Alchemy Properties’ Kenneth Horn at his under-construction 57-unit condo at 15th Street and Fifth AvenueFrom the September issue: At the height of the boom, The Real Deal often wrote of the developers of massive condominium towers one-upping each other with newer, bigger buildings and the next best over-the-top amenity.
At Midtown’s 220-unit Platinum, there was the golf simulator and the massage room. At the 258-unit Riverhouse in Battery Park City, there was the pet spa. And at the Financial District’s 319-unit William Beaver House, basketball and squash courts, a hot tub and an outdoor shower were all part of the original attempts to woo buyers.
How things have changed. Now, with much of the inventory from the boom era’s mega-condos sold off, boutique buildings with fewer amenities are dominating the new development sales market. [more]

From left: 247 W. 46th Street, comedian Rosie O’Donnell, rapper Pras, Marketing Directors’ Adrienne Albert

After nearly four years on the market, the 220-unit Platinum condominium is sold out.

The last five units in the Times Square tower, designed by Costas Kondylis, went into contract in March, according to the Marketing Directors, the sales agent for the building.

Units in the 43-story building sold for an average of $1,350 per square foot, said Allen Goldman, president of SJP Residential Properties, the project’s developer.

It’s been a long road for Platinum, located at 247 West 46th Street at Eighth Avenue. [more]

From left, Pras Michel, SJP CEO Steven Pozycki and 247 West 46th Street (building photo: CityRealty)

Hip-hopper Pras Michel, of the Fugees fame, wants out of his $2.46 million contract at the Platinum condominium in Midtown West. The rapper, who bought the two-bedroom unit at 247 West 46th Street with the intention of flipping it, told the Post that he was promised 12-foot ceilings but wound up with nine-foot ceilings. “Obviously, the value changes dramatically,” he said. Pras is suing SJP Residential Properties, which says the suit has no merit, for the return of his $369,000 deposit. [Post, 5th item]

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From left, Pras Michel, SJP CEO Steven Pozycki and 247 West 46th Street (building photo: CityRealty)

Hip-hopper Pras Michel, of the Fugees fame, wants out of his $2.46 million contract at the Platinum condominium in Midtown West. The rapper, who bought the two-bedroom unit at 247 West 46th Street with the intention of flipping it, told the Post that he was promised 12-foot ceilings but wound up with nine-foot ceilings. “Obviously, the value changes dramatically,” he said. Pras is suing SJP Residential Properties, which says the suit has no merit, for the return of his $369,000 deposit. [Post, 5th item]

[more]

Manhattan-based Platinum Properties has opened a new Midtown East office. The new office, located at 295 Madison Avenue on the corner of 41st Street, will be the residential and commercial real estate services firm’s third — its current locations include 30 Wall Street and a Paris office at 101 Avenue des Champs Elysées. Don Dascoli, Platinum’s new director of sales and leasing, will lead the 10-agent office.

The firm hired an all-new staff for the branch and brought on Dascoli March 1 because of his background in the neighborhood, according to Khashy Eyn, president and CEO of Platinum. After a soft opening earlier in the month, today marks the office’s official debut.

“He has great contacts on the East Side,” Eyn said of Dascoli. “The building managers know him.”

Platinum will use the office primarily for rental and sales on the Upper East Side, and in the Midtown East and Gramercy neighborhoods. [more]

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From the February issue: The fourth-quarter market reports revealed that the recession’s worst-hit Manhattan neighborhood isn’t newly gentrifying Harlem or even the recently residential Financial District. Midtown — one of the city’s most well-established neighborhoods — saw the sharpest price decreases, the most price cuts and the longest days on the market. What happened? Experts say Midtown West, in particular, fell prey to a hotbed of speculation during the boom, fueled by an abundance of new condos, and the area is now paying the price. During the mid-aughts, thousands of new condo units were built in Midtown and quickly snatched up by investors eager to flip them for six-figure profits in the wildly escalating market of the time. Now, while overall market activity is on the rise again, falling prices have dampened demand from investors, leaving Midtown with an oversupply of condos — and absentee owners frantically trying to unload them. Around 42nd Street, “there are large, monolithic new development buildings, with a lot of investors and pied-à-terre buyers who are now desperate to sell,” explained Sofia Song, vice president of research at StreetEasy. [more]

With next month marking the one-year anniversary of the fall of Lehman
Brothers, “recession specials” continue to dominate advertisements. And
as in previous bust periods, today’s real estate ads sell value to
entice today’s budget-conscious consumers, not luxury. A collection of ads above illustrates the change in advertising over the
last several years. The first six ads are from the boom times, trying
to use sex and high-end lifestyle to sell units, and the last nine are from the bust period, emphasizing
value. “Now, it’s almost taboo to talk about living the high life; having an ostentatious lifestyle is not advertised like it was in the mid-1990s, during a boom period. Instead, your home is looked at as a smart investment,” said Scott Aaron, a principal at Benchmark Real Estate Partners, whose projects have included Chelsea condominium 100 West 18th Street. [more]

From the December issue: Some real estate ads shouldn’t be left
lying on a coffee table when there are young children around. That’s
because real estate developers know sex sells — and they are
increasingly marketing their projects with explicit sexual images, or
at least sexual undertones, even at the risk of offending older buyers.
Spicy advertising has picked up in frequency in New York City in the
last few years, as the number of units coming online has increased and
developers have sought ways to distinguish themselves. At the William
Beaver House in the Financial District, there was a backlash against
ads that were deemed too racy. [more]