A luxury building on Moscow's 'Golden Mile' is home to Russian businessmen, celebrities, and athletes. I got a look inside, and its 15 residences were totally different from high-end condos I've toured in NYC.

Moscow's Golden Mile, a residential area between the banks of the Moscow River and Ostozhenka Street, is home to some of the city's priciest real estate.

Homes cost, on average, $2 million in older buildings and $3.5 million in newly-constructed buildings, according to Moscow Sotheby's International Real Estate, while a set of coveted townhouses start at $22 million.

On a recent trip to Moscow, Sotheby's gave me a tour of one of the neighborhood's premiere luxury buildings, a residential tower called Nabokov.

Nabokov is a six-story luxury building constructed in 2017 by Vesper, the largest luxury real-estate developer in the city.

Named after the Russian writer Vladimir Nabokov, who wrote "Lolita," the building has 15 residences, most of which were designed by Aukett Swanke. The penthouse, which sold for $19.4 million, was designed by Jean-Louis Deniot.

Nabokov's exterior is made of 42,800 pieces of limestone, according to Vesper. Publicity materials describe the building as "inspired by natural colors, shades, and textures inherent in the Russian forests, the frozen waters of the Moskva River, as well as the rich heritage of Russian fashion and traditional arts and crafts."

Buyers of condos in the building are all Russian, according to Vesper.

"Most of our clients are owners of private businesses; several of them are from Forbes lists," Polina Murova, the head of public relations at Vesper, told me. "There are several Russian celebrities and sportsmen."

Most residents are between 30 and 55 years old, Murova said.

The lobby was minimalistic, with a blocky marble reception desk and a butterfly art installation hanging overhead.

The butterflies are a tribute to the building's namesake. Nabokov was famously passionate about and wrote extensively on butterflies.

Upon stepping into a Nabokov residence, I immediately noticed a difference from luxury apartments I've toured in US cities like New York and Miami.

Unlike in the US, most of the condos in Nabokov were not staged with lavish furnishings, but totally empty.

The only decorations were curtains and a few chairs.

The curtains covered floor-to-ceiling windows that offered views of the surrounding neighborhood.

While I'm used to seeing luxury bathrooms adorned with fresh flowers and high-end toiletries, the bathrooms at Nabokov seemed a bit sparse.

The bedrooms were completely empty, aside from curtains.

Only one of the Nabokov condos I visited was partially furnished and decorated.

The kitchen was set up with a coffee machine, coffee cups, and Champagne glasses.

But the bedrooms and bathrooms were, once again, empty and free of decor.

Although I didn't get to see these amenities in person, Nabokov also has private parking and a wellness club with massage rooms for residents.

My tour of Nabokov was completely different from luxury buildings I've toured in New York City.

The first obvious difference was the lack of furnishings throughout most of Nabokov. While only a couple of rooms in one residence were furnished, every single luxury apartment I've toured in New York City has been painstakingly furnished and decorated — often by prominent designers — to make it as attractive as possible while it's being sold.

Another contrast was size. While the priciest and most prestigious New York City condos are often in skyscrapers with dozens or hundreds of residences, Nabokov is more of a boutique building, with only six floors and 15 condos total.

Both Moscow and New York are billionaire cities — Moscow is home to an estimated 70 and New York an estimated 105 billionaires — so it makes sense that both cities would offer appropriately luxurious real estate.

But from the real estate I've seen in Manhattan versus Nabokov, New York is ahead in one key area: amenities.

It's practically an unspoken requirement that new-construction New York condos be chock-full of lavish amenities. Take 111 West 57th Street, for example, the world's skinniest skyscraper that's nearing completion on Manhattan's Billionaires' Row and selling condos that cost between $16 million and $57 million. When it's finished, the 1,428-foot-tall tower will offer residents access to a 82-foot swimming pool and a massive shared rooftop terrace.

And nearby Central Park Tower, the tallest residential building in the world, will house an exclusive private club with 50,000 square feet of amenities spread across three floors — including a terrace with a 60-foot swimming pool, a sundeck, and cabanas — and that's in addition to its 179 luxury condos (current prices range from $6.9 million to $63 million).

The amenities at Nabokov, which include massage rooms, a fitness center, and parking, seem to pale in comparison.

But while these New York City skyscrapers are in bustling Midtown Manhattan, Nabokov can claim a different sort of luxury: privacy and quiet. I found its location in the Golden Mile neighborhood to be quiet and serene, with very little foot or vehicle traffic.

Wealthy buyers are also getting more bang for their buck in a building like Nabokov than they would in New York, where similar properties are about 10% more expensive, according to Bloomberg.

• Read more:
• I walked through Moscow's 'Golden Mile,' one of the city's most expensive neighborhoods, and got a glimpse of what most photos don't show you: It's a mix of the old, the new, and the abandoned
• In the suburbs of Moscow, 2 winding highways are home to some of Russia's most expensive real estate — and they tell very different tales of the country's wealth
• I toured a gated estate outside of Moscow that was built by the 'Trump of Russia.' From its golf course to the mansions I was forbidden to photograph, it wasn't hard to see its appeal for the country's billionaires.