Sales still in a slump at post-2016 Trump Tower
Living under the shadow of having President Trump as an occasional neighbor–and as a sign on the front of your building–doesn’t do much for condo property values in midtown Manhattan, if commercial leasing and residential sales at Trump Tower are any indication. CityRealty reports that vacancies persist in the commercial podium of 721 Fifth Avenue, and residential condo sales in the mixed-use tower have yet to recover from recent stagnation: Almost one half of the units up for sale have cut their initial asking prices, and all but two of the 11 condos whose sales closed this year have sold at an often-considerable–more than 10 percent–discount.
Chart courtesy of CityRealty.
Average sales figures like the ones in 2019 haven’t been seen since 2006: Price per square foot has averaged $1,643, and available listings at the 58-story tower average $2,078 per foot. Sellers and prospective buyers aren’t seeing eye to eye.
When the brash 37-year-old real estate magnate built his namesake tower in 1983, the 664-foot-tall building boasted some of the priciest apartments in New York City. Now, street congestion, barricades, and security details hovering at its base, and the fact that much of East 56th street is closed to traffic that could benefit business owners–in addition to the President’s lack of love from a mostly-Democrat-voting city–are the likely reasons for the commercial vacancies; CityRealty reports a drop in occupancy that fell from 100 percent in 2013 to 84 percent this year after falling to 82 percent in 2016.
On the condo end, of the 11 non-overlapping homes currently on the market, five have had price chops of 8.5 to 20 percent since they were first listed. The priciest, a three-bedroom, 2,509-square-foot, 61st-floor pad, has slipped from $12.5M to $10M since its January emergence. The same issues that have plagued the building’s commercial units–and the many attempts to dump the Trump name at other buildings that suffer its presence and a campaign to name the street out front after Barack Obama–are likely to blame for sluggish residential sales.
But the tower is far from vacant: 238 apartments remain at 89 percent occupancy, which lines up with similar properties in the neighborhood. And lagging prices could mean opportunity in the eyes of bargain-hunting buyers seeking a deal on Billionaire’s Row–and Central Park Views look good no matter who’s in the White House.
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[Via CityRealty]
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