Condominium units at the storied Plaza Hotel can still be had for a hefty price, but how many of them are unsold remains unclear. So does an actual look at the multimillion-dollar apartments, thanks to a marketing campaign that denies potential buyers a visit to the palatial residential units.
Instead, would-be buyers view a CD of the famed landmark building at One Central Park South. The short film, featuring a dramatic musical score, is a compendium of promotional material that shows what the refurbished Plaza will look like — inside and out. The publicity effort includes viewing computerized floor plans of the 182 apartments, which have price tags of up to $39.5 million.
Brokers of exclusive properties say this approach is perhaps a bit too exclusive, but that doesn’t stop folks in the business from talking about the Plaza units.
“I feel that not disclosing and having this kind of vagueness is going to be counterproductive,” and raises more questions, said Louise Phillips Forbes, a senior vice president at Halstead Property. “It’s OK to be a little vague,” she said, but “people want to feel that they are not the only people pulling the trigger.”
Roger Erickson, senior managing director at Sotheby’s International Realty, said he heard from one Stribling & Associates real estate agent that 30 percent of the apartments have signed contracts (no one has closed on a deal yet). Another agent told him 50 percent.
“What I have heard is that the sales have been going pretty well,” said Andrew Gerringer, managing director of the Prudential Douglas Elliman Development Marketing Group, which has represented Plaza owner Elad Properties in other deals. “They’re probably at least 50 percent sold,” he estimated, with the majority selected on the Central Park side rather than on the Fifth Avenue or courtyard sides.
“We’ve sold really well throughout the building,” said Elizabeth Lorenzo, a broker specialist with Stribling, the exclusive sales and marketing agent for the private residences at the Plaza. She declined to reveal the number of available apartments, saying that the number is always evolving.
The one- to five-bedroom condominiums range from 800 to 6,300 square feet and command prices of between $2.2 million and $39.5 million. Three apartments available in early May were apartment 2009, a $39.5 million four-bedroom penthouse triplex; apartment 2001, a four-bedroom duplex with an asking price of $29.5 million; and apartment 913, a two-bedroom apartment for $7.7 million.
Buyers have hailed from places as disparate as Manhattan’s Park and Fifth avenues, Georgia, Boston, California, Russia, Italy and Ireland, Lorenzo said.
Some potential buyers rejected the Plaza because of the unknowns, brokers said.
“I feel it’s necessary to stand in the place to get a feeling about it,” especially when it runs in the multi-million dollar price range, said Cheryl Tanenbaum, a broker for CMT Private Real Estate.
A senior vice president and managing director of Brown Harris Stevens, Kathleen Sloane, said that while potential buyers appreciate the top-notch hotel services, including a one-touch virtual concierge, the apartments are “very pricey,” especially as a pied-a-terre. In addition, she said, “there are a limited number of apartments in the Plaza with superior views.”
Forbes of Halstead said, “I think the community of New Yorkers aren’t really sure who their neighbors will be and that’s a concern for them.” Also, some of her clients were turned off early when they were told they could not choose from the entire inventory because apartments were strategically withheld from the market or they were already taken. “They are particularly wealthy people that would consider buying when they had the pick of the litter,” she said.
Elad purchased the 805-room hotel for $675 million in 2004. The hotel was shuttered April 30 to undergo $350 million in renovations to restore the entire hotel, including the Palm Court and the Oak Bar and Room, to its 1907 grandeur. A two-story penthouse is being added to the 19-story building, and a private center courtyard is being built on the fifth floor. In addition to the private residences, there will be retail space and 282 hotel rooms and suites, 152 of which will be available for purchase for short-term stays while functioning other times as part of the hotel. The restored Plaza is scheduled to partially open in early 2007 with a grand opening in time for the hotel’s 100th anniversary that October.
“The Plaza really speaks to someone — beside the location — that loves that building — that kind of building,” said Nellie Wilson, a senior associate broker at the Corcoran Group. The hotel “epitomizes traditional New York,” and that appealed to one of her overseas clients, who purchased a pied-a-terre in the Plaza early in the year.
To some degree, investing millions of dollars for an apartment you have never seen requires an act of faith.
“You place a certain amount of trust in the developer and the people who are representing the developer,” Wilson said.
The allure of the Plaza is “partially the magic, partially the view, partially the fact it’s a condo,” said Edward Lee Cave, who owns a high-end boutique firm of the same name. He brokered a deal at the Plaza for a Manhattan couple in April. “You’re buying a piece of history,” Cave said. The couple settled on a two-bedroom apartment overlooking Central Park. “They said the shoe fits,” Cave said, and plunked down the asking price of more than $10 million.