From left: Fredrik Eklund, John Gomes and a 250 Bowery interior

A penthouse at 250 Bowery, the 24-unit condominium project developed by VE Equities and designed by Morris Adjmi, is in contract for $2,500 per square foot, The Real Deal has learned. Douglas Elliman’s Fredrik Eklund, who is handling sales at the building with his colleague John Gomes, uploaded an Instagram photo of the apartment yesterday, noting that the contract price is a price-per-square-foot record “for the area,” meaning the Bowery. [more]

The exterior and interior of 250 Bowery

Units at 250 Bowery, the eight-story black metal and glass condo being developed by VE Equities, have finally come online, but prospective buyers enticed by virtually staged snaps of the building’s modern interiors may be out of luck. A number of the property’s 24 units are already spoken for, VE co-founder Zach Vella told The Real Deal, thanks to a quiet pre-launch marketing push by Douglas Elliman brokers Fredrik Eklund and John Gomes. [more]

250 Bowery

In the ceaseless destruction and creation of New York City’s building stock, many neighborhoods must be protected and cherished from rash and unthinking developers. One such neighborhood is decidedly not the Bowery. Any alteration to this unlovely stretch of the Lower East Side will only improve the place and cannot come quickly enough. It is with no small satisfaction, therefore, that I can report, after many delays, a foreclosure and a new developer, that 250 Bowery, near Stanton Street, is finally getting off the ground…. [more]

From left: Justin Ehrlich and Zach Vella of VE Equities, John Gomes & Fredrik Eklund of Elliman and 60 Collister Street

Following a successful sell out of 471 Washington Street in January, investment and development firm VE Equities has a contract out on the final unit at the former American Express Carriage House at 60 Collister Street, another Tribeca luxury condominium developed by the company, co-founder Zach Vella told The Real Deal today. [more]

From left: 250 Bowery, 263 Bowery and 195 Bowery

The downtrodden strip of Bowery between Houston and Canal streets is finally beginning to flourish, the New York Post reported. While the area north of Houston Street has been gentrifying for years, the Bowery was still largely known for its kitchen-supply and lighting stores below Houston Street. Thanks to the arrival of a handful of new condominiums, the New Museum and flashy retail stores, and the street’s proximity to bordering neighborhoods including Nolita, the East Village, the Lower East Side and Chinatown that is beginning to change. [more]

New renderings of 250 Bowery (courtesy of architects Morris Adjmi and Aldo Andreoli)

Construction is now underway at 250 Bowery for a planned 40,000-square-foot mixed-use building, according to Morris Adjmi and Aldo Andreoli, the project’s architects. The building is being developed by Zach Vella and Justin Ehrlich of VE Equities, two of The Real Deal’s rising industry stars, who have also brought 949 Park Avenue, 471 Washington and 1 North Moore Street to the market this year — all of which are marketed by Prudential Douglas Elliman’s Fredrik Eklund and John Gomes. The eight-story building at 250 Bowery will feature two floors of art
gallery space below 24 one-, two- and three-bedroom condominium units
(see newly released renderings above). TRD… [more]

From left: Justin Ehrlich and Zach Vella

VE Equities, let by partners Zach Vella and Justin Ehrich (two of the rising real estate stars featured in The Real Deal’s April issue), is in the process of bringing four properties — 250 Bowery, 471 Washington, 1 North Moore and 949 Park Avenue — to the market, the New York Post reported, and that makes them one of the few active developers through the downturn. VE purchased 250 Bowery from Peter Moore Associates, which tried to bring a condo-hotel to the site, and is turning it into an eight-story condo with 24 residential units as well as retail space. The firm took over the failed development site at 471 Washington Street in Tribeca and transformed it into a 12-unit condo with 10 units reportedly in contract. … [more]

With fewer hotel rooms under construction, hotel developers hope the reduction in new rooms will help to revive the hospitality industry.

The October 2009 STR/TWR/Dodge Construction Pipeline Report noted that the total active U.S. hotel development pipeline includes 4,089 projects comprising 435,265 rooms.

This represents a 32.7 percent decrease in the number of rooms in the total active pipeline — which includes projects in the construction, final planning and planning stages, but not in the pre planning stage — compared to October 2008.

“The number of rooms in construction fell 41.2 percent from the same time last year,” said Duane Vinson, vice president at STR. A number of planned hotels have ground to a halt in Manhattan including the Lower East Side’s 180 Ludlow Street.
… [more]