W Downtown gets sales boost from Sunshine

The sluggish sales pace has picked up at the condominium units in Joseph Moinian’s W New York Downtown hotel thanks to a new marketing focus on fully-furnished units led by Louise Sunshine, according to the  Wall Street Journal.

Interest in the building was high when a sales effort was launched before it was built in 2007, but the  prospective buyers vanished when the recession hit. When the 57-story building’s 22 lowest floors opened as a 217-room hotel in 2010 the building, at 123 Washington Street, had its first sale. By the fall of 2011, though, just 15 of the 223 for-sale units had closed, in part because of a controversial Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act lawsuit.

That’s when Moinian called upon Louise Sunshine to help with the sales push. Sunshine enlisted the Corcoran Group to help with the marketing effort, while she embarked on a mission to furnish the apartments with $30,000 to $35,000 worth of pieces per unit from Tui Lifestyle.

Sunshine’s work has spurred interest in the building among investors who want immediately to rent out the units or use them as pied-a-terres, the Journal said. In the last month four sales have closed and seven more are in contract. Brokers say the furnished apartments help them sell units by showing how to use the space to prospective buyers who once worried the units were too small. [WSJ]