Argo’s Greenwich Village condo sees quick-fire sales

Whisper campaign yields $3K psf deals

Argo Real Estate's Mark Moskowitz 64 University Place (Argo Real Estate, Bsafal)
Argo Real Estate's Mark Moskowitz 64 University Place (Argo Real Estate, Bsafal)

Argo Real Estate sold almost all of its units at a new Greenwich Village condo building in 10 days as Manhattan’s luxury market plows ahead to top out a busy year.

Argo’s ongoing project at 64 University Place saw 24 of its 28 units sold in recent weeks, the Wall Street Journal reported. The condo sales came about by word of mouth, instead of a typical marketing blitz.

The average unit sold for $3.5 million, roughly $3,000 per square foot. That’s slightly above the recent average in the luxury condo market, which stood at $2,800 per square foot in the last four months, according to Olshan Realty’s Donna Olshan. The development team has notched nearly $100 million in sales overall.

Despite challenges from a struggling stock market and rising interest rates, Olshan said 2022 was on pace to be the third-best year for the borough’s luxury sales in the past decade.

“This is stacking up to be a very good year,” Olshan told the outlet. “There’s a fairly deep pool of rich people running around that made a lot of money in the last 10 years.”

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Last week, the asking prices for luxury homes — $4 million or more — that went into contract totaled $219 million, doubling the previous week’s total. At 24, the week notched 10 more deals than the previous period, according to Olshan Realty.

Argo and Bsafal acquired the Greenwich Village property from Bernard-Charles in 2019 for $30 million. It took time for the condo project to get off the ground due to permit issues and the pandemic, but work eventually started with the assistance of an $82 million construction loan from Fortress Investment Group.

KPF designed the building, while Danish firm Space Copenhagen designed the interiors. Construction on the 13-story building is expected to wrap by early 2024.

— Holden Walter-Warner