Real Estate Trends

January 11, 2016

First Look at the 331-Foot Sheepshead Bay Tower Set to Dwarf Its Neighbors

In Manhattan, much of Brooklyn, and parts of Queens like Long Island City, a 300-foot tower isn't even news. But out in the once-sleepy waterfront community of Sheepshead Bay, it's sure to get people talking. Last September, it was revealed that a joint venture between Muss Development and AvalonBay would be building a 30-story residential tower at 1501 Voorhies Avenue that would be four times taller than almost anything else in the area. Now, here's our first look at the large and rather glassy behemoth designed by Perkins Eastman Architects. According to revised building plans, the tower is two stories shorter than initially filed and has a height of 331 feet, 6 inches to the top of its rooftop mechanical bulkhead.
More details and renderings

January 9, 2016

First Look at Lions Group’s New Residential Tower in Long Island City

By Ondel Hylton

Another day, another Long Island City project unveiled. This new build comes in at 27-51 Jackson Avenue by way of Lions Group, who are already juggling three projects nearby: Jackson East, Jackson West, and ONE Queens Plaza. Last week, the LIC Post reported demolition permits were filed to raze the two small structures on the site. Construction permits have yet to be filed, but details from the project's EB-5 offering page show a 13-story, 38,500 square foot tower designed by Flushing-based Raymond Chan Architect. The project will rise directly alongside an under construction Gene Kaufman-designed Aloft Hotel at 27-45 Jackson Avenue.
More here

January 8, 2016

432 Park Avenue Records Its First Blockbuster Closing at $18.1M!

By Diane Pham

And so it begins! Closings at Macklowe Properties/CIM Group's Billionaires' Row blockbuster 432 Park Avenue have officially commenced with its first sale showing an impressive $18.116 million figure, as city records released this afternoon reveal. The unit is #35B, a massive 4,003-square-foot, three-bedroom pad with four-and-a-half baths, a private elevator landing, and 10-foot by 10-foot windows providing southern and western exposures with park views. Documents show that the palatial home was purchased via a LLC, 432 PARKVIEW.
more on the sale and the floor plan here

January 8, 2016

Could These Twin Glassy Towers Be Coming to the Greenpoint Waterfront?

By Ondel Hylton

Momentum is building along the Williamsburg-Greenpoint waterfront. Since the Bloomberg administration's sweeping 2003 rezoning of the two-mile stretch of East River shoreline, nearly every buildable river-facing plot has been accounted for by developers. More than a dozen master plans are in the works, dominated by residential uses that scale upward to 50 stories and 600-foot heights. One remaining mystery lot is a block-long parcel in Greenpoint currently holding a two-story warehouse at 161-167 West Street (aka 53 Huron Street). The 65,000-square-foot site lies near the India Street ferry stop and is sandwiched between three development sites: Park Tower Group's ten-tower Greenpoint Landing master plan and Mack Real Estate Group/Palin Enterprises' 10 Huron Street (155 West Street), and The Gibraltar at 160 West Street.
More details ahead

January 8, 2016

Supermodel Gigi Hadid’s Nolita Apartment Closes for $2.3M

By Annie Doge

Just yesterday, 6sqft reported that supermodel Gigi Hadid was spotted checking out a $6.5 million apartment at Noho's 10 Bond Street along with new flame, former One Direction member Zayn Malik. Her timing couldn't have been better, because according to city records released today, her current home at 250 Bowery, nearby in Nolita, has closed for $2.3 million. The unit, which was owned by a trust in the name of her mother Yolanda Foster (of "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" fame), first hit the market this past July, asking $2.45 million. Gigi bought the ultra-modern pad in 2014 for $1.92 million, but rumor has it she decided to sell after a stalker tried to break in.
See more of the space

January 8, 2016

New and Improved Design for Shalimar Management’s 543 Second Avenue

By Ondel Hylton

In a well-wishing New Year note, Charles Fridman, president of Shalimar Management, announced that their planned ten-story residential project at 543 Second Avenue will break ground this year, and he's now unveiled a revised set of renderings depicting a substantially different design. Evolving from banal to brutal, the previously thin-skinned, glass-and-metal design has been beefed up into an energetic, cast-in-place concrete structure of undulating floor slabs and tilting exterior columns. Fridman's page states: "We’re planning a 10 Story rental building with 1-2 bedroom apartments. Each apartment will have its own balcony, and part of the building will cantilever over our other property at 249 East 30th Street." Outdated building applications from early 2014 detail a 12-story building housing 18 units spread across 19,000 square feet of floor area. New permits have yet to be filed and according to Fridman, the team came close to building the previous design, but "thankfully" held off.
Find out more ahead

January 7, 2016

Renderings Revealed for Governor Cuomo’s $3B Penn Station Overhaul

By Dana Schulz

6sqft asked readers yesterday if Governor Cuomo would finally be able to get the Penn Station overhaul off the ground, after various news outlets reported that he would be announcing a plan to do just this. The majority of you said it wasn't going to happen, but it looks like the long-envisioned project has just gotten one step closer to reality. During a press conference yesterday at Madison Square Garden, the Governor revealed that he'll be heading up a major revamp of Penn Station, which he called "un-New York," according to Gothamist. The more than $3 billion redevelopment has been dubbed the Empire Station Complex, and a request for proposals will go out this week, due back in 90 days (not good news for the decade-old deal with developers Related Cos. and Vornado Realty). As expected, it includes the long-stalled Moynihan Station project that will convert the adjacent Farley Post Office into a large waiting area, similar in size to the main room at Grand Central. This will increase the size of the nation's busiest transit hub by 50 percent and will connect to the current station by a network of underground tunnels. Though several options are on the table for a redesign, the renderings released by the Governor's office show a glassy and light structure that's quite unlike the current space that Cuomo described as "dark, constrained, ugly, a lost opportunity, a bleak warren of corridors… a miserable experience and a terrible first impression."
More details and renderings ahead

January 7, 2016

$1B Expansion Planned for the Javits Center

By Dana Schulz

It seems like Governor Cuomo's had enough of ugly Manhattan buildings. Fresh off his announcement of a $3 billion overhaul of Penn Station comes another major redevelopment plan–a $1 billion expansion of the Jacob K. Javits Center, already the nation's largest meeting place. First reported by Curbed, the project will increase the building by 1.2 million square feet, adding five times the current meeting space and bringing the total square footage to a massive 3.3 million. Renderings from FXFOWLE show a glassy structure that will house a 58,000-square-foot ballroom (Cuomo says it will be the largest in the northeast), 22,000 square feet of outdoor event space, and a four-level truck garage that will supposedly get 20,000 vehicles off the streets.
See all the renderings

Real Estate Trends

January 7, 2016

Lower East Side Rental at Historic Federal Rowhouse Packs in Lots of Personality

By Emily Nonko

The modest Federal townhouse at 511 Grand Street on the Lower East Side has managed to hang in there since 1829. And today it is boasting a really cool rental apartment on its second and third floors, while the ground floor is home to a cafe. The two-bedroom, two-bathroom unit belongs to artists Steve Mumford and Inka Essenhigh, who rent it out as a short-term, fully furnished rental. This time around it's available from April 1st though September 30th, asking $5,000 a month.
See more

January 7, 2016

Revealed: Brack Capital’s 90 Morton Street Condo Conversion to Have Terraced Penthouses

By Ondel Hylton

Here's our first look at Brack Capital's condominium conversion 90 Morton Street, also known as 627 Greenwich Street. The former printing building was built in 1911 and sits where the commercial lofts of Hudson Square (West Soho) scale downward into the West Village. Brack, headed by Isaac Hera, purchased the 120,000-square-foot corner building for $105 million in late 2014, and in September, the team submitted a $326 million offering plan to the office of the New York Attorney General. Building permits filed for the long-stalled conversion project last summer detail a 35-unit (29 condos) building that will remain 12 stories. It will only gain 1,649 square feet of construction floor area, and it appears its upper floors will be reconfigured into a succession of terraced penthouses. Though the architect of record is listed as Isaac & Stern Architects, the projecting volumes of the upper stories remind us of the work of Eran Chen's ODA Architects. ODA served as the design architects for Brack's 15 Union Square West and the James Hotel in SoHo.
More details ahead

Tina Fey Buys the $9.5M Unit Above Her Current Upper West Side Co-op

By Annie Doge

Funnywoman Tiny Fey pissed off her Upper West Side neighbors recently when it came to light that she's on the board of the American Museum of Natural History, and therefore approved the institution's controversial expansion plan. Unfortunately, it looks like she might be digging herself further into a hole, as she's just bought the co-op above her current apartment at 300 West End Avenue, meaning she and hubby Jeff Richmond will likely be taking down some floors and walls to create one large duplex. According to the Observer, who broke the news, Fey paid $9.51 million for the new four-bedroom unit, much higher than the $7.5 million asking price.
Check out the new digs

January 6, 2016

Revealed: New Renderings of Renzo Piano’s SoHo Tower at 555 Broome Street

By Ondel Hylton

Here's a closer look at Renzo Piano's much-anticipated condominium tower planned for a full block-front in West SoHo, between Broome and Watts streets. Dubbed The SoHo Tower, the 25-story building is being developed by way of a partnership between SHVO, Halpern Real Estate Ventures, Itzhaki Acquisition and Bizzi & Partners Development. The team picked up much of the development site in 2014 for $130 million, and yesterday, the Commercial Observer reported they've secured the final portion of the project site at 555 Broome Street for $9 million.
Even more images of the new tower here

January 6, 2016

POLL: Can Governor Cuomo Finally Get the Penn Station Overhaul off the Ground?

By Dana Schulz

After chatter last month that the state may reboot the plan to expand Penn Station into the adjacent Farley Post Office, the Wall Street Journal is now reporting that Governor Cuomo will announce this week a full overhaul for the nation’s busiest transit hub. It’s expected that his plan will indeed include the projected $900 million post office redevelopment […]

Real Estate Trends

January 6, 2016

First Look at Madigan Development’s Upcoming Hudson Square Tower at 111 Varick Street

By Ondel Hylton

At the edge of the Holland Tunnel's Jersey-bound vortex, Madigan Development is planning to build a 15-story, 49-unit residential building at 111 Varick Street. Anchoring the southwest corner of Broome and Varick Streets in West Soho (aka Hudson Square), the tower is replacing a multi-story parking garage and will sit adjacent to another planned 19-story residential tower at 568 Broome Street. Renderings of 111 Varick show a blocky building clad in a drunken checkerboard pattern of glass and stone. While it has yet to be confirmed if the building will be a condo or rental, large layouts and its prime location between Soho and Tribeca allude to condos.
Find out more

Blackstone’s Purchase of Stuy Town Includes $625M in Air Rights

Photo via Wiki Commons

January 6, 2016

Blackstone’s Purchase of Stuy Town Includes $625M in Air Rights

By Dana Schulz

Photo via Wiki Commons Less than three months ago, the Blackstone Group and Ivanhoe Cambridge's colossal purchase of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village went public. At the time, it was revealed that as part of the $5.46 billion deal Blackstone would reserve 4,500 of the complex's 11,200 apartments for middle-income families for the next 20 years, with an additional 200 units set aside for low-income tenants. But what's just come to light is the $625 million worth of air rights that came along with the buy. The majority of the roughly one million square feet will be transferred elsewhere, but about 250,000 square feet will remain within Stuy Town. As the Post first reported, "These include 200,000 square feet for a community facility, 25,000 square feet for residential and 25,000 square feet for commercial use."
More details this way

Real Estate Trends

January 5, 2016

Long Island City Rental Tower Will Offer Micro Units for ‘Gen Y Professionals’

By Ondel Hylton

Yesterday, 6sqft discussed how Long Island City's Purves Street is a hotbed of construction activity with no less than four residential towers underway along the 500-foot, one-block stretch. On a site situated between Thomson Avenue (where the pioneer condo Arris Lofts rises) and Court Square, Twining Properties has begun excavation work for a 27-story, 168-unit rental tower at 44-14 Purves Street. According to the developer's project page, the rental tower will be known as Watermark Court Square and is to offer "efficient apartment layouts designed for mobile professionals." The handsome albeit unremarkable design by Handel Architects is faced with grey brick and large windows. According to Department of Buildings filings, the ground-up, 302-foot-tall tower will rise along 44th Drive, while a two-story existing building will be rehabilitated along Purves.
More details and renderings

January 5, 2016

Median Sale Price in Manhattan Hits 27-Year High at $1.15M

By Dana Schulz

If you thought you were going to get a deal on a Manhattan apartment this year, you might want to reconsider your big plans. A new report from Douglas Elliman shows that in the fourth quarter of 2015, the borough's median sale price jumped 17 percent to $1.15 million, breaking a 27-year record, according to The Real Deal. If that wasn't enough to make you pause, the report also shows that the average sale price increased 12 percent to $1.9 million and the average price per square foot rose more than 28 percent to $1,645, both record setters. And while co-op sales were down 4 percent, condo sales were up a staggering 28.6 percent, with a median price of $1.7 million. Luxury listings are in a class all their own; their median sale price reached $6 million, a 25 percent increase.
More on the trends ahead

Real Estate Trends

REVEALED: 45 Broad Street, Slated to Be Among the Highest Condo Buildings Downtown

** UPDATE as of 1/6/16: Pizzarotti CEO Rance MacFarland confirmed to Curbed that 45 Broad Street will be a 1,100-foot-tall, 86-story supertall tower. It will have 245 units that will cater to “entry- and mid-level buyers,” as well as five floors of commercial and retail space.

January 5, 2016

REVEALED: 45 Broad Street, Slated to Be Among the Highest Condo Buildings Downtown

By Ondel Hylton

Last October, it was announced that the long-vacant lot in the heart of the Financial District at 45 Broad Street would be redeveloped into a 65-story residential skyscraper by way of a partnership between Pizzarotti IBC and Madison Equities. Now, via Pizzarotti's project page, we have our first look at the design of the 300,000-square-foot CetraRuddy-designed tower that the development group affirms "will be the highest condo in Downtown Manhattan." The team will have to move quickly, though; at least two condo towers are proposed to be taller including Shvo's supertall at 125 Greenwich Street.
More details ahead

January 4, 2016

Dr. Zizmor of Subway Ad Fame Retires and Sells Bronx Mansion All in One Day

By Dana Schulz

Local celebrity Dr. Jonathan Zizmor has been both charming and perplexing subway riders for decades, thanks to his dermatology ads that subtly peddle cosmetic surgery against a rainbow background. But these will soon be a thing of the past, as the Daily News reported this morning that Dr. Zizmor has officially retired and closed his Upper East Side practice. And just hours later, Curbed broke the news that the doctor's Mediterranean Revival mansion in the Fieldston section of the Bronx has gone into contract for $3.075 million after three years on the market. (Bet you never thought you'd hear so much Dr. Zizmor news in day!)
Take a tour of his grand home

Real Estate Trends

January 4, 2016

Website Launched for Rabsky Group’s New Long Island City Rental Tower ‘The Halo LIC’

By Ondel Hylton

To say that Long Island City is undergoing a construction boom is a bit of an understatement. The city's second most populous borough is building a business district...er high-rise bedroom community that will soon rival many American downtowns. The blocks along Jackson Avenue from the Pulaski Bridge to Queens Plaza have been sprinkled with development dust, and at the center of it all is a short dead-end street named Purves where four residential buildings are now under construction and four others have recently finished. Near the street's southeastern terminus, Simon Dushinsky's Rabsky Group has topped off its 26-story, 284-unit rental tower at 44-51 Purves Street and applying the last bits of the building's glass, metal and brick facade. In addition to a number of renderings and a new website, we've uncovered that the 308-foot tall building will be called 'Halo LIC," which we learned is an adjective for something silvery, or an archaic word for money (how fitting). The site was previously planned to give rise to a pair of shorter towers by the Criterion Group but the 28,000 square-foot lot was flipped in 2013 for $32 million.
find out more here

December 31, 2015

Isay Weinfeld’s Jardim Condominium Rises to Street Level Along the High Line

By Ondel Hylton

Foundation work for Isay Weinfeld's Jardim condominium is finally wrapping up and portions of the Chelsea development are now climbing to street level. Rising from the swampy banks of a bygone stream, the mid-block site at 525 West 27th Street is giving way to a set of two 11-story condo buildings encasing an elevated garden oasis. A partnership between Centaur Properties and Greyscale Development Group is responsible for the 95,000 square-foot complex; they purchased the site formerly occupied by the Pink Elephant nightclub in 2014 for $45 million.
Find out more

Should the City Impose a ‘Window Tax’ for Billionaires’ Row Central Park Views?

Google Earth rendering from CityRealty showing some of the supertalls around the south end of Central Park

December 31, 2015

Should the City Impose a ‘Window Tax’ for Billionaires’ Row Central Park Views?

By Dana Schulz

"The builders are charging up to $100 million for apartments that offer helicopter views of lush foliage, jagged skylines, soothing rivers and angelic clouds. They lure the superrich, many with suspect foreign assets, to sky-high mansions. They enrich themselves by exploiting weak zoning rules to pour hideous implants into Manhattan cavities." All of this, says Max Frankel, who was the executive editor of The Times from 1986 to 1994 and lives half a block from Central Park, may need some consequences. And he wonders if this should come in the form of a "user fee," where residents of these Billionaires' Row towers would have to pay a monthly "window tax" based on how high in a given tower their unit is located. And according to his "back-of-the-envelope calculations," this could bring in roughly $1 million a year per building for the city to use on public projects like street work, parks, education, and affordable housing.
More details ahead

December 30, 2015

Attractive New Bushwick Condo Rises on One of Brooklyn’s Ugliest Streets

By Ondel Hylton

It's rare to see a new development in Bushwick with any kind of style and grace, but a recently finished six-unit condominium at 27 Dodworth Street actually looks like some thought went into it. Even more remarkable is that it manages to do so on what is probably the most unfortunate looking street on the eastern seaboard. So breathtakingly ugly in fact that it could be thought of, by some, as chic. And as it turns out, buyers have shelled out up to $1 million for condos along this gritty stretch near the Bed-Stuy-Bushwick border.
See the good, the bad, and the ugly

December 30, 2015

Jonah Hill’s Brother Picks Up a Quirky Soho Co-op for $2.3M

By Annie Doge

Looks like Jordan Feldstein wanted to be much closer to big bro Jonah Hill. The talent manager (his clients include Maroon 5 and Robin Thicke) picked up a loft co-op at 37B Crosby Street in Soho, just a block away from Jonah's current pad at 27 Howard Street. City records show that Feldstein paid $2.3 million for the quirky duplex, which features exposed brick, fire engine-red railings, a custom wine cellar, and a private garden.
Take a look around

December 29, 2015

First Look at Six-Family Townhouses Set for North Williamsburg

By Ondel Hylton

At the northern edge of Williamsburg, near the Greenpoint border, work is beginning on a 12-unit project developed by Ami Barr's Djem Land LLC and designed by Queens-based InFocus Design and Planning. The building is situated at 171-173 Bayard Street, between Graham Avenue and McGuinness Boulevard, and replaces a one-story, nondescript light industrial building that the Long Island-based developers snapped up for $1.8 million in early 2014. Renderings posted on the architect's website show an orderly facade of red brick, large sash windows, and steel lintels. A somewhat strange marble cornice tops the first three levels and the fourth story is set back, simulating a modern rooftop addition atop a rehabilitated manufacturing building.
More details ahead

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