AS panic persists in the executive offices throughout corporate America, another megamillion-dollar company apartment has gone on the market.
General Electric’s Chairman and CEO, Jeffrey Immelt, is dumping his deluxe digs at Trump Inter- national Hotel and Tower at 1 Central Park West for $15.2 million, or $16.2 million furnished.
GE bought the three-bedroom, 6.5-bath place for the exec in April 2001 for $11.3 million. Then, sources say, Immelt gutted the 46th-floor flat and added $5 million worth of “improvements.”
“It was such a waste,” says one broker of the 14-month renovation. “The apartment was in mint condition. And the changes were very subtle.”
The 4,400-square-foot condo is just one of four pricey pads that GE has snapped up – and continues to maintain – for its top administrators.
According to a GE spokesman, Immelt, who succeeded “Neutron Jack” Welch last September, is not listing his apartment for reasons of corporate downsizing. “He just decided that he personally didn’t need the apartment right now,” says spokesman Gary Sheffer, who added, “That doesn’t mean that couldn’t change in the future.”
Indeed, Immelt could just change his mind after commuting for a month or two from his Connecticut home to his offices at 30 Rockefeller Center.
Occupying an apartment on the floor above Immelt’s is Jack Welch’s soon-to-be-ex-wife, Jane. The company paid nearly $4 million for Welch’s 3,662-square-foot pad in 1997. But the randy ex-CEO – who has the place for life, according to reports – hasn’t lived there since he took up with ex-Harvard Business Review home-wrecker Suzy Wetlaufer.
A few floors below, NBC Chairman Robert Wright occupies a relatively modest 1,700-square-foot condo, for which GE – NBC’s corporate parent – paid $2.1 million, also in 1997. The remaining apartment, according to Sheffer, is shared by several executives, who use it “when they have business in the city.” Listing broker Susan James of the Trump Organization did not return calls. Sheffer says the company has no plans to sell the other apartments.
*
Harrod’s owner Mohamed al-Fayed, better known as the father of the late Dodi, paramour of the late Princess Diana, is ready to check out of his spectacular co-op at the Pierre Hotel for $25 million. The large renovated apartment on the 22nd floor of the 41-story building has nine spacious rooms, including two kitchens, a formal dining room, four bedrooms, four baths and two half-baths. And since al-Fayed is such a stickler for security, the place also has an windowed office for his armed guards.
According to the Brown Harris Stevens listing, the “elegant space can be loosely divided into a west wing and an east wing,” each containing a living room, dining room and two generous bedrooms and baths. Perhaps not as loosely dividable is the $14,332 monthly maintenance fee.
*
Silver screen icon Isabella Rossellini is in the black now that she’s sold her pink penthouse for a lot of green.
Sources say Ingrid Bergman’s fetching offspring has fetched $4.6 million for her 10-room co-op at 85th Street and Madison Avenue.
The pre-war pad, which had an asking price of $5.49 million, has a predominately pink interior that includes four bedrooms, four baths, a formal dining room, gourmet kitchen and a large living room with a wood-burning fireplace.
Perhaps the most alluring part of the place is the 3,200 square feet of gardens and terraces with panoramic views and a greenhouse.
*
We won’t be surprised if “Gimme Shelter” makes Mr. Blackwell’s next “Worst-Dressed” list. While reporting last week that Insignia/ESG chairman Andrew Farkas had rented his West 57th Street penthouse to a famous rap star for $20,000 a month, we mentioned that the apartment was, for many years, the abode of Earl Blackwell – which was correct. We erred by specifying that he was the critic who reigns over the infamous celebrity fashion-faux-pas list.
Astute readers, including celeb chronicler Dominick Dunne (who incidentally said he loves our column), pointed out that Earl Blackwell – who died in 1995 – was a famous publicist who started Celebrity Service, while Mr. (Richard) Blackwell is still among the living and the publisher of the pugnacious list.