????“現在只有兩個市場：超級豪宅市場和補貼房市場。”——公園大道432號建筑設計師拉斐爾?維諾利

????在紐約市公園大道上，第56號與第57號街道間，有一棟摩天大樓高聳入云，此樓之高，估計就連金剛也會望而卻步。

????該樓屋頂層高約0.25英里（約402米），使得此樓成為紐約最高建筑，也是整個西半球最高的住宅樓。

????這座96層的大廈總高約1396英尺（約425米），在整個曼哈頓已是俯視群樓，比帝國大廈（Empire State Building）還要高出約150英尺。哪怕不算其尖頂，此棟超級豪宅也要高出新建的世界金融中心（World Financial Center）28英尺。從紐約市所有的5個區，你都能看到公園大道432號，不僅如此，你還能從沿著哈萊姆河駛入紐約的大都會北方鐵路（Metro-North）列車上看到它，從新澤西州的Meadowlands看到它，從長島（Long Island）的幾個高點都能看到它。不論從哪個角度看，高聳入云的公園大道432號都帶著幾分遺世獨立的味道。從來沒有哪棟住宅樓像公園大道432號這樣引人矚目。

????不過，公園大道432號最引人注目的，并非其大塊頭，而是在這棟內部使用面積高達40萬平方英尺（約3.7萬平方米）的高樓里，居然只有104套住宅。簡言之，公園大道432號是全球超富階層崛起的歷史見證物。它是史無前例的收入不平等現象堆出來的摩天大廈。

????我們的故事始于2009年，當時有一家名為CIM的私募股權公司，該公司總部位于洛杉磯，此時尚名不見經傳。金融危機后，公司三位管理合伙人，一位是前德崇（Drexel Burnham）銀行家，還有兩位是前以色列傘兵，他們帶著錢悄悄來到遭受重創的曼哈頓房地產市場。CIM迅速開出支票，救助紐約市最負盛名的房地產家族和企業，當時，許多項目已經暫停，資金幾乎枯竭。這三位外鄉客一夜之間成為曼哈頓的重量級人物。

????與黑石（Blackstone）和加州公務員退休基金（Calpers）等投資機構的過硬關系，使得這家位于美國西海岸的企業，能利用紐約市數十年難得一見的機遇，當時，紐約市的企業大都因之前的繁榮過度舉債。CIM公司為多個備受矚目、出現問題的房產項目提供資金，并允許原開發商作為CIM的合作伙伴繼續參與項目。

????到2011年，CIM已經無處不在。當時，經濟正緩慢改善，金融界開始回暖，機構投資者又開始投資。正是在這種復蘇的大環境下，公園大道432號這樣雄心勃勃的項目才得以誕生，并獲得資金。

????哈里?麥克洛是房地產行業最著名、最有趣的人物之一。他個性十足，手頭有眾多房產和項目。麥克洛喜歡賭博和冒險。2008年，隨著房地產市場開始崩潰，紐約十年過度揮霍的后果開始顯現，麥克洛發現自己處境有些不妙。一樁杠桿率極高、獲得德意志銀行（Deutsche Bank）58億美元貸款的房地產交易，使得麥克洛成為新聞人物，而麥克洛在幾處重要房產【比如通用汽車大廈（General Motors Building）】中的股份，據稱已經岌岌可危。

????就在此時，CIM挺身而出，為麥克洛多個陷入困境的項目提供融資，雙方就此建立合作關系，這才有了后來開創性的公園大道432號。到2011年8月，公園大道432號大廈的驚人計劃——此項目將在拆毀的麥克洛名下德雷克酒店（Drake Hotel）原址上建造——開始在Curbed和《紐約觀察家》（The New York Observer）等房地產新聞網站上出現。哈里?麥克洛這樣的絕處逢生者，與“神秘”外來開發商合作的戲碼，對愛侃侃而談的人士而言，是極為誘人的故事情節。

????“There are only two markets, ultraluxury and subsidized housing.” —Rafael Vi?oly, architect of 432 Park Avenue

????Along a stretch of New York City’s Park Avenue, between 56th and 57th Street, soars a tower so jaw-droppingly altitudinous that King Kong himself would likely think twice before scaling it.

????Its rooftop, roughly a quarter of a mile high, makes it the tallest building in New York and the highest residential tower in the western hemisphere.

????At 96 stories (1,396 feet), it has no company in the space it occupies atop Manhattan’s skyline. The Empire State Building tops out some 150 feet below that. Absent its spire, the newly built World Financial Center—itself a giant—is 28 feet shorter than this new cathedral to uber-wealth. 432 Park Avenue can be seen from all five boroughs of New York City, from inbound Metro-North trains coming in along the Harlem River, from the Meadowlands in New Jersey, and from several vantage points on Long Island. Its lone silhouette dominates the skyline from every angle. It demands your attention in a way that no residential building ever has.

????The most remarkable thing about 432 Park, however, is not just its sheer size. It is the fact that, in a building so tall and imposing, with over 400,000 square feet of usable interior space, there are only 104 units for people to live in. 432 Park Avenue is, in short, a monument to the epic rise of the global super-wealthy. It is the house that historic inequality built.

????Our story begins in 2009 with a little-known Los Angeles-based private equity firm called CIM. The firm’s three managing partners, a former Drexel Burnham banker and a pair of former Israeli paratroopers, quietly dropped in on Manhattan’s punch drunk post-financial crisis real estate market with money to spend. CIM moved quickly, writing checks to bail out some of the city’s most prestigious real estate families and firms, as projects were stalling and financing had all but dried up. The outsiders became Manhattan power players overnight.

????Strong relationships with investment organizations like Blackstone and Calpers put the west coast-based firm in a position to capitalize on a once-in-a-generation opportunity in a city where the incumbents were largely overleveraged from the prior boom. They acted as the bank behind the resurrection of several high-profile distressed properties, and allowed the original developers to stay involved with each deal as their partners.

????By 2011, CIM was everywhere. The economy was slowly improving, the financial firmament was beginning to thaw, and institutional investors were cutting checks again. It is in this recovering environment that a project as ambitious as 432 Park Avenue can even be dreamed of, let alone funded.

????Harry Macklowe is one of the real estate industry’s most famous and colorful characters, with a massive portfolio of properties and projects to go along with his outsize personality. No stranger to gambles and calculated risks, Macklowe found himself in a bit of a squeeze in 2008, as the seams of the property market began to tear and the bills from New York’s decade of excess came due. A highly leveraged real estate transaction backed by a $5.8 billion loan from Deutsche Bank kept his name in the news, and his stake in several trophy properties, like the General Motors Building, were said to have been in jeopardy.

????CIM stepped into the breach, providing financing for several of Macklowe’s troubled projects, and a partnership was born that would lead to the groundbreaking at 432 Park. By August 2011, their incredible plans for the tower—which would occupy the land where the Macklowe-owned Drake Hotel had been demolished—began to leak onto real estate news sites like Curbed and The New York Observer. The idea of a “fifth-act” survivor like Harry Macklowe partnering with a “mysterious” developer from out of town proved to be an irresistible storyline to the chattering classes.