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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Anthony Caleb Followhill and Superior Ink

West Village condo Superior Ink has nabbed yet another celebrity, this time Anthony Caleb Followhill, the lead singer of popular rock band Kings of Leon, according to the New York Post. Followhill and his supermodel girlfriend Lily Aldridge are renting a two-bedroom, two-bathroom unit at 400 West 12th Street that was listed for $8,000 per month. [more]

Superior Ink and Rockets owner Leslie Alexander

Celeb-heavy condo Superior Ink at 400 West 12th Street along the Hudson River has just seen its 6,321-square-foot penthouse’s price reduced by $6 million to $33.5 million, according to Curbed. The unit, which Houston Rockets owner Leslie Alexander bought in October last year for $25 million, was immediately placed back on the market for $39.5 million. [more]

In a housing market that’s been brutal to luxury apartments, one residential development seems untouchable: Superior Ink. Only five units remain available in the 17-story, 68-unit building at 400 West 12th Street, developed by Related Companies, as celebrities like Hilary Swank and Marc Jacobs have flocked to pick up some of the former factory’s seven- and eight-figure homes. To ask Eric Zollinger, a senior sales associate with Related, the building’s appeal lies in its chic affect and prime locale. “You know, everyone wants to be downtown now, it’s cool and hip,” Zollinger said.

Douglas Harmon,senior managing director at Eastdil, and Superior Ink

One of the city’s top brokers and a senior managing director at real estate banking firm Eastdil Secured, Douglas Harmon, bought an apartment at the Related Companies’ Superior Ink development in the West Village for $6.95 million. Harmon has brokered some of highest-profile transactions in New York City, including the Apthorp apartment building on the Upper West Side for $426 million in 2007, and 1211 Sixth Avenue for $1.5 billion in 2006. Harmon went into contract on the purchase of the three-bedroom unit at 400 West 12th Street in November 2007, and closed March 3, city property records published today show. A call to a spokesperson for Eastdil was not immediately returned. Also in the Superior Ink, the Broadway-producer son of Vornado Realty Trust’s chairman Steven Roth, Jordan Roth, bought a $13.1 million apartment in Superior Ink, the Observer reported last month. [more]

B. Tuckey Devlin (top left) and David Workman (not pictured) sued Related Companies over Ocean Park Apartments in Far Rockaway. Jeff Blau (bottom left), is president of Related.

Two real estate investors filed a lawsuit seeking at least $390 million from developer Related Companies claiming the firm misled them when it partnered with the pair to buy the Far Rockaway affordable housing complex Ocean Park Apartments in 2005. Investors David Workman and B. Tuckey Devlin, partners in an entity called DB Development, claim Related induced them into partnering with it, but then used the deal for its own political advantage. The individuals claim Related and its subsidiary Related Apartment Preservation, assured them that if they bought the complex together, it would remove the 602-unit property at 125 Beach 17th Street from the Mitchell-Lama affordable housing program and convert it to market-rate apartments or condominiums. Such a move could have netted $200 million in profits, the suit filed in New York State Supreme Court Tuesday says. But it never happened and the property has been maintained as an affordable complex. “[Related’s] refusal to withdraw the property from the [affordable housing program] has completely eviscerated the value of [DB Development’s] rights to ‘cash out,’” the complaint says. “The principal, if not sole, reason for refusing to withdraw from the [affordable housing program] was so that Related could curry favor with federal, New York City and New York state officials and politicians with respect to other lucrative real estate ventures,” the suit continues. The suit cites a November 2009 interview with Jeff Blau, Related’s president, on The Real Deal Web site in which he was quoted saying, “For us, it’s about preservation, versus conversion to market rate.” Blau was not named in the suit. [more]

400 West 12th Street and Showtime’s Matthew Blank (Building photo source: PropertyShark)

A limited liability company affiliated with Showtime Networks chairman and CEO Matthew Blank paid $11.2 million for a condominium unit at the new West Village building Superior Ink at 400 West 12th Street near the West Side Highway.

The purchasing company, identified as Superior 10C LLC, went into contract on the four-bedroom sponsor unit October 2007 and closed on the purchase Nov. 30, city property records published yesterday show.
Blank, the head of the cable media company based in Midtown, paid about $3,463 per square foot for the 3,234-square foot unit. The transfer was made without a mortgage, indicating an all-cash purchase. [more]

From the December issue: Everyone loves cash. Nothing new there. But in this market, cash deals are even sweeter. In some cases, a onetime payment could even be the only way to close a sale, according to brokers, attorneys and developers. And discounts often await all-cash buyers. There are other benefits: less paperwork and fewer delays in getting deals done. No long waits for banks to pore over buyers’ financial records, only to reject them on the eve of closing. “Cash used to be king, but now it’s the emperor,” said Luigi Rosabianca, a real estate attorney who says 50 percent of his clients have paid cash so far this year versus 20 percent in 2007 at the market’s peak. The exact number of cash deals is difficult to determine; property records on file with the city’s Department of Finance don’t specify how apartments are paid for. And the sheer number of cash deals doesn’t seem to be increasing, as the volume of all deals remains depressed.

At 85-89 Jane Street in the West Village, Danta Raso and Ricard de La Rosa’s two historic buildings, which for decades housed their Pro Piano shop, are on the market for $35 million. Pro Piano, which carved out a niche selling Steinway pianos to concert pianists, moved out of the spot after the Related Group offered the owners an undisclosed sum in order to use the space as a showroom for Superior Ink, the riverfront condominium at West Street and West 12th Street. While the properties’ price may ultimately hinge on whether the Landmarks Preservation Commission allows the combined 12,200-square-foot space to be razed and rebuilt as something larger, hedge fund manager Noam Gottesman paid $34 million for a property belonging to fashion and commercial photographer Albert Watson across the street. He had the property demolished with the Commission’s approval and is now building a three-story home in its place. [NYT]

A rendering of 400 West 12th Street

The penthouse unit at the new far West Village condominium development known as Superior Ink sold for $25 million, or about $4,192 per square foot. The sponsor unit sale of the 6,321-square-foot unit in the 15-story building built by the Related Companies at 400 West 12th Street closed Sept. 27, after going into contract in December 2007, city property records published today show. The buyer is identified only as 400 West LLC, and paid all cash, city property records indicate. The purchase was the second largest sale reported this week. A buyer paid $37 million for a penthouse unit in 15 Central Park West, the Observer reported. more

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