Plaza

A 39-year-old orthodontist from Australia has closed on a $1.9 million studio at the Plaza, city records show. Nick Kotsomitis decided to buy in New York after a short stint working stateside, The International Herald Tribune reported in November. Buoyed by the falling value of the dollar, Mr. Kotsomitis reckoned a condo in a marquis building like the Plaza would be a safe investment since the brand would make it less vulnerable to unsteady real estate trends.  read more »

An unknown buyer has paid $14.7 million for Unit 1609 at the Plaza, city records show. Mascot Holdings is listed as the owner on the deed, and we traced the company back to the Garfield-Bennett Trust on the Channel Islands off France.

Another flashy ex-pat has chosen the Plaza as his New York base. Kuwaiti investor Abdul Wahab al-Nakib bought a $3.5 million condo at the Plaza, city records show. Mr. al-Nakib is the chairman and managing director of Al Deera holdings, an investment firm listed on the Kuwaiti stock exchange. Al Deera's holdings include private and public companies in the Gulf, and it has a stake in real estate companies in the booming Emirate of Dubai.

The former chairman and chief executive of EMI Records, Alain Levy, has paid $6.2 million for an 18th-floor condo at the Plaza, according to city records. Mr. Levy left EMI a little over a year ago after the record label issued a profit warning to shareholders forecasting a 6 to 10 percent decline in revenue for the 2007 fiscal year. The Times of London reported that Mr.  read more »

James Cayne, the recently resigned chief (but still chairman) of Bear Stearns, has bought a $25.8 million condo at the Plaza, according to city records.

It's been a rough year for Mr. Cayne, who left the embattled firm under a haze of recrimination following the collapse of two of its hedge funds that resulted in a $700 billion third quarter writedown in 2007 and a federal investigation. Perhaps his new 14th-floor pad will cheer Mr. Cayne up.

Internet advertising wunderkind Scott Ferber has shelled out a little over $5 million for a condo at the Plaza, city records show. Mr. Ferber sent shockwaves through the technology industry when he sold his cash-strapped Maryland-based firm Advertising.com to AOL Time Warner for $435 million in "one of the most successful exits in the on-line advertising market."

The wife of former Citicorp vice chairman Thomas Theobald paid a little over $10 million for a condo at the Plaza. A Nov. 29 property deed lists Gigi Mahon, author of The Last Days of the New Yorker, as the buyer of Unit 501.

Mr. Theobald left Citicorp in 1987 and is now a senior adviser at the Chicago Growth Capital hedge fund. The couple put their $18 million Greenwich, Conn., home on the market in January.