Costa Rica Project
Claims 'World's Largest Penthouse'
With many apartments around the world
already approaching the size of small train
stations, a development in Puntarenas, Costa
Rica, raises the bar several notches with a
unit billed as the “world’s largest
penthouse.”
Genesis Puntarenas will be topped with an
apartment weighing in at 68,459-square feet,
complete with helipad, tennis court and
swimming pool, says Caspi International, the
project’s Chicago-based developer.
The price tag on the 10-bedroom, 14-bath
apartment: us$50 million.
Nitpickers will certainly note that the
square footage includes the tennis court and
helipad, but Caspi president Michael Caspi
says the penthouse is easily more than twice
the size of any competitor.
“We did extensive research regarding other
penthouses in the world,” Caspi said in an
e-mail. “The closest competitor to date is
the triple-level Cesar Penthouse located in
the Crimson Sails complex in Moscow, which
measures in at 18,299 square feet.”
Even in the age of Dubai excess, the
Puntarenas plan is audacious. The penthouse
of the Trump International Hotel and Tower
on Palm Jumeirah in Dubai reportedly sold
for us$30 million, making it the “most
expensive penthouse in Dubai.” But news
reports peg the size of the penthouse at
about 10,000-square-feet, which seems to be
the sweet spot for over-the-top penthouse
decadence.
In New York, the apartment Curbed.com calls
the “hands-down craziest unit” in Philippe
Starck’s 15 Broad Street—the “Downtown
Palace of Insanity—is a relatively puny
9,600 square feet, with 23-bedrooms and
11-baths priced at a just-reduced $15.5
million.
Sales launched last month on the 47-unit
Genesis Puntarenas, which will also
represent Costa Rica’s “first all-glass
multifamily residential building,” with
floor-to-ceiling retractable glass walls and
“expansive private all-glass terraces,”
according to a press release. The one- to
four-bedroom units range from $473,000 to
$3.3 million.
But it’s the jaw-dropping dimensions of the
penthouse that is sure to attract attention.
Of course, it’s worth noting that massive
penthouses with cool renderings are
announced all the time, only to get sliced
up when they don’t sell. There are more
buyers for $5 million apartments than $50
million units, developers quickly learn.
For example, the Trump Soho in New York City
once trumpeted a 10,000-square-foot
penthouse billed as the “largest suite on
the East Coast.” But now that the tower is
ready to open, the largest suite is about
2,300 square-feet, according to a press
release.
Plus Costa Rica is, as they say, no Dubai.
The size and price tag are wildly out of
line for typical Costa Rica buyers, who tend
more toward Texas cattle ranchers than
Middle East sheiks.
But Caspi says he is committed to the
massive penthouse.
“We want to differentiate ourselves while
making a statement on the level of
exclusivity the Genesis Puntarenas condo
owners will have,” Caspi said.
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