Luxury condo showdown: New York builder takes on Chicago counterparts

The Chicago condo market isn’t exactly humming along, but that isn’t stopping one New York developer from taking a shot at glory.

Ghengis Hadi’s Nahla Capital will submit plans to build a 90-unit luxury condo at the site of a parking garage attached to a rehab center at 40 W. Oak St., according to Crain’s.

Though Hadi will be competing against a slew of glitzy projects nearby, he has a good location on his side. “It will be a very strong competitor in the new development market,” Integra Realty Resources’ Gail Lissner told Crain’s. “The challenge though is the number of units under development all targeting the top end of the market.”

Between 70 and 80 percent of condo projects downtown have been targeting $700 per square foot or higher, according to Crain’s, so Hadi will be competing with big-time players like Belgravia Group, JK Equities and JDL Development, among others.

While most developers are targeting rental plays, boutique condo projects with larger units and higher price points are finding buyers, which seems to be in Nahla Capital’s wheelhouse.

In New York, Nahla Capital has tapped big-name architects to distinguish itself in a crowded condo market. It hired Tadao Ando to design the boutique seven-unit condo at 152 Elizabeth — a penthouse sold for $35 million — and is also developing a ground-up condo at 219 West 77th Street, designed by designer Thomas Juul-Hansen. It also has projects in San Francisco, Philadelphia and Los Angeles, according to its website. [Crain’s] — James Kleimann