Toll Brothers seeks to break price record with 400 PAS penthouse

Home developer Toll Brothers priced the penthouse at the top of 400 Park Avenue South at $16.9 million or a record-setting $4,200 per square foot, according to a condominium plan it filed with the New York State Attorney General’s office.

That Price Per Square Foot Would Be A Record For Park Avenue South, a review of data on the listings website StreetEasy shows.

What’s more, the price for this unit is likely to rise further, a spokesperson for the company told The Real Deal.

Toll, led by CEO Douglas Yearley, and Equity Residential are developing the 40-story building designed by starchitect Christian de Portzamparc at the corner of 28th Street. It will have 99 condominium units that Toll is selling, and 269 high-end rental apartments, that Equity will own and rent out.

Toll filed the condominium plan on May 19 with the Attorney General’s office, and the agency accepted the plan on May 29, meaning it can begin marketing the building. TRD reviewed the documents after filing a Freedom of Information Law request with the state agency, which regulates condominium and cooperative plans in New York. However, the firm has not released sales figures publicly, and those figures are not the final ones, Toll’s Marketing Manager Todd Dumaresq, told TRD.

The penthouse unit would be reconfigured and the price would rise, but he did not provide the expected listing price.

“We’re changing the layout of that unit a bit and expect that the price will go up substantially,” Dumaresq said in an email.

The price per foot of $4,200 Is Far Above Any Closed Sale On Park Avenue South, said Jonathan Miller, the president of the appraisal firm Miller Samuel, who closely tracks condominium pricing.

“That would be breaking a new price threshold for that street,” he said. But he added that the price was far from arbitrary.

“It is not out of left field. This is a progression from the last several developments on that stretch,” Miller said.

Overall, the market remains healthy for luxury product, even though it is expected to see more supply in the coming years, insiders said.

“The market is still incredibly strong even though new product is coming on the market,” said Stuart Saft, a partner at the law firm Holland & Knight, and a real estate attorney who specializes in condominium filings. He was not involved in this project.

According to Miller’s records, the most expensive sale price per foot on Park Avenue South was for a penthouse at number 260, which sold in May 2012 for $12.5 million or $3,111 per square foot.

Even as Toll says the price for the penthouse will rise, the listed sale price is far higher than figures initially published late last year. At the time, prices were expected to range from about $1 million to $10 million. The condo plan now shows 96 of the units are priced below $6.1 million, and three units above that, for $10.2 million, $14.7 million and $16.9 million.

Nonetheless, Toll’s $4,200 per foot is hardly a record for the area. For example, a penthouse at Zeckendorf Development’s 18 Gramercy Park on 20th Street was sold for $42 million, or $6,636 per foot.