Even the wealthiest buyers want a finished product, says Gladstone of Madison Equities

Amid the credit crunch, New York City’s large and growing inventory of stalled projects seem to have scared off even the wealthiest of new development apartment buyers. At pricey developments like 57 Irving Place, where the cheapest unit is a $6.75 million three-bedroom, buyers are still wary of committing to anything before the building is finished, Robert Gladstone, CEO of developer Madison Equities, told the New York Times. “There’s no market of people buying from plans,” he said. “Basically everyone is saying, we’d like to see a representation of how the lobby is going to look, we want to see the apartment a little further along.” Gladstone’s next project is 145 Perry Street, a bed-and-breakfast inn. He says New York has a dearth of hotels, and the outlook for those types of properties is “very, very strong.”