There's a reason why The Apthorp comes up so often here at the New Construction Manhattan blog -- the Upper West Side pre-war condo conversion is a beautiful building even by the high standards for , and the apartments for sale at The Apthorp are routinely among the most sought-after condo listings on our site. But there's also another reason why The Apthorp is all over the NCM blog -- it's great copy, and has been the subject of a truly epic series of and . That -- well, that and the fact that we seldom cover broker-related drama in the Manhattan real estate world -- is why we didn't make a big deal about it when The Apthorp dropped Prudential Douglas Elliman as its sales and marketing agent back in October.

We need to cover buildings besides The Apthorp at this blog, after all, and anyway it didn't seem like a change in brokers would lead to that dramatic a change in The Apthorp's fortunes. Well, we were wrong about that. The newly open approach at The Apthorp has resulted in something of a renaissance at the Pitti Palace-inspired condo, which has seen healthy sales of late.

Of course, The Apthorp is richly deserving of both all that interest from the market and the ongoing Era of Good Vibes. Not just because it's about time that things settled down somewhat over there, but also because the apartments for sale at The Apthorp are just too impressive -- too rich in elegant pre-war detail, too blessed with the primest of Upper West Side locations, and too striking in too many ways -- to have been buried by insidery backbiting and controversy for very long. The Apthorp was a star among Upper West Side condominium listings from the moment that its conversion to condos was approved, and the pre-war grace notes that define it are unique even among Manhattan's elite pre-war apartment buildings. All of which makes it that much nicer that this superstar condominium listing is finally getting the uncomplicated star turn -- and the applause from the NYC real estate market -- that it deserves.