A Crowning Achievement: Elena Sarkissian Wraps 2025 with Five Penthouse Sales
by David Hay
December 2025
When Elena Sarkissian negotiated a contract for the sale of The Clocktower Penthouse at 108 Leonard in October, the deal for the palatial triplex in the iconic Tribeca development marked a major milestone for the veteran Douglas Elliman broker—the fifth Manhattan penthouse Sarkissian has sold in 2025.
“I can say unequivocally that selling the Clocktower Penthouse at 108 Leonard is a career achievement,” she told The New York Post.
Sarkissian, the no-nonsense agent who came to real estate 20 years ago after a career as a cancer epidemiologist, was quick to focus attention in our conversation on the property itself: “The Clocktower Penthouse has 8,770 square feet of interior space with over 3,000 feet in exterior space: multiple balconies and a grand terrace surrounded by historic eagles. It is truly Gotham at its finest!”
It is clear that she intimately understands the uniqueness of this and the other penthouses she has successfully sold within this calendar year for a combined value of more than $83 million.
Sarkissian tells me, “The discussion with my high-net-worth clients often starts with the question: ‘Should we buy a townhouse or a penthouse?’ They want something livable but also special. It has to be a unique showpiece.”
They also are rarely intended to be second homes.
“In my experience, these buyers typically secure penthouses as their primary New York City residence. The residence should be one-of-a-kind and in a prime location with views, privacy, and exclusive amenities,” Sarkissian adds. “They have to offer a luxury lifestyle apart from their position atop a building.”
“This is an asset class that will always hold its own and outperform the greater NYC market. Penthouses are scarce and irreplaceable trophies.”
Still, she says, these mansions in the sky represent major components of her clients’ investment portfolios: “This is an asset class that will always hold its own and outperform the greater NYC market. Penthouses are scarce and irreplaceable trophies.”
The Clocktower Penthouse is the second of two penthouses she has sold at 108 Leonard, the reimagined 18th-century McKim, Mead and White landmark and former home of New York Life Insurance Company. For Penthouse North at 108 Leonard which Sarkissian sold this spring, she and her team engaged Cheryl Eisen of IMG to stage it and hosted a number of exclusive broker gatherings so that when it was listed, “there was immense interest right away.”
Then there’s the duplex atop THE 74, a standout new condominium on the Upper East Side designed by Raphael de Cárdenas, with a distinctive and delicately sculptured façade created by Pelli Clarke and Partners. Located at 74th Street and Third Avenue, THE 74 has just 40 residences. It is the Penthouse that takes your breath away, with 5,300 square feet of interior space that comprises an expansive living area, four bedrooms, five bathrooms, and two powder rooms across two floors and 13-foot floor-to-ceiling glass windows that afford truly panoramic views across the city and Central Park. Those views, says Sarkissian, were a major reason why the buyer saw it as a prize property worth the $25-million price tag.
The outsized magnificence of these properties, however, might obscure the fact that they still need someone sophisticated in the language of selling them.
“Penthouses don’t sell themselves,” Sarkissian says. “They boast all of these wonderful attributes and luxurious amenities, but the right buyers have to be made aware of how exceptional they are—and quickly.”
Such was the case with The Clocktower Penthouse. Barely 30 days after the listing went live last summer, Sarkissian got a call on a Saturday afternoon from a broker friend. She was out in the Hamptons with clients who were anxious to do a video tour that day. Rushing to the property before sunset, Sarkissian carefully walked up, down, and around the three-story penthouse, iPhone in hand, to give the prospective buyers a first-person POV of the balconies and vistas. The deal came together not long after.
Above: Penthouse at THE 74.
The remaining two penthouses Sarkissian has sold this year are at 200E20th, the CetraRuddy-designed condominium tower in Gramercy where Sarkissian is not only the Director of Sales, but also worked closely in pre-development with the architects and developers on the building’s elegant design. She sold Penthouse C, a 2,461-square-foot residence with two private outdoor spaces, to a New York couple who had lived in the city for 25 years and were now looking for that “special forever home.” For Penthouse B, a 2,231-square-foot residence also with private outdoor space, she worked with B&B Italia to stage it with a “contemporary design that made the space feel very chic and appealing to another vibrant New Yorker.”
In such a high-flying real estate market like New York City, penthouses can seem like just another luxury asset class. But they are still a rare and limited one, to be sure. They have very special qualities, and it takes a sophisticated agent with in-depth knowledge of these particular characteristics to make a wealthy buyer fall in love. It’s that ability to translate the many details of these properties that is a Sarkissian forte.
“I know the design, both original and new, intimately in each of my projects,” she says. “In my collaboration with the developers, architects, and interior designers, I have a deep understanding of the aesthetic vision and the selection of materials which bring the magic to these spaces. Moreover, as a veteran resale broker, I bring to my Sales Director role the ability to analyze and position these trophy properties within their micro markets in the competitive NYC ecosystem. Conveying all of this information clearly and comprehensively to a very demanding and savvy buyer is key to my skill set.”
David Hay is a well-known architectural writer and playwright. His stories have been featured in The New York Times, Dwell and New York.
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