From the November issue: Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen kicked off last month by closing on the $25 million purchase of the penthouse co-op at 4 East 66th Street, where he already reportedly owns an apartment on the 11th floor. Allen appears to have had the inside scoop on the property, since it was not listed.

The buy was a standout price for the month, but Allen is not the only purchaser taking the plunge. Some buyers remain gun-shy and wary of the up-and-down financial market, but others have grown accustomed to the volatility, brokers said.

While September was characterized by fear over the economic fluctuations, brokers said, buyers in the last few weeks have started to make decisions faster (although foreign buyers reeling from the debt crisis continue to wait on the sidelines). Brokers also noted that lowball offers gained little traction and bidding wars started anew at some properties.

“These swings in the marketplace no longer have a jolting effect on homebuyers and investors in New York City,” said Robert Varvara, an associate broker at Miron Properties. [more]

Almost 16 percent of the units in the first completed building at Harrison Station, the new luxury mixed-use development in Harrison, N.J., have been rented since leasing opened two weeks ago, according to Jacqueline Urgo, president of the Marketing Directors, the development’s exclusive leasing and marketing agent. Meanwhile, the restaurant chain Five Guys signed a 10-year lease for a 2,500-square-foot retail space earlier this month, said Greg Russo, a principal at Ironstate Development, which is partnering with the Pegasus Group to develop the 27-acre site. The entire retail space is 15,000 square feet. When completed, Harrison Station will include 2,600 residences, 80,000 square feet of retail and a hotel with up to 140 rooms, which Russo said is the next part of the project to get underway. [more]

A penthouse unit in the Sheffield and Marketing Directors President Jacqueline Urgo

Three weeks ago, the Marketing Directors unveiled the 10 penthouses on the 56th and 57th floors of the Sheffield, and The Real Deal got a sneak peek at the units and their impressive views — just as the overcast weather cleared — today (see photos above). Asking prices for the two- and three-bedroom penthouses at the condominium conversion at 322 West 57th Street range from $2.55 million to $5.25 million for a unit overlooking Central Park, and apparently buyers won’t have much room for negotiation.

“We’re hardly open to any negotiations on those units — being that they are the crown jewels of the building,” Jacqueline Urgo, president of the Marketing Directors, said. “We’re going to hold out for the best prices.”
[more]

Jacqueline Urgo of the Marketing Directors and the Sheffield

Developers at several New York condominiums such as the Sheffield are reviving higher commissions and other incentive plans to sell units, according to the Wall Street Journal. When the Sheffield, at 322 West 57th Street, was reopening earlier this year after a conversion, the owners had nearly 330 units to sell. They held a launch party for agents and offered to increase their commission by a half percentage point for any of the 180 attendees who closed a deal by Nov. 15. More than a dozen of those brokers signed up condo purchasers. [more]

From the February issue: Nothing says progress like Madoff. Late last month, The Real Deal broke the story that the Ponzi schemer’s Upper East Side penthouse finally appears close to a sale.
Listing brokers Anne Corey and Serena Boardman of Sotheby’s
International Realty have told interested agents that there is an
accepted offer on the 133 East 64th Street duplex. At press time, the
U.S. Marshals Service, which seized the property from the disgraced
financier, said the listing had not yet entered contract.
The sale (if it does clear the many obstacles of today’s market) may not be unqualified good news.
The penthouse’s asking price is $8.9 million, following a November
price chop of $1 million. It’s also been sitting on the market since
September.  [more]

Nancy Packes, president of her own new development marketing firm, at 316 11th Avenue, where she is the leasing consultant. The building is slated to begin renting units this winter.

From the December issue:
Once the province of a few niche players, the new development rental
sector is becoming a hotly contested battleground as brokerages look to
replace once-lucrative condo deals.
In the booming economy of the mid-2000s, many new development
marketing firms focused most of their attention on sales, while a few
firms had the rental field to themselves. But now, as marketers migrate over from the stagnant condo market,
newly built rentals are emerging as an increasingly important source of
revenue. And the sector is only expected to grow more competitive in
2010. “During the condo boom, they only focused on condos — that’s where
the money was,” Citi Habitats President Gary Malin said of new
development marketing firms. “Their condo stuff has slowed down, so
they’re trying to get in [to the rental market]. They’re looking to
find other revenue streams,” he added. While the pipeline of condos coming to market is slowing, brokers anticipate a healthy number of new rental buildings in 2010, largely because they have proved easier for developers to finance in the current climate. Some 2,935 rental units have come online in Manhattan so far this year, compared to 1,482 in 2008, according to a market report by Nancy Packes, the president of Brown Harris Stevens Project Marketing and founder of her own new development marketing firm, Nancy Packes, Inc., which does both new development sales and rentals.  More

[more]

From the December issue: In New York City real estate, buyers have had the upper hand for a
while. With transactions virtually frozen in the wake of last year’s
collapse of Lehman Brothers, sellers grew alarmed, dropping prices and
offering incentives to tempt purchasers. For the first time in a year, however, New York is no longer a
buyer’s market, brokers say. Or at least not the intense buyer’s market
of recent months.
“Neither buyers nor sellers have an obvious upper hand over each
other right now,” said Ric Swezey, a senior associate at the Corcoran
Group.
As the stock market recovered and prices dropped, more buyers –
especially those who put off buying during the financial crisis — came
back into the market, searching for bargain prices. [more]

Elie Pariente said he has seen a number of AIG execs relocating to 15 Broad Street

Brokers who work in the Financial District say they are seeing an increase in the number of financial services executives posted abroad who are relocating back to New York, and specifically to newer developments in the Financial District. Elie Pariente, managing partner at Urban Sanctuary, said he has done four deals in the past 45 days with AIG executives returning to the U.S. from Tokyo and Singapore, to work for Chartis Insurance, an AIG spin-off. Three of the apartments that Pariente, who said he has a history of deals with AIG employees, sold were in 15 Broad Street. All four were two-bedroom apartments, which Pariente called “standard” for financial services executives. The apartments ranged in size from 1,200 to 1,600 square feet and in price from $1.1 million to $1.5 million. [more]

Prudential Douglas Elliman has replaced the Marketing Directors as the
exclusive marketing and sales team at Flatiron condominium conversion
254 Park Avenue South. Apartments at the 123-unit building, located at the corner of Park Avenue and 20th Street, have been on sale since March 2008, according to Daniel Rosen, a principal at Rosen Partners. Rosen’s company is developing the project along with Greystone Real Estate Partners. Now that the real estate market has soured, the developers decided to
bring in Elliman, which handled sales at the project’s next door
neighbor, 260 Park Avenue South. [more]