The construction of Toll Brothers’ white-glove Condo Building On Park Avenue is causing severe losses of light and views at a neighboring co-op and bringing the older building’s prices down, the Wall Street Journal reported.
When complete, 1110 Park Avenue will be 210 feet tall and its 11 apartments will sport extra-high ceilings and tall windows, according to city filings viewed by the Journal. The apartments are expected to command prices north of $2,500 a square foot, David Von Spreckelsen, president of Toll’s New York-based City Living division, told the Journal.
But at a prewar co-op next door on the corner of East 90th Street, owners have been scrambling to sell their apartments in the face of the new development. Prices, brokers say, have been falling, and currently stand at about $1,200 a square foot. The drops can be partially attributed to the loss of vistas that have been a feature of the building since it was completed in 1927.
Since the Toll Brothers acquired the development site last year, six of 14 C-line co-ops have been listed or sold. Three of these apartments have taken an average loss of 9.6 percent, or roughly $250,000, on their purchase prices.
The neighborhood has been rallying together to block the project. William Niles, a neighborhood resident, told the Journal that as many as 37 windows at 1112 Park Ave. will be bricked up before the new building goes up, and a total of 228 windows in the two adjacent building would lose views and light.
“What is different here is the magnitude of the situation,” Niles said. “This is what the zoning code allows to be done.” [WSJ] –Hiten Samtani