When 55 Wall St. — a former 19th-century stock exchange, US Customs House, bank and hotel — converted to luxury condos in 2004, it was a symbol of New York’s grit and resilience in the aftermath of the terror attacks of 9/11.
Developer Steve Witkoff, now President Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East and special envoy for peace missions, and Giuseppe Cipriani, grandson of the original 1931 Harry’s Bar owner in Venice, transformed a then-struggling hotel into a luxury eco-system with a private club, 106 posh residences and an A-list concert series. Starring Lenny Kravitz, Carlos Santana and other celebs, the concerts took place inside the building’s 72 foot high cruciform shaped, Wedgwood domed banking hall.
Early condo owners like Naomi Campbell and Mickey Rourke helped create buzz, as did Sarah Ferguson, then the Duchess of York, who lived in one of the units rent free for four years, from around 2007 to 2011, said Dolly Lenz, who headed sales for the building. In exchange, Ferguson helped promote the building and brought in at last two buyers, Lenz said.
The studio and one-bedroom units sold out by 2006 while the larger units were still under construction. The building sold out a couple of years later and was deemed a success. Two decades later, however, 55 Wall St. has lost its sheen. An early pioneer in creating a residential neighborhood in the Financial District, it has been left behind by newer, shinier projects.
Today, a 1,685-square-foot two-bedroom penthouse with a private outdoor terrace was most recently on the market for $975,000 — down significantly from its $2.95 million ask in 2007. (It asked $1.59 million last year.)
On a more positive note, the penthouse has found a buyer.
“We priced it low and had multiple bids above the asking price,” said Lenz, who shares the listing with her daughter Jenny Lenz and Adam Vanderbrook, all of Dolly Lenz Real Estate.
The penthouse is one of 14 units in the building that are currently on the market, and they are all dramatically less than their 2007 asking prices, according to StreetEasy. The least expensive unit is a studio asking $475,000 — down from its $970,000 asking price in 2007. The most expensive current listing is a $1.85 million three-bedroom, 3.5-bath unit that measures 2,051 square feet. It had asked $2.9 million in 2006.
Part of the drop can be attributed to the fact that Cipriani is no longer operating the building’s restaurant and club — and that most of the units are studios and one-bedrooms designed to be hotel-style pied-à-terres, not primary family residences. Witkoff, now in the Trump White House, is also long gone.
“I think there’s a renaissance of the building,” Lenz said. “The proof is that two of the people who bid [for the penthouse] live in the building, That tells you it is a building they want to continue to live in. We had multiple bids and we could have had more if we engaged more people but you can only sell it once.”
The drop in value, Lenz said, was in part because “the building got tired, and just fell out of favor. I think there were other competitive products that people saw as more interesting — the location or finishes.”
Now, however, Lenz said: “I think people are back to basics and say they can update kitchens and they are willing to do small things to make the apartment perfect for them. The people who live there are very happy and the people buying it are thrilled.”
The Cipriani Club Residences are tucked inside an eight-story landmarked Greek Revival building with two sets of massive Ionic and Corinthian columns — thanks to a 1910 Beaux-Arts addition by McKim, Mead & White stacked above the original 1841 structure.
Once the target of rioters during the American Civil War in 1863, the building had transformed from a “temple of capitalism” into a luxury shrine.
While the building helped define and create a new residential neighborhood in FiDi, it’s also where Ferguson lived during some difficult years that are back in the news thanks to email correspondence between her and the convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
While both Fergie and Princess Diana finalized their divorces from the late Queen of England’s sons in 1996, Diana received a $22 million settlement and an annual allowance, while Fergie accepted a one time payment of $475,000, leaving her “desperate,” according to reports.
By 2010, Ferguson was caught in a sting selling access to her ex-husband, then known as Prince Andrew. The same year, Andrew was photographed in Central Park with Epstein after saying he had broken ties with the convicted sex offender.
In her own emails to Epstein that year, Ferguson asked Epstein for money, offered to work for him and even suggested, perhaps in jest, that they get married. A year earlier, in 2009, Ferguson’s business, Hartmoor LLC, based out of posh 590 Madison Ave., had closed down. (By 2012, the charity, with offices at 444 Madison Ave. also shut down — after having not filed a tax return since 2008.)
Last fall, Ferguson’s ex-husband, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, gave up his royal title and in February, on his 66th birthday, he was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office, linked to sharing confidential documents with Epstein. Mountbatten-Windsor was the UK’s special representative for international trade and investment.
