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HFZ aims for $1.3B sellout at Belnord conversion
UWS rental-condo conversion is neighborhood's priciest after 15 CPW
The Belnord – the stately, century-old residential complex in the heart of the Upper West Side – is officially going condo with a total price tag of $1.3 billion.
Developer HFZ Capital filed plans to convert the rental property, on the northeast corner of Broadway and 86th Street, into condominiums, according to plans submitted with the New York attorney general’s office.
The total sellout of $1.3 billion makes the project the second-most expensive condo planned for the Upper West Side, after Zeckendorf Development’s 15 Central Park West, which had a sellout of $1.73 billion.
The Belnord, a limestone-and-brick structure that stretches the length of 86th Street Between Broadway And Amsterdam Avenue, was built in 1908. The building is on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
Ziel Feldman’s HFZ bought the residential portion of the building, which also contains valuable ground-floor retail, from Extell Development last year for $575 million. The price came out to roughly $1,000 per square foot or $2.64 million for each of the 218 units, many of which contain original moldings and overlook the building’s central courtyard.
Before that, the Belnord last traded for $15 million in 1994 when it was scooped by a group of investors including Extell’s Gary Barnett – who once called the building a “labor of love” – along with Feldman and Kevin Maloney, now principal of Property Markets Group.
According to the offering plan, the condominium will have 213 residential units. The developer’s plans for rent-regulated units are unclear. Parking is not included in the plan.
HFZ declined to comment.
Based on the $1.3 billion sellout, the average price for the Belnord’s 213 apartments comes out to $6.1 million.
Last year, Feldman told the Wall Street Journal that prewar apartments can command a premium, despite the shiny new condos being developed around the city. “There are those people who only want to live in a glass tower,” he said. “Others only want to live in prewar buildings.”