From left: 75 Wall Street and the interior of a unit at 75 Wall Street
Corcoran Sunshine Marketing has stopped selling units at 75 Wall Street, a residential development at Water Street in Lower Manhattan that sits atop the Andaz hotel, Crain’s reported.
Sources told Crain’s this means that the 346-unit development is going rental. [more]
Sales have unofficially kicked off at One57, Extell Development’s 90-story condominium tower in Midtown, with some prices hitting $6,000 per square foot, according to a source with inside information about the asking prices. The 1,000-foot tall property, at 157 West 57th Street between Sixth and Seventh avenues, is slated to replace New York by Gehry at 8 Spruce Street as the city’s tallest residential building when construction is completed within two years. Extell plans to officially open a sales office at the end of this month, but foreign buyers — primarily from China — have already snapped up some of the units since the developer began shopping them privately last month, according to the source, who asked for anonymity because the information is confidential. [more]
From the October issue: The scenario is now vexingly familiar to Tali Berzak, a vice president at NestSeekers International: Potential buyers at 99 John Street, a Downtown condo conversion where she is the project manager, come to the sales office believing the Financial District is depressed, and make lowball offers accordingly.
In reality, the Financial District submarket has posted sharp gains in the last year, both in sales volume and in prices per square foot, according to the website StreetEasy and brokers who work in the neighborhood. The larger problem, brokers contend, is that accurate sales figures about FiDi are often not widely disseminated. The lack of information, they say, leads to lower offers being rejected — and, in many cases, frustrates potential buyers into looking elsewhere.
“That’s causing deals not to happen that should be happening,” said Prudential Douglas Elliman’s Heather McDonough, who currently has five listings at William Beaver House, the newly constructed condo and rental building at 15 William Street. [more]
Two Financial District condominiums, the Africa Israel-developed 20 Pine Street and the Hakimian Organization-sponsored 75 Wall Street, held a joint open house to showcase their remaining units to brokers (see photos above).
The event started at 20 Pine, which is entering its final sales stage as only about 25 of the 412 units remain on the market. Sales started in the building in January 2006, according to Streeteasy.com, and Warburg Realty serves as the exclusive marketing team. Brokers were shown unit #2503, a 706-square-foot studio asking $925,000; unit #3104, a two-bedroom, 1,573-square-foot apartment asking $2.35 million, and PH12, a two-bedroom, 1,829-square-foot penthouse asking $2.8 million. – Adam Fusfeld Comments
From left: 34 Leonard, Cipriani Club at 55 Wall Street, 75 Wall Street and William Beaver HouseAs some new condominiums struggle with sales, developers are converting units to rentals to create revenue, allowing residents to get the condo lifestyle without the commitment, the Post reported. At 34 Leonard, the first thing that the new owner, Epic, did after taking over the Tribeca development in September was to scrap sales and make it a rental. In five weeks, 12 of the 16 units rented, and “it seems we’ve made the right decision,” said Cara Stone, a spokesperson for Epic. Cipriani Club Residences at 55 Wall Street is also renting unsold units. “Our role is to sell the units, but in the meantime, we’ve had so much demand for short-term rentals,” said Elie Pariente, president of Urban Marketing, which is handling sales. According to Platinum Properties, 75 Wall Street is also renting out some of its available condos, and William Beaver House, also in the Financial District, has had a number of condos for rent as well. [Post]
75 Wall Street
With more than half of its 346 condominium units still unsold, the developers of 75 Wall Street,
in the Financial District, announced today that they have received a
two-year extension on their $263 million construction loan from
Germany’s Bayerische Landesbank. The loan matured April 30, with an
option to extend it for one year according to Rex Hakimian, an
executive director at the Hakimian Organization who developed the
43-story building along with partners Peykar Brothers Realty and
Gorjian Properties. Andaz, a 253-room Hyatt hotel chain that opened in
January, is on the lower floors of the building, which is zoned for
residential and commercial use, and 346 condos are on the upper floors.
So far, 125 units — 36 percent of the condo units — are sold, with 10
currently in contract, according to the Corcoran Sunshine Group, which
is handling the sales and marketing for the project. Following the
opening of the hotel, “sales visits,
offers and closings have increased dramatically,” Hakimian said. Last
year, 75 Wall Street introduced a successful rent-to-own program,
where 100 percent of rent would go to the purchase price of the
apartment and developers said the program is still being offered on a
limited basis. TRD
The Andaz at 75 Wall Street and Elizabeth Berger
The hospitality industry is expanding rapidly in Lower Manhattan, according to economic development organization Alliance for Downtown New York, which reported that the number of hotels in the area has tripled since Sept. 11, 2001. The number of rooms in the area, meanwhile, increased by 60 percent during the same time period. Elizabeth Berger, president of the alliance, said that while business travelers have kept the hospitality market in the area stable, an increasing number of tourists have helped spur hotel expansion. “Business travelers remain a significant market element, but the growth of leisure visitors… shows that Lower Manhattan is a destination of choice,” Berger said. Among the new hotels in the region are the World Center Hotel at 144 Washington Street and the Andaz Hyatt Wall Street at 75 Wall Street. TRD
The Andaz at 75 Wall Street and Elizabeth Berger
The hospitality industry is expanding rapidly in Lower Manhattan, according to economic development organization Alliance for Downtown New York, which reported that the number of hotels in the area has tripled since Sept. 11, 2001. The number of rooms in the area, meanwhile, increased by 60 percent during the same time period. Elizabeth Berger, president of the alliance, said that while business travelers have kept the hospitality market in the area stable, an increasing number of tourists have helped spur hotel expansion. “Business travelers remain a significant market element, but the growth of leisure visitors… shows that Lower Manhattan is a destination of choice,” Berger said. Among the new hotels in the region are the World Center Hotel at 144 Washington Street and the Andaz Hyatt Wall Street at 75 Wall Street. TRD
The recently opened Andaz Wall Street hotel at 75 Wall Street will
open the first ever hotel-sponsored farmers market this summer, the
Village Voice reported. The market will debut July 10 and return
every Saturday through Nov. 20. Participating vendors are all
suppliers to the hotel, and Wall & Water restaurant’s executive chef,
Maximo Lopez May, will offer monthly cooking classes using their
ingredients. [Village Voice]
Prudential Douglas Elliman broker Hela Miodownik and the Andaz at 75 Wall StreetA state Supreme Court judge has dismissed a lawsuit by a Prudential Douglas Elliman agent who sued to back out of her contract at the Andaz at 75 Wall Street, claiming her agreement was a sham deal that was designed to promote sales to foreign buyers. Elliman broker Hela Miodownik filed suit in August 2009 alleging that
the developers, led by the Hakimian Organization, did not allow her to
close on apartment 21D after all the remaining units in the building
were sold, as she had planned.
She also claimed that the developer improperly used a broker from Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group instead of a lawyer to negotiate the condominium unit contract. [more]
