From left: 515 East 72nd Street (credit PropertyShark), Jordan Weiss of NYCondo & Real Estate and Adina Karmel of Corcoran Group receiving massages at 515 East 72nd Street’s Elements Spa (credit Jim Cummins) and the Manhattan House at 200 East 66th Street (credit PropertyShark)

Manhattan residential developers continue to one-up each other in their constant search for buyers, and according to NY1, the latest battleground is resident-only, luxurious spas.

For example, at the Manhattan House, a 490-unit condominium at 200 East 66th Street and Third Avenue, developer O’Connor Capital Partners has brought Exhale Spa to the building. The spa offers boutique exercise classes and classical spa treatments, that residents can even request to have in their own apartments.
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Manhattan House unveiled its new model units at a party co-hosted by the New York Observer’s Hamptons magazine last night (see photos above). The event, at the Upper East Side condominium’s garden, showcased a preview of the model residences designed by James (Ford) Huniford and Celerie Kemble. The evening featured art, fragrances, and culinary fare. Huniford designed a three-bedroom, 3.5-bath, 3,196-square-foot floor-through residence at the building, at 200 East 66th Street, and Kemble designed a three-bedroom, three-bath, 2,240-square-foot corner residence. The Real Deal reported earlier this month that the building has sold more than 150 units and has about 140 rent-stabilized tenants, leaving more than 200 unsold units. A number of apartments are being combined into larger units. – Marc Becker

Manhattan House and attorney Peter Axelrod

The developer of the Upper East Side’s Manhattan House condominium suffered a major blow in the long-awaited eviction trial of 17 market-rate tenants yesterday when a housing court judge disqualified their legal counsel for failing to disclose that one of their lawyers previously represented one of the defendants against the condo.

Housing Court Judge Brenda Spears ruled that Axelrod, Fingerhut & Dennis could no longer represent Manhattan House, because Peter Axelrod, one of the law partners defending the developer, failed to disclose that he had previously represented defendant Susan Tosk, in a 2007 case involving the replacement of her windows at the 200 East 66th Street tower, and had inside information that was relevant to the current case. [more]

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]

From the October issue: Until now, resales have led the real estate market’s recovery in New York, with new condos trailing behind. But new development is finally starting to make up some ground, experts say. Brokers are reporting a significant uptick in sales at new developments in the past few months, to the point where some developers are considering raising their prices. Meanwhile, for the first time in several years, there are a number of fresh projects now hitting the market. Some have just finished construction and are starting sales for the first time, and others stalled during the downturn and are now relaunching.

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This week, new model residences at the Manhattan House landmark condo conversion drew close to 600 prospective buyers to the Upper East Side, where they viewed the decorating work of James “Ford” Huniford, Celerie Kemble and Rita Konig, according to the Wall Street Journal. Developer O’Connor Capital Partners has sold 12 model units since spending $2 million to create them in 2009, after a year of dismal sales at the 200 East 66th Street building. Another 20 units have sold with similar layouts to those of the model units. With the New York City residential real estate market picking up, and several formerly-stalled projects now hitting the market — including the Aldyn on the Upper West Side and be@schermerhorn in Brooklyn — developers are increasingly trying to give their new condominiums an edge with pricey interior designs intended to help buyers envision themselves in the fashionable model apartments on display. [WSJ]

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O’Connor Capital managing partner’s passing comes less than a month after his son’s death

Jeremiah W. O’Connor, Manhattan House

Jeremiah W. O’Connor, the managing partner of O’Connor Capital Partners, and the lead developer [more]

Manhattan House condominium conversion developer O’Connor Capital
Partners recently received an extension on its $750 million
construction loan, according to Crain’s. The loan, which was supposed
to expire in the fall of 2011, now has a December 2013 maturity date.
The $1.1 billion conversion of the 575-unit building at 200 East 66th
Street on the corner of Third Avenue began three years ago. So far
around 137 apartments are either sold or in contract. Corcoran Sunshine
Marketing Group took over sales at the building in January 2009. Sales
began in 2007. [Crain's]

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Sales of three- and four-bedroom apartments rose last year in New York City, while sales of smaller units declined, and the trend has continued, the New York Times reported. Large family-size apartments have always been a small segment of the housing market, but the number has grown as developers have started to build more of them. Within the last year, developers
of several new projects — including Manhattan House and Superior Ink — have responded to the demand by combining units to produce as many as seven bedrooms, seven and a half bathrooms and close to 6,000 square feet. In addition, prices for these larger, family-sized apartments have decreased more significantly than the prices for smaller units. Brokers say that these types of apartments are attracting families who want a suburban layout within the confines of a Manhattan apartment, as well as empty nesters moving to the city from the suburbs who want the extra room for visiting family members. [NYT]

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Sales of three- and four-bedroom apartments rose last year in New York City, while sales of smaller units declined, and the trend has continued, the New York Times reported. Large family-size apartments have always been a small segment of the housing market, but the number has grown as developers have started to build more of them. Within the last year, developers
of several new projects — including Manhattan House and Superior Ink — have responded to the demand by combining units to produce as many as seven bedrooms, seven and a half bathrooms and close to 6,000 square feet. In addition, prices for these larger, family-sized apartments have decreased more significantly than the prices for smaller units. Brokers say that these types of apartments are attracting families who want a suburban layout within the confines of a Manhattan apartment, as well as empty nesters moving to the city from the suburbs who want the extra room for visiting family members. [NYT]

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