Quay Tower in Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn, offers panoramic views of the Manhattan skyline. The borough’s priciest single residence sold there.Credit...RAL Companies and Oliver's Realty Group

New York City’s real estate market reached new highs in April, even as the coronavirus outbreak threatened future home sales.

The most expensive single residence in Brooklyn, a penthouse at the newly opened Quay Tower at Brooklyn Bridge Park, closed at $20.3 million. In Manhattan, four more full-floor aeries at 220 Central Park South sold — one for nearly $56.3 million, the biggest sale for the month and for 2020, and the three others for $53.6 million, $52.2 million and $50.9 million.

All these transactions were in contract long before the pandemic surfaced. Going forward, the expectation among real estate professionals is that sales, already under pressure during this presidential election year, will fall sharply as the city remains essentially on lockdown.

Some big deals did manage to come together quickly and were finalized within the past several weeks. Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder and the world’s richest person, bought a fourth apartment at a boutique Fifth Avenue condominium. Dr. Angelo Acquista, a noted pulmonologist and diet book author, and his wife, Svetlana Acquista, closed on a penthouse at a new Midtown East skyscraper. Michele Ganeless, the former president of the Comedy Central TV network, sold two adjoining units on the Upper West Side.

Among April’s other noteworthy transactions, the remaining sponsor unit at the Jenga-like 56 Leonard in TriBeCa, a four-bedroom, four-and-a-half-bath penthouse, sold for $21.6 million. And on the Upper East Side, a sprawling compound featuring two townhouses, a double landscaped garden, an outdoor pool and more than 9,000 square feet of combined interior space, finally sold after three years on the market, for $8.3 million.

The Brooklyn penthouse sale surpasses the previous borough record for a single residence set in late 2018, when the actor Matt Damon paid nearly $16.8 million for a penthouse at the Standish condominium in Brooklyn Heights.

The unidentified buyer at Quay Tower made the purchase using a trust after being in contract since late 2018. Andrew Andersonof Douglas Elliman Real Estate represented the developers, the RAL Companies and Oliver’s Realty Group.

The home, Penthouse 1A, was actually a combination of two apartments measuring 7,433 square feet. (Mr. Damon’s penthouse was also created from two units.) It has five bedrooms, five and a half baths and a 1,179-square-foot terrace offering panoramicviews of New York Harbor, the East River and Manhattan.

The 30-story, 126-unit Quay Tower, located on the waterfront at 50 Bridge Park Drive, was designed by the architecture firm ODA with interiors by Marmol Radziner. Sales began two years ago.

At 220 Central Park South, the biggest sales for the month (and year) were apartments on the 65th, 63rd, 62nd and 60th floors. The similarly configured units have almost 6,000 square feet including four bedrooms, five full baths and one half-bath, as well as a 48-square-foot balcony off the formal dining room and library. The large master suites feature two bathrooms and two spacious dressing rooms.

The Mercedes Berk Team of Engel & Völkers New York City represented the buyer of unit No. 65, the most expensive of the three apartments. The purchase was made through the limited liability company G’s Delight and had been in contract since 2016. No. 63 was bought through the 22063 Realty Trust, No. 62 by the LR 2020 Revocable Trust, and No. 60 through Rice, LLC; all had been in contract since 2015.

The last sponsor unit in the Jenga-like 56 Leonard in TriBeCa sold for $21.6 million.Credit...Stefano Ukmar for The New York Times

The limestone-clad 220 Central Park South had four more big sales.Credit...Kate Glicksberg for The New York Times

Most of the apartments in the 70-story, limestone tower, designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects, are now spoken for, includingthe four adjacent units acquired by the hedge fund manager Kenneth Griffin last year for a record $240 million.

Mr. Bezos paid $16.1 million for an apartment on the 20th floor of 212 Fifth Avenue, a recently converted condo at West 26th Street across from Madison Square Park.

The half-floor residence sits just below the three units he boughtatop the 24-story building last June for a total of $80 million, presumably to combine. They include a grand triplex encompassing 10,079 square feet and a pair of smaller apartments totaling7,239 square feet on the 21st floor. The spread also features 5,730 square feet of terraces with park and cityscape views.

Mr. Bezos’s latest acquisition, made via the same limited liability company, Madison Square Park, used to buy the smaller apartments, adds another 3,078 square feet, with three bedrooms and three and a half baths. He went into contract on the apartment in late February and closed in early April.

The neo-Gothic tower at 212 Fifth, formerly an office building, was built in 1912 and turned into condos by Thor Equities, Madison Equities and Building and Land Technology.

Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos, bought a fourth apartment at 212 Fifth Avenue.Credit...John Locher/Associated Press

The neo-Gothic tower, built in 1912, was converted into condos from an office building.Credit...Robert Wright for The New York Times

The Acquistas, using a trust, bought a penthouse atop the 65-story 252 East 57th Street at Second Avenue. The price was $19.9 million, a sizable drop from the original $37.5 million asking price in 2017. The couple also went into contract in February and finalized their sale in mid-March.

The apartment has six bedrooms and seven and a half baths, along with views of the East River, Central Park and cityscape from its oversize windows and two balconies, one within the master suite and another off the great room.

The chef’s kitchen is equipped with a butler’s pantry, along with walnut cabinets, glass quartz countertops and Miele appliances —a good spot for preparing some of the recipes in Dr. Acquista’s book, “The Mediterranean Prescription.”

Ms. Ganeless, a media consultant and Comedy Central’s president from 2004 to 2016, sold two combined apartments at 205 West 76th Street, a.k.a. the Harrison. The closing price was $6.6 million; the buyers were listed in property records as Adi and Karen Blum.

The 3,229-square-foot space has four bedrooms and three and a half baths.

The 18-story Harrison was designed by Robert A.M. Stern and developed by the Related Companies. Situated between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue, it is a quick stroll from Central Park and the American Museum of Natural History.

The deeply discounted compound, located at 166 East 81st Street and 179 East 80th Street, had an initial price tag of $28 million in 2017, and over the past three years was listed and re-listed a few times, as well as rented out. Its most recent asking price was $17.9 million.

The unidentified buyer used the limited liability company Casa81 in the purchase.

The rambling property is full of desirable features and amenities, among them two back-to-back mid-1800 homes connected by a 75-foot garden and with a heated plunge pool; more than 2,000 square feet of outdoor space; and numerous architectural details inside and out, according to the most recent listing, with Compass.

But Darrell and Tara Mays of Atlanta, who had agreed in 2018 to rent the place for two years at $43,000 a month, said it was also infested with rodents and had various repair issues.

In a lawsuit filed last year in state Supreme Court, the Mayses accused the owners, John and Elizabeth Robertshaw, of fraud, claiming that they were “constructively evicted” from the place, and sought a rent refund and unspecified damages. (The Robertshaws have denied the accusations, saying the Mays were trying to back out of their lease.)

Alexander Daigh, the Compass broker who had the listing, would not comment on the sale.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/01/realestate/a-record-sale-in-brooklyn-among-aprils-closings.html