The Baccarat Hotel and Residences, directly across from the Museum of Modern Art in Midtown Manhattan, pampers its guests and residents with unparalleled five-star services and a laundry list of creature comforts, including elegant bars and restaurants (plus in-unit dining service), a La Mer spa, a fitness facility with a heated indoor pool, 24-hour concierge services, and valet parking.
Beyond the so-discreet-you-just-might-miss-it entrance, the slender, 610-foot-tall glass tower’s passenger elevators are wrapped in smoked French oak paneling for a warm, clubby vibe. The double-height lobby showcases Baccarat crystal chandeliers, naturally, along with dark marble pilasters that, as CityRealty’s Carter Horsely marveled, “make the entrance columns at 740 Park Avenue look rather pale.”
Among the 60-ish residences atop the ritzy hotel, where the rack rate for a standard room runs more than $1,200 per night, is a two-unit combination duplex with a $28.9 million price tag that makes it the most expensive condo currently available in the building. Among the many bespoke features is one that few, if any other, Manhattan condos can claim: a suburban backyard-sized terrace with its own private pickleball court!
The two units were purchased in 2016 in a pair of contiguous, all-cash transactions that totaled nearly $15.3 million. The owner appears in tax records as a limited liability corporation controlled by Miami-based Leila and David Centner; she is the former CFO of Highway Toll Administration, and he is a serial entrepreneur with several tech startups under his belt.
A gut renovation of the condos, overseen by designer/builder (and Miami-area real estate agent) Andrea D’Alessio, combined the two units into a single 4,200-square-foot showpiece that was dubbed Gemstone Terrace. There are four en-suite bedrooms plus a den; seven marble bathrooms, each with a radiant heated floor; a vast L-shaped great room with a fireplace; and a top-of-the-line open-plan…