waterbury, creative director of Wieden + Kennedy's New York office, paid $1.375 million for a ninth-floor, one-bedroom apartment at 180 West 58th Street. [Cityfile]
• The government of Iceland has put the four-bedroom home of its UN ambassador at 417 Park Avenue on the market for $5.6 million. [WSJ, SC]
• Gaetano Sallorenzo, the former CEO of Calvin Klein Jeans in Europe and Asia (and who now runs Italy's Fashion Box Group) has paid $1.645 million for a pied-à-terre at 133 West 22nd Street. [Cityfile]
• Retired Japanese soccer star Hidetoshi Nakata has cut the price of the apartment building he owns at 43 Crosby Street for the seventh time since first listing it for $22 million in January 2008. It's now on the market for $15 million. [WSJ, PDE]

The mob gathered outside the Trump International Hotel is not comprised of outraged Trump Entertainment shareholders who watched the company file for bankruptcy protection for the third time today. Apparently they're crazy tweens hoping to catch a glimpse of the Jonas Brothers. But at least if Donald Trump is feeling particularly down in the dumps about today's news, he can always walk in and out of his hotel and guarantee himself a few rounds of applause.

Something tells us we'll be seeing lots of lawsuits like this over the next few months. One Central Park West Property Limited, which controls the condo portion of the Trump International Hotel & Tower, has filed suit against a would-be buyer who agreed to buy a 29th-floor unit for $7.8 million, but backed out of the deal in December. A tanking real estate market isn't a justifiable reason for pulling out of a deal, of course, which may explain why the buyer, listed in court papers as Franpearl LLC, justified its decision by citing a sculpture, bar table, and coffee table that were mistakenly included on the condo's initial inventory list. The buyer initially requested, and was eventually granted, a $25,000 price cut because of the mix-up, but Franpearl later opted to abandon the purchase altogether. But because it's probably easier to just sue the buyer you thought you had rather than find a new prospect, 1CPW is now suing FranPearl and asking to not only keep its $780,000 deposit, but is asking a court to award damages, too. The full lawsuit after the jump. More

♦ The Georgian mansion at 21 Beekman Place, which was owned by the the late William Rupp and has been at the center of an legal battle for years now, underwent its second price cut last week. Originally listed by Sharon Baum for $25 million in March, it's now down to $15 million. [Cityfile, Corcoran]
♦ Ron Tysoe, the former CFO and vice chairman of Federated Department Stores (now Macy's), has sold his 32nd-floor apartment at the Trump International for $6 million. [Cityfile]
♦ Opera singer Placido Domingo has paid $999,000 for a one-bedroom apartment at 425 East 58th Street. [Real Deal]
♦ Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony have put their Bel Air mansion on the market for $8.5 million. [LAT]

The stock market is down nearly 500 points this afternoon, we're in the middle of a deep recession, and tens of thousands of New Yorkers have lost their jobs. But if by some crazy chance you've managed to avoid the pain and suffering and you're looking for, say, a five-bedroom penthouse in Midtown, it's never been a better time to swoop down and make an offer. The prices of dozens of luxe apartments have been slashed in recent weeks. And while the rental market hasn't been crushed just yet, prices are very, very negotiable. That $60,000-a-month rental? You might just be able to offer up $30K a month and walk away with a deal. After the jump, the 20 most expensive apartment rentals in Manhattan, including Donald Trump's insanely overpriced $200,000-a-month penthouse at 502 Park, and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen's equally ridiculous $47,500-a-month West Village spread. More