AndreiVavilov

From Berg Properties Big Time Listings:
--Singer Rachel Sweet has put her Los Feliz area on the market for $9,995,000. The home known as Los Pavoreales was designed in 1926 by architect Wallace Neff and has been owned by Madonna, Jenna Elfman and Katey Sagal. The listing is here.
--Celebrity artist Steve Kaufman who was once Andy Warhol's assistant, has placed his four-bedroom home in Los Feliz neighborhood on the market for $1.597 million. The listing is here.
--Retired basketball star Alonzo Mourning finally sold his Miami home for $6 million. It was once listed at $10 million and was at $9.5 million when it was our estate of the day in 2007.
--Alan Alda has sold a three-bedroom single-family house in Sag Harbor, N.Y. for $550,000.

From Cityfile's Buyers and Sellers:
--Marisa Noel Brown, the youngest daughter of disgraced hedge fund manager Walter Noel, and her husband Matt Brown, have found a buyer for their townhouse at 12 East 78th Street. The home, which was $12 million in May, went into contract late last week. The couple purchased the home for $13.5 million in January 2008.
--via the NY Times, the buyer who paid $37 million for Gerhard Andlinger's penthouse at the Time Warner Center was 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.
--via the NY Times, Italian movie mogul Vittorio Cecchi Gori has gone into contract to sell his penthouse at the Trump International for $18 million but the new buyer won't be able to move into the apartment-which Cecchi Gori bought from Donald Trump for $10.4 million in 1997, for a while. The foreclosed apartment has been gutted.
--via the NY Observer, My pick for New York City's most romantic apartment, the St. Urban penthouse owned by architect Lee Harris Pomeroy has had another price drop. It was listed at $16.5 million bit is now listed for $7.75 million. It was our estate of the day last year.
--via NY Mag, how low will the Harlem mansion built by Barnum & Bailey co-founder James Bailey go? It started at $10 million but is now listed for $3.5 million. We checked out this unique structure back in April.
--Software titan Peter Norton has gone into contract to sell his 45th-floor apartment at Trump International for the second time.
--Warren Spector, the former co-president at Bear Stearns has sold his penthouse at 40 Fifth Avenue. The buyer, retired Goldman Sachs executive Scott Pinkus, paid $8 million for the two-bedroom apartment.
--via the NY Observer, billionaire hedge funder Steve Cohen and his wife Alexandra paid $2.7 million for a loft at 99 Warren Street for Steve's 20-something stepson.
--via Christoper Fountain, John McCloy, a Connecticut banker has put his home in Greenwich on the market for $6.495 million. The listing for the three-acre estate is here.
--via the NY Post, An unidentified Texas banker is reportedly in contract to pay $15 million for a 19th-century townhouse at 34 West 10th Street. The 8,000-square-foot home had been listed for $17.9 million.
--Mortgage company founder Steven Schnall and his wife Sherri have dropped the price of their massive townhouse at 2 North Moore Street less than three months after putting it back on the market for $33 million. It is now listed at $29 million.
--Richard Bressler, a managing director at the private equity shop Thomas H. Lee Partners and the former CFO of Viacom, has gone into contract to sell his duplex at 850 Park. It was most recently listed at $13.5 million.
--Dorris Carr Bonfigli one of Bernie Madoff's victims, has dropped the price of her penthouse apartment at 930 Fifth for the second time since listing it for $11.3 million last December. It is now listed at $9.8 million.
-- Tommy Hilfiger is moving into the Plaza duplex he tried to sell for $50 million last fall.
--via the NY Observer, Maddona paid $32 million for her NYC townhouse.
--Michael Targoff, the Loral Space & Communications CEO who paid $10.25 million for a penthouse at 778 Park Avenue last year, has finally sold off his townhouse at 211 East 61st Street for $6 million
--Miami real estate developer Tibor Hollo and his wife Sheila have paid $2.1 million for a 38th-floor apartment at the Trump Plaza on 61st Street.

From the NY Post's Gimme Shelter:
--A couple who sold their classic prewar co-op at 333 Central Park West during the peak of the market have now listed their Central Park North penthouse condo. Neil Breslau and Nancy Fire Breslau bought the penthouse at the 111 Central Park North new development for $4.975 million in May 2007 and have listed it for $6.4 million. The listing is here.
--Real-estate investor Michael Hirtenstein is selling his listed-for-$20 million Gramercy Park townhouse to newlyweds Lauren Davis (a Vogue contributor) and Andres Santo Domingo (a billionaire Colombian heir). He is living in a four-bedroom triplex penthouse at 25 Bond St, a rental that had been listed at $60,000 a month and is unofficially on the market for around $30 million.
--Brokers haven't gotten a peek at Ruth Madoff's apartment. The brokers need to appraise the homes before the feds can sell them.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
--Emmy-winning producer and writer Gary David Goldberg has sold his Brentwood estate for $15.15 million. It was first listed back in January for $19.95 million.
--Actress Brynn Thayer and her husband manager-writer-producer David Steinberg, have sold their longtime Pacific Palisades home for $2.995 million.
Actor-turned-producer David Ladd and his wife, actress Dey Young are listing their Beverly Hills Post Office area home for $5.995 million. The listing is here.
--L.A. Police Chief William J. Bratton and his wife, lawyer Rikki Klieman, have listed their Los Feliz-area home at $1,875,000. The listing is here.
--Actor-composer-artist Michael Toland and his wife, Stephanie, have sold a 1921 Mediterranean in the Los Feliz area for $2.5 million.

Last week we reported that Russian billionaire Andrei Vavilov, who signed a $53.5 million contract sight unseen for an ultra-luxe penthouse at New York's famed Fifth Avenue hotel-turned-apartment building The Plaza (above), sued the developers claiming the finished product was an "attic-like" tenement. Now the Wall St. Journal reports that a second Plaza penthouse buyer has filed a claim on similar grounds, alleging fraud and misrepresentation on the part of the Plaza's developer El-Ad and its real estate agents. The buyer, who has not been identified, is demanding the return of a $6.5 million deposit plus legal fees of at least $350,000, according to the complaint filed in New York Supreme Court. In a statement, El-Ad dismissed the claims as vain attempts on the part of buyers with cold feet to "back out" of their deals.

UPDATE: El-Ad has now filed a counter-suit against Vavilov for libel, seeking $36 million in damages.

Russian billionaire Andrei Vavilov, who signed a $53.5 million contract sight unseen for an ultra-luxe penthouse at New York's famed Fifth Avenue hotel-turned-apartment building The Plaza (above), is suing the developers claiming the finished product is more like a tenement. Vavilov made the purchase prior to completion of the Plaza's $500 million renovations last year based on CAD models and a video presentation, which promised the residence would be the "epitome of luxury."

However, in a just-filed lawsuit, Vavilov accuses Plaza devloper El-Ad Properties and real estate agents Stribling & Associates of pulling a "bait-and-switch" in which they secretly made "unilateral and impermissible design changes" to the plans, the London Telegraph reports. He claims they made the apartment smaller, shrank the size of its windows and lowered the ceilings turning it into an "attic-like" garret instead of an elegant aerie.

Vavilov, who reportedly made $600 million six years ago when he sold his Russian oil company, Severnaya Neft, is demanding the return of the $10.7 million deposit he has already paid out and wants at least $20 million in damages for alleged breach of contract, fraud, deceptive trading practices and negligence. A lawyer for the defendants described his claims as "baseless".