The first two units at health care entrepreneur Daniel E. Straus’ new luxury Upper East Side condominium project are slated to come on the market today, the developer told The Real Deal exclusively.
A penthouse at the 10-unit development, at 33 East 74th Street, will ask $32 million, while a smaller unit on the fourth floor will ask a more modest $14.75 million.
The project comprises the facades of a collection of brownstones formerly owned by the Whitney Museum and a turn-of-the-century townhouse designed by architect Grosvenor Atterbury in 1901.
A part-time philanthropist and CEO of a company that operates a network of nursing and assisted living facilities, Straus snapped up the brownstones, on East 74th Street and Madison Avenue, for $95 million in 2010 from the Whitney, which bought them over several decades to expand its footprint.
Douglas Elliman Development Marketing’s Karen Mansour and Katherine Gauthier are handling marketing.
“We have very limited inventory, so our release strategy is programmed to satisfy certain price points in the market,” Mansour, an executive vice president, told The Real Deal. “We’re releasing one apartment that is representative of the majority of the residences in our building, and another that reflects our most unique offerings — our one-of-a-kind penthouses. All of these apartments are like custom-designed private homes, and we are treating them as such, with a one-by-one approach.”
The five-bedroom, five-bathroom triplex penthouse totals 6,312 square feet and has three sprawling terraces across three floors as well as a private elevator. The master suite alone totals 760 square feet.
The 3,889-square-foot fourth-floor residence has three bedrooms and three bathrooms.
The asking prices for the two units equate to $5,069 and $3,792 per square foot, respectively. By comparison, the most expensive new development in Manhattan in 2013 was the Zeckendorfs’ 18 Gramercy Park, where closed sales averaged more than $4,000 per square foot, according to data provided by CityRealty.
Living spaces in all of the units will have solid oak floors and custom moldings. The bathrooms will feature vein-cut stonework, deep-soak bathtubs and fixtures by German company Dornbracht.
The units’ interiors will be designed by Champalimaud, a firm best known for designing the Dorchester Hotel in London and New York hotels like the Carlyle, the Pierre and the Waldorf Astoria.
Construction has already begun on the project, which is adjacent to the Whitney’s famed Marcel Breuer building. Architecture firm Beyer Blinder Belle is leading the design team for the properties, which will maintain only their historic facades.
On its ground level, the project will have 15,000 square feet of retail space, with 100 feet of Frontage On Madison Avenue. Isaacs and Company is marketing the unit. A representative for the developer told The Real Deal that the property had been attracting interest predominantly from European retailers.