Larry Kruysman of Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group at 75 Wall Street
From the January issue: Like a stampede of bulls, developers thundered into the Financial
District during the boom to snap up dusty offices and fashion them into
luxury apartments. And the city cheered them on, doling out generous
tax breaks to encourage conversions that directly resulted in a dozen
high-profile new condos, and more than 3,000 units, in the last five
years. But now FiDi is glutted with inventory, even more so than most
Manhattan neighborhoods, as hundreds of new units sit unsold. And it
could be more than a year before the apartments find buyers, according
to developers, city officials and brokers. Until they do, the neighborhood will hover in a hard-to-break holding pattern, because many of the larger-scale conversions are so similar in scope, finishes and amenities. About 30 condos have been built or planned since 2004, according to the Downtown Alliance, and many have been successful. But the more ambitious projects, and the ones that have struggled, brokers say, are the area’s bellwethers.
