LuxuryBlurb
Posts Tagged ‘200 Eleventh Avenue’
Saturday, June 9th, 2012
 Posted by Leonard Steinberg on June 9th, 2012
In this morning’s Financial Times an article addresses how the Danish believe that good design improves lives. I see this trend more and more in New York real estate: the growth of consumer’s esthetic awareness has literally exploded in the past 10 years and their understanding of the benefits of good design keeps improving and accelerating.
While some may argue that the appreciation for good design is something only for the very wealthy, they are wrong: a revolution is taking place in the democratization of design, and great, well designed products can be found at almost any price point.
I do think we have a long way to go in Manhattan residential real estate, but it amazes me how enthused and captivated people are when they witness or visit well designed properties. And there are a few in New york for sure. I have seen this so many times at 200 Eleventh Avenue, the Annabelle Selldorf designed building known by many as the Sky Garage building. While it is true most of the buyers were excited by the ability to park alongside your apartment in a garage accessed by a car elevator, I have found the bulk of buyers were really captivated by the exceptionally designed spaces, with their soaring ceilings, large windows, well proportioned rooms and no hideous mechanical intake grills that litter so many so-called high end properties.
I have seen first hand how a beautifully designed apartment sells for more (and quicker) than an identical, but poorly designed apartment…..even if the poorly designed unit was on a higher floor with better light and views! It’s almost unbelievable, but yes, people’s senses are highly impacted by the feel and mood (and design) of a living space. At 130 West 12th Street, gorgeous design, furnishings and art masked low ceilings that would otherwise have de-valued the entire building. I have seen ‘ugly basements’ transformed to great living spaces (without windows), view-less apartmnents that felt good because the cleverly designed window treatments made the lack of a view not an issue. And while some may not have the budget for a world class interior designer or architect, HGTV and a host of other magazines show how you can practically embrace good design on a shoestring budget.
In Denmark, this year marks the 10th anniversary of Index: Design to Improve Life, a non-profit organisation that promotes the idea that interior design as a decisive factor in creating a better world. Now internationally recognised it offers the world’s largest monetary prize for design at about $650,000.00. There are 400 furniture companies in Denmark producing about $ 2 billion worth of goods: 80% are exported, making homewares the country’s fifth most important export industry. Much of this furniture is still influenced by those original designers such as Arne Jacobsen, Hans Wegner, Verner Panton and Poul Henningsen, items seen regularly in Manhattan apartments.
In New York, Danish born super-star acrhitect, Thomas Juul Hansen, has become most famous recently for his exceptional, thoughtful interior design of Extell’s One57, New York’s tallest resdiential tower. His work is best known in the Jean Georges restaurants as well as One York, HL23 and One Madison Park, which is planned to re-launch this Fall. His sleek, modernist design is especially loved by those who have lived with it, a style of design that doesn’t compete with your life, yet compliments it and allows individuality too.
At 54 Bond Street and several other propeties since, I have learned the genius of Steven Harris, whose spaces enthuse, calm and inspire all those that visit it. And those who live in a Steven Harris designed property will espouse on the value good design has had on their lives.
I have lived in a Selldorf designed apartment for the past 2 years, and I have to say the sophistication in each of the decisions made, the balance, the proportion, have all truly impacted my quality of life. Esthetics please everyone it seems, and its a potent message to developers not to underestimate its power in the value of a new building. As a large stream of new buildings comes to market over the course of the next 18 months, I strongly believe the esthetic bar in New York real estate will have been raised quite notably…..and about time too!
Monday, April 30th, 2012
 A new sales price record for West Chelsea: We just closed on an apartment at 200 Eleventh Avenue at $ 2,800/sf.
Tuesday, December 6th, 2011
 Posted by Leonard Steinberg on December 6th, 2011
The opening of the Crystal Bridges Museum of Art in Bentonville Arkansas reminded me of the power a strong art museum has in attracting the crowds…. The Whitney Museum currently attracts 300,000 visitors annually to its uptown location. When the new Whitney opens on the West Side in the Meatpacking District, those 300,000 visitors will walk through the neighborhood…thats about 25,000 per months or over 800 new visitors a day. Is the area prepared for this? Certainly this will become a major tourist attraction, combining shopping in the Meatpacking District, a visit to the Whitney, followed by a stroll up the Highline Park to visit more of the contemporary galleries in West Chelsea. Maybe pop into the new Pier 57 too?
While what has happened on the West side to date is pretty revolutionary (The Highline, Hudson Parks, The Standard, Americano and Dream Hotels, the A-grade residential buildings such as 100, 200 Eleventh Avenue, the three Richard Meier Towers, The Superior Ink bulding, the 300+ art galleries), I feel what is coming over the next two to three years will make the West side of Manhattan, from Greenwich Village to northern West Chelsea truly the PLATINUM MILE, surpassing anyone’s expectations. It will represent a quality of life never seen before in Manhattan with a unique mix of culture, parks and architectural splendor this city has never known.
Monday, January 24th, 2011
  Posted by Leonard Steinberg on January 24, 2011
Have you noticed how cars have become more cleverly integrated into architecture recently?
Two great examples: 1111 Lincoln Road in Miami beach designed by Herzog and de Meuron and developed by Robert Wennet…..and 200 Eleventh Avenue in New York City by Annabelle Selldorf, developed by Glauco Lolli Ghetti of Urban Muse and Young Woo & associates.
Whats next in CARCHITECTURE?
Friday, December 31st, 2010
 Posted by Leonard Steinberg on December 31, 2010
Of course we are completely biased, as we were actively involved in the creation and marketing of 200 Eleventh Avenue. And while it may not be a huge compliment, we took it as one when CURBED.COM rated 200 Eleventh Avenue the BEST NEW BUILDING OF 2010.
Kudo’s to Annebelle Selldorf who has not yet received the (well deserved) recognition for the architecture of the building, not just the En Suite Sky Garage that made it famous. With it’s gracefully curved terracota-clad base and stainless steel tower, the contextual contemporary architectural style represents a significant departure from the dearth of flat glass buildings constructed in the first decade of the 2000′s.
The building, located at Eleventh Avenue and 24th Street, in West Chelsea, New York, has set record pricing for the area: A recent sale produced pricing in excess of $ 3,700/sf.
We agree with Curbed 100%.
Sunday, December 19th, 2010
 Posted by Leonard Steinberg on December 19, 2010
Downtown New York residential real estate inventories are now approaching the levels of 2005…..does this equate to the beginnings of a shortage? With new construction having ground to a virtual halt over the past 2 years, we should not expect any brand new DELIVERABLE quality ultra-luxury apartments for at least 2 years. This may result in two scenarios:
1) Sellers who have been waiting for pricing to recover to sell their homes may list now, thus producing the quantity of inventory to keep the markets balanced.
2) Because rebounding new construction will only be able to deliver product in about 2 years, pricing on ultra-luxe buildings could escalate, possibly dramatically. Ultra-luxe is in pretty limited supply regardless with only a handful of buildings that qualify. New ones are on the way.
In the past weeks we have seen numerous prize apartments sell at premium prices: Wendy Maitland just sold a prize unit at 40 Mercer in Soho for over $ 3,200/sf. Raphael De Niro just sold the penthouse at 166 Perry Street in Greenwich Village, and this is on top of units at Superior Ink, 200 Eleventh Avenue (West Chelsea) and 100 Eleventh Avenue (a non-top-floor penthouse was recently sold by Holly Parker for a premium price, $ 2,700/sf, although the press focused exclusively on the discount off the asking price). With these units gone, sold at premium pricing, and not that many left of this caliber, the next few months could prove to be very interesting indeed. Are we entering an era of LUXE HYPER-INFLATION?
Wednesday, November 24th, 2010
 Posted on November 24, 2010 by Leonard Steinberg
Are Americans un-grateful, using Thanksgiving as a veiled attempt at appearing thankful? Here are some thoughts:
1) We have exited a HUGE recession, somewhat close to a depression within 24 months, and yet everyone is complaining how SLOW the recovery is.
2) Real estate prices, while certainly off their highs of 2007/2008 in New York, have recovered nicely in what usually took MANY years to recover. In fact, there are several new pricing records being broken right now. (Think 15 Central Park West, 200 Eleventh Avenue, 400 West 12th Street, etc)
3) Corporate America is crying foul: This government is so ANTI-BUSINESS!!!!! So why the $ 1,6 TRILLION in corporate profits? That does not add up.
4) The right is crying: Lower spending, lower taxes…..that does not add up either.
5) The left is crying: Spend more, raise taxes…..that does not add up, and continues to encourage government reliance, a system that has failed elsewhere.
6) The ultra-religious cry acceptance of others and forgiveness in their churches, mosques and synagogues, yet are responsible for most wars and conflict. Can you really be pro-war AND pro-life simultaneously?
7) Most of us feel like we aren’t getting enough, yet we have more than any others on this planet. The poor think having a dishwasher is suffering, and the rich feel not buying that new Birkin bag is simply not fair!
8) New Yorkers dream of California sunshine and Californians dream of East Coast ‘seasons’…..
I could go on, but you get the picture. We are all rather spoiled. And now would be as good a time as ever to really sit back, look in the mirror, and see things the way they really are.
If we have our health, we should all be REALLY thankful right now for what we have.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Friday, November 19th, 2010
 The penthouse at the Superior Ink building in Greenwich Village, New York, owned by Houston Rockets owner, Leslie Alexander, has sold for a record $ 31,5million according to the Wall Street Journal. But is it a record for Downtown? Yes and no.
The quadruplex combination penthouse at 200 Eleventh Avenue sold for around $ 33 million, also raw, in 2009, and while larger, hence a lower $$$/sf price, that selling price does beat this sale. The sale of the penthouse at 145 Hudson Street is another notable exception.
“It is nevertheless a testament to the ressiliancy of the Greenwich Village real estate market in New York, a zip code named one of the Top 5 by FORBES recently,” says Leonard Steinberg publisher of LUXURYLETTER and a managing director with Prudential Douglas Elliman. “The Robert A. M. Stern designed building boasts superb sunset views over the Hudson River, and is one of very few full service buildings in the area. It commands a premium for many reasons, but most notably are the views, services, quality of space and the Stern-cachet. I do believe the price could have been significantly higher if the space had been beautifully finished out, as there is always a market for SUPER-TROPHY-PENTHOUSES in Manhattan.”
Saturday, November 6th, 2010
 In this morning’s Financial Times, Aswath Damodaran, the NYU business school professorwho moonlights as the guy who teaches Goldman Sachs trainees about how to value companies, said he defined luxury as an industry that has figured out how to leave people feeling good about being suckered. He also said you can’t value luxury; it’s in the eye of beholder, but you can try to value a brand name, because a brand name is what gives you the power to charge a higher price for exactly the same product someone else has.
So do the brand names SUPERIOR INK, ONE JACKSON SQUARE, 100 ELEVENTH AVENUE, 200 ELEVENTH AVENUE, etc deliver the exact same product as other lesser brand buildings and charge much more?
New York residential real estate development has certainly abused the word ‘luxury’ over the past decade, and we think the majority of ‘luxury’ buildings consisted primarily of a plush sounding brand name, renderings of what was promised that skewered reality, often featuring couture-clad super-models, a very fancy lobby, a somewhat impressive facade, and then very ordinary apartments that do not qualify as anything special.
There have been exceptions: Some buildings have gone much further than the Louis Vuitton-style thinking of charging a fortune for a plastic bag made in China supported by excessive branding to justify an exorbitant price: A building like 100 Eleventh Avenue designed by Jean Nouvel, virtually re-invents space: while many new apartments do a very nice interior finish out, I would challenge anyone to create this finish in an existing space that does not have the remarkable windows, the ceiling heights and that unmistakable Jean Nouvel esthetic, whether you like it or not. These element could be re-created in cheaper space only to a point, and then they would fall short because of the structural aspects that are simply impossible to duplicate without ground-up construction.
Is Superior Ink really superior? The common areas and services certainly are: we were a bit disappointed with the actual apartments although the views and light are outstanding in many. 15 Central Park West delivers on many levels, but we felt the finish out and layouts of some of the apartments was rather dull: as expected, many buyers renovated. The Richard Meier Towers delivered a stellar modernist product, the like of which had never been seen anywhere in Manhattan before. Structurally there were some compromises, dictated mostly by the land. Pallazzo Chupi delivered a unique product, but it too had some elements that were questionable for a luxury product. The Bloomberg building delivered stellar, highrise apartments with an impressive building and continues to command premium pricing, as does the Time Warner Center, although we find many of those apartments a bit difficult because of the odd shape and proportioning of many of the rooms.
Would 200 Eleventh Avenue be the same if it did not have 24ft ceilings in the living room combined with protected park, river and skyline views, COMBINED with those superb windows AND mechanicals that were discrete and meaningfully concealed? Where in New York can you install a garage attached to your apartment? Impossible.
The inability to easily re-create a product is what we think true luxury is, and in real estate it has to encompass many elements:
1) A unique location with protected, meaningful views and exposures.
2) Significant architecture: architecture that cannot just be replicated by an interior finish out alone.
3) A composition within the building that protects its status. Inexpensive studios in a building mixed with super-luxury large units can deflate a building’s status.
4) Engineered mechanicals: discrete building systems that do not impact the quality of space (no hideous grills or intake panels!), quality windows, elevators large enough to fit the type of furniture and art associated with a luxury home.
5) Building amenities that are useful and meaningful to owners, delivered in a taste level that go well beyond utilitarian.
6) Building services, including a 24 hour doorman and quality super, are critical.
7) Strong proportioning: rooms designed to be lived in, with good ceiling height/volume, width and breadth. Rooms should be designed to accommodate furniture placement easily.
8) Technology: while most of this can be installed to meet the individual tastes of owners, the building should have technology built in to maximize efficiency of the systems as well as security for owners. Security is luxury.
So yes, we would conclude that there is such a thing as real luxury in Manhattan real estate, but it is in very short supply. And future projects will have to step up to deliver not just a partial list to ‘get by’, but the complete package, as the audience being catered to is now comparing what we deliver to other amazing products in other large cities around the world and New York has to work a lot harder to deliver much better.
Thursday, October 28th, 2010
 Tonight, 200 Eleventh Avenue, the iconic new landmark in the West Chelsea Arts District designed by Annabelle Selldorf and built by Glauco Lolli-Ghetti of Urban Muse and Young Woo and Associates came to life with the launch of SNOB magazine, the Russian language magazine geared towards the growing Russian community in the USA.
On one of the most perfect evenings, a large, well-heeled crowd ascended to a dramatic penthouse in the building currently listed by Leonard Steinberg and Herve Senequier of Prudential Douglas Elliman for $ 17,5million. Beluga Caviar and Champagne were flowing, with thousands of candles and 2 bands playing. The dramatic double height loggia terrace boasted the most remarkable panorama of Midtown Manhattan as a backdrop. Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov, the owner and publisher of SNOB, towered over the crowd, yet he never felt constrained by the 24ft ceilings of the large living room with views in every direction.
The magazine, operating out of a Dumbo office, will include a social-networking website and an elite club that hosts invite-only cocktail receptions, readings and film screenings around the U.S. The September issue features a cover story on Stepan Pachikov, the Russian founder of a handwriting-recognition software company. Snob will be distributed 10 times a year, running a circulation of 20,000 in New York.
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Mike Albanese 
Lola Gardner 
Congrats! http://www.stevenwmiller.com
congrats!
congrats Jackie!