From left: renderings of Three Northside Piers, 388 Bridge Street and 88 Willoughby Street

As space for residential development dwindles in Manhattan, developers are turning to Brooklyn, the Wall Street Journal reported, but they must be careful if they want to appeal to the different sensibilities of Brooklyn renters.

Citing a report by Nancy Packes, a consultant to some of the city’s largest developers, the Journal said 14,000 new residential units are being planned for Brooklyn in the coming years, compared to just 5,000 in Manhattan. [more]

From left: 1280 Fifth Avenue and Tom Postillo, Natalie Rakowski and Parul Brahmbhatt, all of Core

East Harlem’s new 116-unit tower on Central Park, 1280 Fifth Avenue, will no longer be marketed through Nancy Packes and Brown Harris Stevens Project Marketing. The developer, Brickman, has opted instead for Core, The Real Deal has learned.

“We appreciate the initial involvement and contribution from Brown Harris Stevens on the pre-development and initial marketing of 1280 Fifth Avenue,” Brickman’s principal Bruce Brickman said, though he declined to give any specifics on why the company made the switch. Nancy Packes declined to comment, citing confidentiality arrangements. [more]

From the October issue: In August, art-world heavyweight Larry Gagosian paid $36.5 million for the Harkness Mansion, the Upper East Side spread that financier J. Christopher Flowers had bought for a record-breaking $53 million in 2006.
To some observers, the fate of the property illustrated the gulf between today’s residential market and the pre-crash boom. However, the art mogul’s purchase could also be a symbol for a longer-term trend affecting residential real estate: the gradual loosening of Wall Street’s grip on the city’s economy — and the growing number of New Yorkers working in education, health care, business services and creative fields.
“The first thing to understand is that this trend is several years in the making,” real estate consultant Nancy Packes said. “I do not think that this is a blip or an anomaly.” [more]

From left to right: David Greczek and Ammanda Espinal, on-site sales agents for Azure; Karen Mansour of Prudential Douglas Elliman;
John Caiazzo of the DeMatteis Organization; and Doug MacLaury of the Mattone Group (standing). Right: Azure at 333 East 91st Street.

From the July issue: A luxury apartment building towering 34 boxy stories above low-rise Yorkville shops, Azure has always been nondescript by design, and yet theatrically imposing in reality.
Launched in 2007, the project was aimed at Manhattan’s growing population of families. Marketing materials emphasized child-oriented neighborhood amenities and focused on the customizable, three-, four- and five-bedroom units on offer. Azure was not meant to excite comment; however, time and again, it has failed.
In May 2008, five months after Azure’s initial sales launch, a 200-foot crane collapsed at the site of the project, killing two construction workers, forcing a temporary shutdown of then-agent Nancy Packes’ marketing efforts, and sealing the building’s fate as headline fodder in the still ongoing legal saga that followed. (Crane owner James Lomma is currently awaiting trial on manslaughter charges after a judge turned down his bid to have the case dismissed.) [more]

Cooper Square Realty has been tapped as the managing agent for New York by Gehry, the 76-story Financial District rental tower developed by Forest City Ratner, Crain’s reported. Move-ins have already begun at the steel, 903-unit building, whose leasing office opened last month. Citi Habitats, which is marketing the property with Nancy Packes, would not reveal occupancy numbers but said leasing activity has been “above expectations.” Studios at the 8 Spruce Street behemoth — the tallest residential building in the city — start at $2,630 per month, while one-bedrooms start at $3,580 per month and two-bedrooms start at $5,945 per month. [Crain’s]

The leasing office at the Frank Gehry-designed 8 Spruce Street opened to renters a few days ago, just about a week after more than 1,000 residential leasing brokers streamed through the 76-story tower near City Hall to get a first peek inside of the building.

Clad in an undulating stainless steel skin, 8 Spruce Street is the tallest residential tower in the city, and has drawn intense interest through its impact on the skyline and its high-profile architect.

Susi Yu, a senior vice president of development at Forest City Ratner, said in an interview with Insights from The Real Deal (see video above) that hundreds of apartment brokers — by invitation only — came over several days starting the second week in February to view the available units.

The building, being marketed by Citi Habitats Marketing Group and Nancy Packes Inc., is releasing an initial group of approximately 120 units on floors 11, 12 and 14, and 27 through 34. The starting price for studios averaging 500 square feet is $2,630 per month; the one-bedrooms start at $3,580 for upwards of 630 square feet; and two-bedrooms start at $5,945 per month, for apartments1,050 square feet and bigger, Yu said.

Those figures would amount to a price of $63 per foot for studios and $68 per foot for one- and two-bedrooms, according to calculations by The Real Deal.

And while brokers began viewing layouts in the 903-unit tower recently — and the leasing office opened last weekend — the very first tenant tour actually took place Feb. 11. It was a special preview for a couple expecting their second child, to firm up their housing plans, Yu said.

Move-ins are scheduled for next month.

[more]

Nancy Packes and 555 Sixth Avenue

Stonehenge Partners plans to turn a former St. Vincent’s Hospital building into roughly 200 [more]

The lobby of 1280 Fifth Avenue

The new, Robert A.M. Stern-designed condominium at 1280 Fifth Avenue hosted a celebration Wednesday, giving real estate pros and potential buyers a sneak peek (see photos above). While the Museum for African Art, which will open in the adjacent building in 2011, was not available for preview, guests on hand boldly entered the new condo construction — signing waivers before touring the nearly complete building. Nancy Packes, who is president of her own, independent development
marketing firm, Nancy Packes Inc., and Brown Harris Stevens Project Marketing, the exclusive marketing agency for the building, which was developed by Brickman, said that five units in the 116-unit building have sold, while another six units are in negotiation.

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From left: Jonathan Rose, head of Jonathan Rose Companies, a rendering of the Tapestry at 245 East 124th Street, and two images from the building’s model units

The leasing office at Tapestry, a 185-unit green residential building in East Harlem, is opening April 1, one of several new rental buildings hoping to take advantage of the traditionally stronger rental season. Residents at the 12-story building, located at 245 East 124th Street at Second Avenue, will be able to move into the building in May. For the 92 market-rate units, rents start at $1,850 for studios, $2,050 for one-bedrooms, $2,800 for two-bedrooms and $3,900 for three-bedrooms. All of the units are currently being offered with one-month free and a broker OP, or owner pays (the broker fee), according to Seth Rosner, managing director at Nancy Packes, the real estate company handling the leasing. The building, which will be complete by the move-in date, was developed by Jonathan Rose, the president of Jonathan Rose Companies, along with Lettire Construction. [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

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