Manhattan’s top residential developers

From a residential perspective, the Time Warner Center was one of their smaller projects.

The Related Companies has built more units than any other developer in Manhattan in the past five years, followed by Donald Trump, whose efforts have mostly revolved around Trump Place on the Upper West Side.

The Real Deal set out this past month to track the biggest developers in Manhattan. The top 15 developers have completed or have in the immediate pipeline some 17,000 units since 2000.

Related, headed by chairman Stephen Ross, has been responsible for some 4,000 of those apartments, (including 200 at the Time Warner Center) and doesn’t look set to stop any time soon. The company plans to begin construction next year on a massive 800-unit project on 42nd Street and 10th Avenue that will occupy an entire block.

Meanwhile, The Donald has been responsible for some 2,300 units in the past five years. But with less than half of the 16 planned buildings at Trump Place completed, several thousand more are on the way.

The Moinian Group, recently an aggressive buyer of conversion properties, finished third. With soaring prices, it is switching from rentals and planning its first condo project at the former Downtown Athletic Club, which once housed the Heisman Trophy.

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The largest developers are building bigger than ever today, and Rockrose, which finished fourth, typifies the trend. It is completing the 650-unit 2 Gold Street in Lower Manhattan even while much of its attention is focused on Long Island City, where it is planning seven buildings over the next 10 years and where it recently proposed what would be the largest condo in the five boroughs on the site of the city’s now scuttled Olympic Village.

Boymelgreen Developers, which didn’t have a Manhattan project under its belt until 2003, finished next on the list, and is now planning a 690-unit project in Lower Manhattan. JD Carlisle Development Corp., number six, is also ramping up quickly.

One massive project goes a long way. The Durst Organization and Silverstein Properties, not thought of as major residential builders, made the list on the basis of one or two projects. Silverstein’s One River Place has more than 900 units, dwarfing well-known boutique developers like Alchemy Properties, which averages around 30 units at a time and has built or planned some 375 units in Manhattan in the past five years.

The survey only included planned projects that were in the immediate pipeline, and where a definitive number of units had been announced.

For this reason, companies like Extell Development, which recently bought 66 acres from Donald Trump on the Upper West Side where it is planning 3,000 units and which is seeking to replace Bruce Ratner as the developer of Atlantic Yards, weren’t included.

Others gearing up for big projects include The Witkoff Group (Woolworth Building partial conversion and 42nd Street project), developers Nathan Berman and Ronny Bruckner (who plan to convert one million square feet of office space in Lower Manhattan), the Chetrit Group (Toy Center building conversion), the Gotham Organization (two-million-square-foot East Harlem project), The Dermot Co. (far West Side), Yair Levy (who bought the Sheffield with partners), and Avalon Bay (Lower East Side).

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