LuxuryBlurb
Posts Tagged ‘Macklowe’
Thursday, December 8th, 2011
 Posted by Leonard Steinberg on December 8th, 2011
Is 57th Street becoming the new PARK AVENUE? With ONE 57, the EXTELL developed tower located between 6th and 7th avenues on 57th street commanding prices upwards of $ 5,000/sf comes confirmation that Macklowe’s site (now CIM)of the former Drake Hotel on Park Avenue and 57th Street will become….THE DRAKE HOTEL, located at 432 Park Ave, and designed by Rafael Vinoly. The plans show that a 1,300 foot tall tower will occupy this site, making it one of the tallest structures in Manhattan, taller than the Empire State building that measures about 1,250sf….the Freedom Tower will be over 1,700sf tall, still shorter than the Burj Dubai at over 2,000sf (See it in the latest Mission Impossible). Supposedly it will feature 128 condominiums with 12 foot tall ceilings with a driveway to ensure access privacy. The total cost of this mega-building is approximately $1 billion. Completion is expected somewhere around 2015/2016.
So will 57th Street elevate in status to attract this price-point of buyer? There were many naysayers when Trump developed 1 Central Park West, followed by the TIME WARNER CENTER…..all said Columbus Circle was a dump and no-one would live there. They were wrong. many said no-one would want to live next to Bloomingdale’s, and the BLOOMBERG building, 1 Beacon Court proved them wrong. 57th Street does boast some very prestigious retail, from Chanel to Louis Vuitton, Phillip’s, Burberry, Dior, etc…..and it is home to the Four Season’s hotel, a favourite amongst the super-rich visiting Manhattan. The Drake does have the Park Avenue address to fall back on, so chances are it will succeed. The key will be quality and supply-and-demand: these are hefty price expectations, and only time will tell if the market is deep enough in the $ 5,000+/sf category. Inflation may help.
Saturday, November 19th, 2011
 Posted by Leonard Steinberg on November 19th, 2011
The other night I was invited to the launch of EXTELL’s newest addition to the New York skyline, One 57, the Christian de Portzamparc-designed 90 story, 1,000ft tall Tower located at 157 West 57th Street between 7th and 8th Avenues. Towering above the Time Warner Center, Trump’s One Central Park West, and certainly looking down on the neighborhood icon 15 Central Park West, the 135 residential units will rise above a 210-room Park Hyatt Hotel, offering un-obstructed panoramic views of Central Park and the entire tri-state region.
The occasion was a grand one indeed: Manhattan Brokerage Royalty came out in full force, immaculately attired in Prada, Louboutin’s, sequins and all. A string quartet greeted guests as they embarked from the elevators and led them through palatial double doors into the sales office/showroom. No expense has been spared in creating certainly one of the most dramatic showrooms ever, resplendent with floor to ceiling screens showcasing a movie of the building and environment, two mock-up kitchens and a master bathroom. Severely chic black, white and deep wood tones featured. The interior design is the responsibility of uber-chic Thomas Juul Hansen, one of New York’s premiere designer architects responsible for projects such as One Madison Park, One York, Jean Georges and Perry street to name a few. The quality of the Smallbone kitchens is immediately apparent, vastly superior to most of the designer name kitchens one sees regularly. I thought the floorplans were particularly strong, the perfect take on a classic apartment with a very modern, purist sensibility. The well proportioned, squared off rooms are reminiscent of One Beacon Court, another building many considered to be in a less-than-stellar location that has been hugely successful.
I thought the bathroom was rather beautiful and especially grandly scaled for highrise living. Architecturally, the look of the building is one of Severe Gotham Chic with definite Art Deco-inspired undertones, and should definitely appeal to many foreign buyers seeking a glossy New York experience.
Several brokers muttered that there are not enough Russian buyers to buy all these units: I suspect that sales will start to take off mostly once buyers have the ability to witness the views on site, and it may be challenging at the $ 5,000+/sf pricing not being directly on Central Park: 57th Street is not exactly Fifth Avenue. I also believe the true value of these apartments may only be realized once the building is completed and buyers have the ability to walk through the spaces, getting a feeling not only for the bathrooms and kitchens, but also the light, views, volume of space and the other finishes so critical to this price point. Hopefully the finish quality takes its cues from One Hyde Park, where this profile of buyer was willing to spend the extra dollars knowing the apartments did not have to be gutted. This building is for those that love super-highrise living, want spectacular views, grand spaces, full services, tight security, a central location, sleek, modernist design (the opposite of the Plaza or 15 Central Park West) and do not want to renovate.
It was heartening to see luxury Manhattan New Development spring back to life: this will be one of several new modernist buildings for the uber-rich coming to the market over the next year or so, including Macklowe’s 1,300ft + tall Drake building on Park Avenue at 57th Street and One Madison Park. Other, more humanly scaled buildings are coming too, so the mix and variety will be outstanding, bringing an end to the very limited inventory of top-notch apartments currently available. I believe the quality bar will be raised dramatically by this level of competition, and it will be an exciting time in New York real estate for sure.
Thursday, June 30th, 2011
 Posted by Leonard Steinberg on June 30th, 2011
The Witkoff Group won in the bidding for the Toy Building, the Madison Square Park landmark once slated to be condominiums by developer Yitzhak Tessler.
Supposedly the bidding was fierce with competitive bidders S.L. Green and Macklowe losing out on the purchase of this magnificent structure that boasts spectacular frontage onto Madison Park, not to mention Eataly as its next door neighbor. (The Mathematics Museum is coming too!) Architecturally it stands in sharp contrast to its neighbor across the way, One Madison Park, the all glass tower still suffering from the pains of the recent economic meltdown that left both buildings in trouble. If the Toy Building was a ‘troubled asset’, the market has certainly recovered very nicely considering its selling price rumored to be just under $ 200 million.
This building located at 1107 Broadway is exactly what the market is calling for now: elegant, well scaled apartments in a prime, convenient location, fronting a park, in an architecturally grounded, regal pre-war structure with large windows and strong ceiling heights.
Thursday, January 13th, 2011
  Posted by Leonard Steinberg on January 13, 2011
After a 2 year hiatus, ‘New Development’, the darling of Manhattan high end real estate is coming back with a vengeance! We hear new buildings such as the Extell’s Park Hyatt building, Harry Macklowe’s Park Avenue tower, 250 West Street, the Rudin’s St.VIncent building are all moving forward aggressively. Almost completed buildings One Madison Park shows strong signs of life and 245 Tenth Avenue is back on track for a Spring launch.
Everywhere we hear chatter of brand new projects, old projects coming to life, and buildings in limbo being resurrected. Based on the dreadful supply of quality apartments, this is happening out of necessity. The big questions are:
1) How will the banks view financing these projects? What will interest rates be by the time they close?
2) How soon can they actually be delivered to prospective buyers: do buyers have the will or the guts to commit now to a property that may only be delivered 18 months to 30 months from now?
3) With the expiration of the 421-A tax abatement program, will those buildings that don’t have a tax abatement have monthly carrying costs so high they scare off buyers or are unfairly dis-advantaged next to those buildings that do have the abatement because they were secured before the program ended?
4) Will buyers be equipped to buy again from floorplans? (see previous post).
5) What kind of pricing can developers realistically expect? Lets face it, the record prices of 15 Central Park West were only achieved when buyers could physically tour the building, completed, up and running. The value of the finished product should not be under-estimated.
6) Some developers of new developments in New York were culprits of delivering buildings that fell far short of the promises made in their sales offices: have buyers of New York property forgotten this already? Or have developers been forgiven and has trust returned? With the power of the blogs, I believe those developers that screwed up in the past will have to provide much greater assurances and incentives to provide sufficient confidence in their ability to deliver a quality building. Those that did deliver quality, will be handsomely rewarded.
7) Pricing: Labor and materials and land all cost less now than at the peak: will these savings be passed on to the consumer for the first group of buyers to incentivize momentum? I see no way around this. Those who take the biggest risk should be rewarded for doing so.
8) Will the weak dollar save the day as foreign buyers view New York’s prices as ‘good buys’? Lets face it, in China the recession was a very brief moment…..these buyers are still quite used to buying off floorplans.
We believe the beginning will be tough, but will improve as buyers recognize the opportunity for buying a quality existing property is slim with the current limited supply.
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