Simply Abu Dhabi Magazine XVII

2 7 0 S I M P LY A B U DH A B I for sale at $29.5 million sits atop the Upper East Side Mansion. Once a ballroom it was converted into an opulent neo-French Classic condo by designer Horace Trumbauer equipped with stunning parquet-de-Versailles flooring. The Sydney Harbour Front penthouse is Australia’s most expensive apartment and is located between Circular Quay and the Botanic Gardens. Occupying over 700 sq m, it features a private elevator, wine cellar, billiards room, master bedroom suite and a number of dressing rooms all overlooking Sydney’s Harbour Bridge and Opera House. And Costa Rica’s Genesis Puntarenas is home to a sprawling 10-bedroom penthouse spread across three floors, incorporating a private helipad, swimming pool and tennis court. More recently, however, the trend has been for residential penthouses within hotels, such as the Pierre Hotel penthouse on Fifth Avenue, the Four Seasons penthouse at 30 Park Place, the New York Baccarat hotel penthouse, and London’s very own One Hyde Park penthouse at the Mandarin Oriental. Located in the affluent area of Knightsbridge the development has attracted many of the world’s elite, including an Eastern European billionaire who recently purchased Penthouse D for $237 million, rumoured to be the most expensive residential buy in the UK. “It’s very natural that penthouse buyers are also connoisseurs of the world’s finest hotels,” says Kelly Kennedy Mack, president of Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group. “Above all, these elite buyers want their home to be an oasis. That means exceptional design, but it alsomeans unparalleled service. Without a doubt, the penthouse at Baccarat Hotel is among the finest in the history of New York. Having the keys to this penthouse will afford a lifestyle unlike any other in the world.” However, it’s no longer enough for penthouses to simply be the best apartment at the top of a building. To meet the demands of discerning buyers, developers are building to a level of design sophistication, service, and scale that is unprecedented, and today’s penthouses have elaborate, distinctive features that set them apart. Monaco’s Tour Odéon is set to be one of the Mediterranean’s tallest buildings, standing at 557 ft above sea level, and home to the world’s most expensive penthouse, with a price tag of $387 million. Soaring above the dazzling blue waters of the Cote d’Azur, the four-floored penthouse (featuring a kitchen on every floor) contains five bedrooms, a private home- cinema, sauna and large outdoor swimming pool, which is accessible either from a terrace or a unique slide that extends from several floors up. Hosting the Monaco Grand Prix, the Monaco Boat Show and the Monte Carlo Rolex Masters every year, the Principality of Monaco regularly attracts high volume crowds of ultra high net individuals from the international social scene, not to mention those who have made it their primary home, and Tour Odéon, set for completion in September 2015, raises the benchmark for the very best properties across the world’s leading markets.