It’s been eight years since construction began on Richard Meier’s West Side residential towers, ushering in the era of the celebrity architect – or, as it is more popularly known – “starchitect.”
Luxury buildings charge a premium for being associated with brand-name designers, and the buildings themselves are often known not by their address, but by their starchitects: the Annabelle Seldorf building, the Jean Nouvel building.
“A big name associated with a building is, in theory, supposed to draw eyeballs to the project,” said Jonathan Miller, executive vice president and director of research for Radar Logic.
But for the first generation starchitect buildings – those that have already sold out in a blaze of initial publicity and are now hitting resales – has having a designer brand maintained its value?
According to Sofia Kim, a researcher at StreetEasy.com, the answer is yes.
Kim estimated that the average sale price for a sponsor apartment in one of the starchitect buildings ran about 30 to 50 percent higher than those of surrounding apartments. Upon resale, said Kim, that premium is holding steady.
Long-time Halstead broker Janet Weiner also said resales are strong at the starchitect residences.
“There is a panache, a sex appeal to these buildings,” said Weiner, who likened living in an apartment conceived by Meier or Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron (who designed the residences at 40 Bond) to wearing couture clothing.
“There is a cachet in living in a building by someone who has designed some of the great buildings in the world,” said Rick Bell, executive director of the American Institute of Architects’ New York chapter. “But it’s not just the snob appeal of the name. With celebrity architects, you get great attention to detail and line. The quality is there.”
Julie Pham, a broker with Corcoran, said that after seeing the luxurious interiors of some of the starchitect apartments, from extra-high ceilings to the spectacular views created by floor-to-ceiling glass windows, buyers have started to recognize the value of living in a place that isn’t “cookie-cutter.”
“People are starting to crave more original spaces,” said Pham. “I think that people are going to care less about what a building looks like on the outside and more about what it feels like on the inside. They notice the difference, and they’ll pay for it.”
In November, the penthouse triplex at Meier’s 176 Perry went on the market for a whopping $40 million – more than twice the $17.57 million that the original buyer, Sun Microsystems founder Bill Joy, paid in 2002.
Pham said she doesn’t think the price tag is unreasonable since the 11,000-square-foot, five-bedroom unit is “one of a kind.”
Sellers are hoping that resales at 40 Mercer, a hot downtown building from Jean Nouvel and André Balazs, will also be strong.
According to StreetEasy, the building is fetching $3,166 per square foot, nearly three times the average rate in the neighborhood.
Part of the reason, said Weiner, is that these residences are truly full-service, offering hotel-style amenities that are rare in older buildings. For example, 40 Mercer offers continental breakfast; 15 Central Park West, designed by Robert A.M. Stern, boasts a lap pool, a screening room and a wine cellar with a tasting table.
Perhaps the most successful of the starchitect buildings is 15 Central Park West. A modern take on its prewar neighbors (New York magazine called it “the best knockoff money can buy”), 15 Central Park West sold out quickly, with big names like Denzel Washington, Sting and Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein reportedly among the buyers.
In July, Barron’s reported that the average price of a condo in the building was $9.5 million, and that the net total for the building was $1.8 billion, a record in North America.
According to an industry insider, the flips have already begun, with “staggering” prices being thrown around – and several offers on the penthouse apartments.
Units at Stern’s earlier building, the Chatham at 181 East 65th Street, are also selling well, according to Core Group Marketing broker Jon Isaacs, who just closed the resale of a three-bedroom there for $4.35 million.
There are, however, exceptions. According to Kim, the Astor Place Tower at 445 Lafayette, designed by Charles Gwathmey, initially had trouble selling units and is experiencing similarly lagging resales.
Kim said that Astor Place isn’t necessarily an example of buyers being unimpressed with the designer or amenities, but rather a case of “the wrong product in the wrong place.” She is kinder than some. New York magazine’s Mark Jacobson recently wrote that it was “probably the city’s most spectacularly misplaced effusion of architectural arrogance.”
The late Philip Johnson and Annabelle Seldorf’s Urban Glass House at 330 Spring Street is another example of star power stunted, this time by circumstances.
Kim said that sales trouble at the Urban Glass House, like at the Astor Place Tower, had less to do with the cachet of the designer and more to do with neighborhood issues. In this case, the city’s Department of Sanitation purchased a lot just across Spring Street and reportedly plans to build a 14-story parking garage on the property. According to developer Abe Shnay, the neighborhood is up in arms about the proposed garage, which, if completed, could threaten the residents’ views. Either way, uncertainty surrounding the issue may be spooking some potential buyers.
According to StreetEasy, 445 Lafayette is still commanding a higher price per square foot than the neighborhood average, although 330 Spring is asking less than its Soho neighbors.
But from a purely architectural standpoint, Pham and Isaacs said they believe buildings like Richard Meier’s Perry Street towers, the Urban Glass House and 40 Bond have raised the bar for all new luxury developments in the city.
“Five or six years ago, during the development boom, people were eating up everything,” said Isaacs. “Now, a line has been drawn. The B-level product is just sitting on the market, but the top product is really moving.”
High resale prices for starchitect buildings
Richard Meier’s 173 Perry Street
Apartment 8N
Purchased for $2.6 million in September 2003
Resold for $3.8 million in March 2007
Richard Meier’s 176 Perry Street
Apartment 11S
Purchased for $5.8 million in September 2004
Resold for $6.4 million in May 2007
Robert A.M. Stern’s Chatham at 181 East 65th Street
Apartment 24B
Purchased for $5.35 million in January 2003
Resold for $6.7 million in January 2007
Jean Nouvel’s 40 Mercer Street
Apartment 18
Purchased for $3.575 million in April 2007
Resold for $4.3 million in November 2007
Charles Gwathmey’s Astor Place Tower at 445 Lafayette Street
Apartment 8A
Purchased for $3.1 million in November 2005
Resold for $3.5 million in June 2007