Ziel Feldman Lists Black-Marble Triplex at $27.5 Million

On East 68th Street, less than a block from Central Park, a 21-room penthouse built around black marble and dark wood is back on the market, and the man who designed it for himself is no longer the developer he once was. Ziel Feldman, the former HFZ principal, and his wife, Helene, are asking $27.5 million for their triplex at the Marquand, a cut of $11.5 million from the $39 million they sought in 2020. The listing brokers at Douglas Elliman, Madeline Hult Elghanayan and Sabrina Saltiel, did not return a request for comment from Curbed, which first reported the details.

The Marquand, at 11 East 68th Street, came to market a little over a decade ago with condos finished in creams and neutrals. Feldman went another way upstairs. Per Curbed’s account, the 6,100-square-foot penthouse is a study in blacks and dark browns, with book-matched white marble providing the occasional flash. In some rooms, both floors and walls appear to be covered in black marble; in others, the walls are paneled in gleaming hardwood, against which black and dark-gray velvet furniture is set. The listing counts five bedrooms, four full bathrooms and a grand formal dining room that seats 22, with a wet bar. There is private elevator access, fireplaces inside and out, Central Park views and 2,600 square feet of private terraces.

The art, which Curbed describes in detail, will not come with the apartment. Works by Tracey Emin and Sanford Biggers, John Chamberlain sculptures, George Condo paintings and a taxidermied rabbit by Maurizio Cattelan all sit in nooks, on walls and before fireplaces. For buyers who cannot picture themselves in so moody a setting, the listing includes digital renderings of the space redone in creams and neutrals, roughly the look it might have had in 2013 as a standard sponsor unit.

The sale also marks a chapter closing for Feldman, a former real estate attorney who had hoped to join New York’s old-line development dynasties, such as the Zeckendorfs and the Dursts. That ambition seemed within reach when HFZ began developing the XI, the twisting Bjarke Ingels-designed tower on the High Line, in 2015, with a sales gallery that featured an art installation by set designer Es Devlin. Before the building was finished, HFZ collapsed after a falling out between Feldman and his former partner, Nir Meir. Meir was later arrested and charged with an $86 million fraud scheme involving the XI; Feldman has blamed Meir for the company’s demise, and Meir is still awaiting trial. The tower itself fared better, with condos selling briskly after developer Steve Witkoff took over the project.

When Feldman first listed the penthouse in 2020, Curbed notes, he was contending with investor lawsuits and delinquent loans. The triplex was a pied-à-terre, one of several properties. The couple also owned an 18,500-square-foot Englewood mansion inspired by a Fontainebleau château they toured on their honeymoon, which sold in 2020, and a Bridgehampton house that sold the next year for $50 million.

Feldman has since returned to the business on a quieter footing. According to Curbed, he is now working with his daughter at GoodHomes, a national affordable and workforce housing firm. As one developer once told New York magazine, Feldman was always known for liking the “razzle-dazzle.” Whether another buyer wants the razzle-dazzle at a steep discount is the open question hanging over East 68th Street this fall.