New York City now officially has a $4 billion condo project.
Central Park Tower, the most expensive condominium project in the city’s history, can now launch sales, after Extell Development’s offering plan was approved by the New York State Attorney General’s office.
The tower at 217 West 57th Street, designed by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill, will feature 179 uber-luxury apartments, with a total target sellout of $4.02 billion. That puts the average unit price at just under $22.5 million, twice as much as the average sales price for an apartment in the top 10 percent of the market, according to Miller Samuel data.
Prior to Central Park Tower, the most expensive offering plan ever accepted was Vornado Realty Trust’s 220 Central Park South. With a $3.4 billion projected sellout, that project was accepted in March of 2015 and a duplex there recently hit the market priced at more than $10,000 per square foot. Hedge fund mogul Ken Griffin is reportedly in contract to buy a spread there for north of $200 million.
A spokesperson for Extell, which is led by Gary Barnett, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Extell’s 1,550-foot supertall has undergone a number of notable changes on its way to its $4 billion ask. It was first floated as Nordstrom Tower, with a rooftop spire that would put the building just a foot shorter than One Word Trade Center. Documents filed on the Tel Aviv stock exchange indicated Barnet was shooting for as much as $4.4 billion in sales. The developer filed an offering plan in July of 2015, only to withdraw it a month later. The tower’s spire was later scrapped — as was the tower’s name (though retailer Nordstrom will still occupy the building’s ground-floor retail). In August, Extell brought in a Chinese equity partner in SMI, which made a $300 million investment.
Lenders on the project include Blackstone, JPMorgan Chase and Fortress Investment Group.
Central Park Tower’s $4 billion target sellout is $1.3 billion more than the price tag of Barnett’s other luxury supertall, One57, where a penthouse sold for $100.5 million in December 2014.
In March, Curbed reported that construction workers began applying a wavy facade to Central Park Tower’s first seven stories. In a call with investors that month, Barnett announced that he had secured $168 million in EB-5 visa funding, had already spentclose to $1 billion on acquisition, construction and financing costs, and also announced that the residential portion of the tower would be ready for move in in 2020.
Extell is still in the market for a $900 million construction loan at the project.