I have 2 cats (well the wife does) and i think cats make rubbish pets. If i'd wanted a pet that ruins furniture and you only see it when it wants to eat then i'd adopt a teenager.
With regard the fire escape idea, i saw on the "my cat from hell" tv show they had an outside balcony for the cat made from what look like plastic pvc pipe and netting. Looked similar to a cat version of the kids soft play centres. Might be worth looking into something like that.