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]

Developer SDS Procida couldn’t have asked for better weather to show off the last three penthouses at the Richard Meier-designed On Prospect Park.

Brilliant sunshine and cooling breezes greeted visitors last night to the glass and steel tower at 1 Grand Army Plaza (though the wind did cause quite a few cocktail napkins to disappear). Brokers and potential buyers wandered through three newly unveiled penthouses — all pure white in typical Meier fashion — with floor-to-ceiling windows and private terraces. (See party pics above.)
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Fresh on the heels of its “Selling New York” cameo last night, the Upper East Side’s Manhattan House has some good news for prospective buyers: two big lenders have pre-approved the 575-unit condominium conversion for conventional and jumbo mortgages, while Fannie Mae has agreed to back some of those loans. According to Crain’s, developer O’Connor Capital Partners said the lenders, MetLife Bank and Gibraltar Private Bank and Trust, have been named preferred lenders for the project. Fannie Mae will back loans for units on floors 11 through 17 until certain pre-sale requirements are met, at which point it will approve financing for the remainder of the building. [more]

Watch out, New York by Gehry. According to new development marketing guru Kelly Kennedy Mack, the city is about to see a flurry of new, starchitect-designed skyscrapers. In a new video segment by the Corcoran Group, Mack said she believes that because lenders are becoming more willing to finance large projects, the city’s new development sector is about to see a shift back to 60-, 70-, and even 80-story buildings, after a few years of smaller, boutique new developments dominating the market. That shift is likely to “completely transform neighborhoods and really make a huge impact on the Midtown skyline,” Mack said. [more]

The Aldyn

From the March issue: The 40-story Aldyn is the latest in a wall of luxury towers, and the fourth by Extell Development, to sprout up on Riverside Boulevard in the West 60s.

This largely glass building, however, is a condo-rental hybrid — an option that, as The Real Deal has reported, has become increasing popular for developers since the economy soured because it helps them hedge against the uncertain sales market. The Related Companies has a hybrid project at 440 West 42nd Street, and J.D. Carlisle Development Corp. has the Beatrice/Eventi combination on 29th Street.

But the hybrid model is a first for Gary Barnett’s Extell, which has also built the Avery and the Rushmore, both condos, and the Ashley, a rental, on this patch of Riverside South, a site extending from 59th to 72nd streets. [more]

The last two units at the Brodsky Organization’s Chelsea Enclave cond-op have gone into contract, wrapping up a three-year sales effort that began on the same September 2008 morning that Lehman Brothers Holdings collapsed, the Wall Street Journal reported. According to Corcoran Sunshine Marketing’s James Lansill, who was heading up sales there, the building is the first large Manhattan project to sell out after coming online in the post-Lehman Brothers real estate market, and did so by cutting prices early and across-the-board. [more]

From left: Lauren Muss, Carrie Chiang, Janet Wilkinson and Pam Liebman

Residential brokerage the Corcoran Group held its annual company awards ceremony this week, honoring some of its top-producing teams and agents. Lauren Muss was named the Individual Salesperson of the Year, while the Carrie Chiang Team was honored as the Top Team of the Year. Janet Wilkinson took home the Rookie of the Year prize. At Corcoran Sunshine, the top-selling onsite sales team was comprised of Graham Spearman, Aidan Sullivan, Melissa Ziweslin, Lynne Brown and Lena Nusimow, who work at Extell Development’s the Rushmore, at 80 Riverside Boulevard between 64th and 65th streets. TRD

[Update: 2:25 p.m.] The Apthorp’s 14,875-square-foot retail condominium is in contract for $37 million, according to the buyer, real estate investment company William Friedland. The retail space, located in the residential building’s ground floor on Broadway between 78th and 79th streets, contains four storefronts. Current tenants there include JPMorgan Chase and the Apthorp Pharmacy. The other two units, which are 1,560 square feet and 2,460 square feet, will be available for rent, according to William Friedland, which said it expects the sale to close early next month. TRD [more]

535 West End Avenue

Power broker Dolly Lenz of Prudential Douglas Elliman has been found liable for withholding commission from a former colleague in a $13.7 million sale of a seven-bedroom penthouse at Extell’s 535 West End Avenue. In a judgment issued Jan. 3, the State Supreme Court ordered Lenz to pay close to $90,000 to settle the dispute, Real Estate Weekly reported. “I always try to stand up for what I believe in, and, just because Dolly Lenz is a power broker, it doesn’t give her the right not to honor her agreement,” said Jona Rechnitz, the former director of Africa-Israel acquisitions who brought the suit and who now runs JSR Capital, a real estate development company. [more]

Sales launched today at the Aldyn, a 286-unit rental and condominium building at 60 Riverside Boulevard near 64th Street, according to developer Extell Development. Corcoran Sunshine Development Marketing is the exclusive listing brokerage for the project, which was designed by Costas Kondylis & Partners. The Aldyn includes rental apartments on floors two through 10 and condo units on floors 11 through 40. TRD [more]