Clockwise from top left: Chelsea Modern, Farrell’s apartment, Robert Gladstone and Brian Farrell

When the first three buyers failed to close on townhouse-style gallery duplexes in the Chelsea Modern building at 447 West 18th Street, between Ninth and 10th avenues, earlier this year, developer Robert Gladstone, owner of Madison Equities, turned to a new marketing strategy– inviting a celebrity artist to live in the building — for free. The developers have provided a $2.85 million, 2,700-square-foot gallery duplex to New York City-based artist and “Real Housewives of New York” guest star Brian Farrell (he’s the one that dated and painted ‘Real Housewife’ Sonja Morgan’s portrait on the show) to use as his painting studio and gallery. He has been encouraged to host events with the goal of driving prospective buyers to the building. … [more]

Kelly Mack, 36, is president of Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group.
Specializing in the planning, design, marketing, and sales of luxury
residential developments, the company has generated over $9 billion in
sales since she became president in 2006. Mack earned her MBA at New
York University before joining Corcoran Sunshine, where she became
executive vice president in 2004. Last year, Mack was named the
first-ever Distinguished Young Alumna by New York University.

Which amenities are popular in new buildings today, and how has that
changed over the past year?
Amenities still create value — that
hasn’t changed. The strength of sales at a building like the Rushmore,
one of the most amenitized buildings in Manhattan, demonstrates that new
development buyers still want the complete package. That being said,
are there other developers who are scaling back on amenities during
predevelopment? Some are. 

Compiled by Candace Taylor.… [more]

An unsuspecting pedestrian might well believe, as he walked down 18th
Street between 9th and 10th avenues, that 459 and 447 West 18th Street
is comprised of one building. To the west this composite reads as a
sturdy affair of masonry and metal cladding and to the east, a stunning
glass curtain wall in various shades of blue. On closer
inspection, however, it becomes clear that these are two entirely
different developments. Surely the recently completed buildings are
jarringly divergent from a stylistic perspective, but that very
incongruity is so much a part of contemporary taste that it looks, in
the present instance, like a daring post-modern conceit. more

459 West 18th Street (left) and Chelsea Modern

… [more]