'Most expensive apartment ever' in NYC goes on sale

740 Park Ave.

So much for the bad economy. The "most expensive apartment ever" to go on sale in New York" is going on the market, according to the New York Observer, which reports that the price will no less than $60 million.

The apartment, at 740 Park Avenue, is owned by Courtney Sale Ross, widow of Steve Ross, who, as CEO of Warner Communications, engineered the merger of Warner with Time Inc. to create Time Warner in 1990.

RELATED: WORLD'S MOST EXPENSIVE REAL ESTATE

Ross' apartment is a duplex that was created by combining two apartments. Michael Gross, author of a book on 740 Park, reports on his Web site that the apartment, on the 12th and 13th floors, is the largest apartment in the building. One apartment had 14 rooms while the other had 18 for a total of 32 rooms.

Even if you are in the market for a 32-room, $60 million apartment, odds are you won't get to see this one. Broker Edward Lee Cave told the Observer, "it's going to be the most expensive apartment ever sold in New York,' and that only 10 people will see the apartment because only 10 people "are appropriate" to see it.

RELATED: MIAMI APARTMENT LISTED AT $22 MILLION

According to Gross' book, 740 Park has housed some of America's wealthiest and most powerful families since it was completed in 1930 as the last great building to go up along what was known as New York's Gold Coast. Families that have lived in the building have names like Rockefeller, Bouvier, Vanderbilt, Kravis, Bronfman and Perelman.

If Ross does find a buyer for her apartment, she may be moving downtown. The Observer reported in October 2007 that Ross had bought a penthouse for $7.25 million at 160 Wooster, a condominium that was built in the last few years.

According to its Web site, 160 Wooster has fifteen condominiums on eight floors. The apartments feature floor-to-ceiling windows with top-of-the-line sound-deadening glass allowing residents to "enjoy the energy of one of Manhattan's most dynamic neighborhoods, without having to hear it."