The Priciest Downtown Apartment Ever Sold Returns for $70M

Rumor and public records have it that the British-born entrepreneur and CEO of global restaurant/nightclub brand Hakkasan, Neil Moffitt, was in Walker Tower's Penthouse 1 for less than five minutes before agreeing to dish out a downtown record-setting $51 million for the space in early 2014. Despite one's enormous personal wealth, buying a $50 million apartment isn't akin to buying a pair of shoes (and even that takes longer than five minutes, for most people), so it doesn't come as a surprise that the whole shebang was in the service of a larger scheme: Moffitt is flipping the apartment.

The 6,000-square-foot apartment returned to the market today, first reported by TRD and the Journal, for a mind-numbing $70 million. Of course, it's pristine, because Moffitt never lived there. In light of Midtown mega-condos that sold this year for $100M and $91.5M, this seems cheap, but when it comes to downtown... it looks like this thing could even break its own record. We expect no less from Walker Tower.

· 212 West 18th Street #PH1 [Sotheby's via StreetEasy]
· Manhattan Penthouse Goes Back on the Market for $70 Million [WSJ]
· After Record $51M sale, Walker Tower PH Back for $70M [TRD]
· Walker Tower PH Sells For $50.9M, Sets Downtown Record [Curbed]
· Did CEO Neil Moffitt Buy the $50.9M Walker Tower PH? [Curbed]
· Mapping New York City's Most Expensive Homes Ever Sold [Curbed]
· All Walker Tower coverage [Curbed]