Back in 2005, a team of developers purchased The Sheffield -- which was then known as Sheffield 57 and has always been located at 322 West 57th Street -- for $418 million. That was a record for a residential building in Manhattan, but impressive though that price tag was, it made sense. The Sheffield had a prime Midtown West location, a host of luxurious apartments for sale, and the promise of a stellar suite of amenities. But while The Sheffield was then, as it is now, one of the more interesting condo listings in Manhattan, what happened between then and now was, if anything, too interesting.

A seemingly unending series of legal disputes (and an Andrew Cuomo-mandated sales freeze) kept The Sheffield in the news, but also kept it from living up to its sky-high potential as one of the elite condo listings in Midtown West. For awhile. But in 2011, The Sheffield -- now free of that "57," and free of all that drama as well -- has belatedly and deservingly emerged as a legitimate Manhattan condominium success story. Once interesting for all the wrong reasons, The Sheffield is, at last, back where it belonged -- on lists of the most desirable condo listings in midtown.

A new marketing team and new management settled things down somewhat -- the new marketing team also added another amenity to The Sheffield's already impressive list by hooking up with stylists at Saks Fifth Avenue -- and a 25 percent reduction in asking prices on apartments for sale at The Sheffield helped get things moving. Now, with more than half the building sold, momentum is finally on The Sheffield's side.

"The Sheffield was one of the best-selling condos of last year as measured by the volume of closings, according to StreetEasy.com," Sarah Kershaw writes in the New York Times. "And The Real Deal magazine called it the 'best back-from-the-dead residential project' of 2010." None of it's surprising, given the high quality of the apartments for sale at The Sheffield. But after all this projects travails, there's still something surprising about seeing The Sheffield back where it was supposed to be all along -- on top.