As buyers the world over continue to park their money in Manhattan real estate, towers in Midtown continue to rise. One57, the first to rise on what is now known as Billionaires Row is now competiting with several other luxury condos including 432 Park avenue (Macklowe Properties), 520 Park avenue(Zeckendorf), 220 CPS(Vornado), 252 East 57 street(Worldwide Group), the Nordstrom tower on West 57 street and the “skinny” tower at 111 West 57 street.
At 432 Park avenue, one penthouse is reportedly in contract for $95mm which would fall short of the $100mm benchmark set by the 11k sqft sale at One57. Look for several of these building to attempt to break the $100mm mark in 2015. The Sony building conversion already has announced the availability of a penthouse for $150mm.
So where does this leave international buyers searching to park their reals, yen, yuan etc… hunting for the right place? Practically all of the new luxury condos going up in Midtown, NYC have the requisite amenities, starchitect, and address. 520 Park avenue even paid the church who had the 520 address to change their address to 524 so that the Zeckendorf development could have the coveted Park ave address even though it has no frontage on the avenue. Look for that to become more difficult in the future. As politicians have vowed that they won’t give out “vanity addresses” in the future to buildings without frontage. Also, with the high cost of land as well as scarcity, look for these sites to become more difficult to assemble. Some of these sites were assembled over many years…
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