Ten years after Broadway producer, composer, playwright and investor Al Tapper first listed his Midtown penthouse for $4.99 million, it’s slated to hit the auction block with a minimum bid of $3.5 million.
The 19th-floor, three-bedroom, 5½-bath spread is atop the Lombardy Hotel at 111 E. 56th St., where residents have included Bette Davis, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.
Over the past decade, the property has gone on and off the market with extreme price highs and lows, asking as much as $8.5 million in 2020 up from its $3.99 million ask in 2018. It then dropped to $5.99 million in 2021, to $4.5 million in 2022 and $3.5 million in 2023.
Potential buyers can submit bids until auction day, May 31, said Paramount Realty USA’s Misha Haghani, who’s working with Compass listing broker Bahar Tavakolian.
At 3,000 square feet, the home comes with 1,600 square feet of outdoor space. It opens to a living and dining area that leads to a terrace. There’s also a chef’s kitchen and a third bedroom has been converted to an office.
The full-floor unit is a combo of three apartments: One was once rented by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Richard Rodgers, of “The King and I,” “South Pacific,” “Oklahoma!” and “The Sound of Music.”
The penthouse is part of the hotel program, so it can also be rented out. Building amenities include a concierge, a doorman, twice-daily maid service, a gym, a business center, an espresso bar and valet parking.
Built in 1926 by William Randolph Hearst, between Park and Lexington avenues, the building converted to a hotel co-op in 1955.
Tapper, who won a Peabody Award in 2013 for a documentary, “Broadway Musicals: A Jewish Legacy,” is also a collector of Hollywood and baseball memorabilia, including one of Babe Ruth’s hats.
Tapper also has his five-bedroom Boca Raton, Florida, home on the market with Bonnie Heatzig of Douglas Elliman for $6.95 million — down from its initial $8.99 million ask in 2021.
His Boca home was custom-built in 2000, comes with transferable golf membership and sits on two-thirds of a landscaped acre at 3815 Coventry Lane.
“Al traveled the world to bring unique pieces to the home — including imperfectly perfect floors from a church in France,” said Heatzig.