Billionaire Vladislav Doronin Bought His Own $135 Million Aman Penthouse

Time：2024-08-01 Click：

The developer, who converted the Crown Building, initially said an Asian buyer was paying $180 million for the roughly 13,236-square-foot apartment
BY KATHERINE CLARKE AND
BY E.B. SOLOMONT
 | ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON JULY 15, 2024 | THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Vladislav Doronin’s company converted the top floors of the Crown building to condos.
PHOTO: AMAN NEW YORK (RENDERING)
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In 2019, Russian-born billionaire Vladislav Doronin told The Wall Street Journal he had made a deal to sell the penthouse at Aman New York in the newly-converted Crown Building for $180 million to an Asian buyer. 
Five years later, the sale of the penthouse has closed for the significantly lower sum of $135 million. And the buyer isn’t an Asian investor, but rather Doronin himself, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Neither Doronin nor a spokesperson for Aman immediately responded to a request for comment.
Doronin, pictured in 2019, purchased the penthouse for himself.
Dorothy Hong for WSJ
The penthouse—which comprises the top five floors inside the historic building’s glittering apex—spans about 13,236 square feet with another 4,462-square-feet of outdoor space and seven bedrooms, according to the offering plan. It was delivered in unfinished condition.
The condominium has 22 units on the top floors of the Crown Building, a 1920s building known for its copper pinnacle. The hotel and condominiums were developed by OKO Group, the U.S. development firm founded by Doronin.
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Sales at the project launched in 2018, and closings began in 2022, when the conversion was completed. In February, a residence on the 24th floor closed for $61.58 million. A 20th-floor residence sold for $75.8 million in 2022. The building is now sold out. 
The condo project includes 22 units and a string of luxury amenities.
Aman New York (Rendering)
Doronin, 61, also has a residence at the complex formerly known as Time Warner Center, in Manhattan, and owns homes in Miami Beach, Fla., London, Ibiza and outside Moscow, where he owns one of the few private homes the architect Zaha Hadid ever designed.  
He admitted in 2019 that he was eyeing a unit at the Crown Building himself, though he pointed to an $83.5 million spread instead, saying it would have better amenities than his apartment at Time Warner. 
“I have an apartment, but I am missing a fireplace and I’m missing a terrace,” he said. 
MORE: Japanese-Inspired Home on Kauai Pairs Heritage-Style Architecture With Tesla Power 
It isn’t uncommon for developers to buy units at their own projects, though Doronin’s buy is a particularly ostentatious example. He did have an earlier deal to sell the penthouse to an Asian buyer, but that fell through. The earlier reported offer for the apartment was for a fully built-out unit. However, this sale represents an unfinished ‘raw’ unit, which accounts for the difference in price, according to a person familiar with the situation.
The project is now sold out, according to a spokesperson for the developer.
Aman New York (Rendering)
In 2019, Doronin conceded that he was delivering ultraluxury condos into a market that was arguably oversaturated with similarly expensive product, especially along the Billionaires’ Row corridor where the building is located.
At the time, Doronin said he hoped the project was unusual enough that it would “fly above the clouds” in the New York market.
“We say ‘If you don’t take a risk, you don’t drink champagne,’” he quipped.
Write to Katherine Clarke at Katherine.Clarke@wsj.com and E.B. Solomont at