Jan. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Scrubbing toilets is one way to land a million-dollar apartment at 15 Central Park West, Manhattan's most expensive new condominium.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Chairman Lloyd Blankfein, former Citigroup Inc. Chairman Sanford Weill and rock star Sting are buying units in the building, which has 24 studio and one- bedroom apartments for maids, butlers and cooks. For condo owners who buy employee quarters, the extra expense ensures that help will be nearby while not in the main residence.

``They can still watch their own TV, have their own life,'' said Arthur Zeckendorf, who developed the property with brother William Lie Zeckendorf. ``If you have someone working for you full time, you still want your privacy.''

The Zeckendorf property joins the old Stanhope Hotel and Time Warner Center among New York buildings with staff apartments on separate floors, a throwback to the days when America's wealthy reserved the top levels of grand apartment buildings for servants. They're the latest amenity in the city's ultra-luxury market.

Just north of Columbus Circle on Manhattan's Upper West Side, 15 Central Park West takes its architectural inspiration from the nearby Dakota, Zeckendorf said. The AIA Guide to New York City dubbed that 1880s property ``the city's first luxury apartment house.'' Its upper stories are dotted with small, gabled windows where staff once lived.

In the days before air-conditioning, those rafter-topped floors could be stiflingly hot in summer.

Views and Thermadors

At 15 Central Park West, the staff quarters are on lower stories, reserving treetop views for penthouse residents. Floors six through eight have 21 studios and three one-bedroom units, measuring about 350 to 500 square feet (33 to 46 square meters), Zeckendorf said. Prices range from $875,000 to about $2.24 million.

Size isn't the only difference. Buyers' condos have herringbone floors, while staff quarters have factory-finished oak planks. Kitchens have counters topped with Corian rather than Vermont marble and three-burner Dwyer stoves rather than six-burner Thermadors.

The staff apartments do have 11-foot (3.3-meter) ceilings, the same solid-core doors on double-wide closets, and Spanish marble bathroom vanities.

Upstairs, a trust in the name of Weill's wife, Joan, bought a $42.4 million penthouse in the 43-story neo-classical building in September, according to public records. The deed doesn't indicate whether Weill purchased a service apartment, and Zeckendorf declined to identify any buyers.

Luring Household Help

``For an employer, it's a killer recruiting tool,'' said Barbara Corcoran, founder of the Corcoran Group, a Manhattan real estate brokerage. ``The employer gets immediate access when they need help and the employee gets their own personal space, so it's a situation where both people win.''

The staff apartments are available only to people buying condos of at least 4,000 square feet, Zeckendorf said. Penthouses in the partially occupied building are selling for more than $6,000 a square foot, a record for new construction in Manhattan, according to appraiser Jonathan Miller.

Across town, it was natural to turn the ground floor of the former Stanhope Hotel into servant quarters because zoning restrictions prohibit retail development, said architect Nancy Ruddy. Her firm, Centra/Ruddy, designed the hotel-to-condominium conversion, which is across the street from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Buyers spending $12 million to $47 million aren't likely to want an apartment at street level, Ruddy said, even though ``you feel like you are in Paris because you are looking right at the Metropolitan.''

Big-Ticket Appliances

New York-based Extell Development Corp. is sparing no expense on the Stanhope's nine studios, priced from $990,000 to about $1.4 million. Owners might want to use them as home offices or guest suites, Ruddy said, so the units will have Miele dishwashers, Viking microwave ovens and Sub-Zero refrigerators.

``They are stunning,'' said Harriet Weintraub, the founder of HWPR, a luxury-goods public relations company marketing the former Stanhope, now named 995 Fifth Ave. ``I'm telling you, if I could I would buy one myself.''

Sales of the units are restricted to buyers already in contract on an upstairs apartment. The building is under construction and no one has moved in yet.

At Time Warner Center, which opened in 2004 a block south of the Zeckendorf building, Related Cos. built six apartments on the 51st floor that can be used for domestic help or guests. Prices then ranged from $450,000 to $1.2 million. The units are on the same floor as the building's gym, screening room and other facilities that wealthy residents might consider too close for comfort, said David Wine, Related's vice chairman.

Sharing a Bathroom

Live-in maids in New York typically have a small bedroom off the kitchen and share a bathroom with the family, said Ilona Wilk, 43, a Polish immigrant who owns European Maids Inc. and lived with her employer for two years when she first moved to the city.

The one drawback she sees to the plush accommodations being offered in new buildings is that some families might reduce employees' salaries to reflect the housing being provided.

``Some people would prefer more modest conditions and to make more money,'' she said. Still, ``I can't imagine anybody would say no.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Sharon L. Lynch in New York at llynch@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: January 15, 2008 00:12 EST