Across Manhattan, new developments are changing the skyline, and increasingly, the towers springing up are more impressive in every way: The glittering and ultra-exclusive condominium buildings are being built bigger, fancier and more expensive than ever.
Demand for these luxury buildings has been picking up pace over the past decade with the development of the Time Warner Center, 515 Park and 15 Central Park West, said Douglas Elliman broker Eva Penson. Today’s new buildings, including 50 UN Plaza, 100 East 53rd Street and 520 West 28th Street, which have been designed by big-name architects like Robert A.M. Stern, Norman Foster and Zaha Hadid, offer the best amenities, the fanciest finishes and kitchens and bathrooms fitted with the latest appliances, in an extravagant display of one-upmanship.
The model for today’s high-end condos is, of course, the full-service luxury hotel, or as Penson described it, “hotel living in a private building.”
The ultimate expressions of that model are perhaps Baccarat and One57, which both include sumptuous hotels alongside their residences. For these homes, Douglas Elliman broker Janice Chang explained, “Every resident has complete access to the full-service amenities.”
Below are the newest and the priciest condos in Manhattan currently on the market, which LLNYC determined by examining the most expensive, recently constructed buildings (which we defined as anything completed after 2013).
They are arranged by price per square foot, capped by a duplex penthouse listed for an eye-popping $65 million at $9,615 per square foot.
At that rate, for the sake of comparison, a 1,000-square-foot apartment would cost a somewhat outrageous $9.62 million.
100 East 53rd Street PH
100 East 53rd Street PH $65,000,000 4 beds, 4 baths, 1 half bath; 6,760 square feet; $9,615 per square foot
At the top of our list is the penthouse at 100 East 53rd Street. Sales in the Norman Foster-designed building launched at the end of January. The duplex is listed by James Morgan and Leonard Steinberg of Compass. The apartment has floor-to-ceiling windows, a 44-foot-long great room, 23-foot ceilings and giant walls intended for displaying large works of art. Like all of the buildings on this list, it has an impressive list of amenities, including a wellness facility, yoga rooms and library. Of all the apartments on this list, this is the newest to hit the market, so it will be interesting to see if its price tag holds up over time.
157 West 57th Street #83 (Photography courtesy of Extell Development Company)
157 West 57th Street #83 $58,500,000 4 beds, 5 baths, 1 half bath; 6,240 square feet, $9,375 per square foot
One57, one of the new super-tall pillars that tower over Midtown, made headlines in 2015 when its penthouse sold for a record-breaking $100.5 million. Consider this apartment its little sister. “When people spend this kind of money they want views,” said listing agent Janice Chang of Douglas Elliman. Rest assured, this apartment has them — of the East River, Central Park, the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building. The apartment has a kitchen fitted with English cabinetry from Smallbone of Devizes and a master bathroom with a bathtub sculpted from a single piece of marble. With the Park Hyatt located downstairs, residents can enjoy room service, a restaurant and bar, a gym, spa facilities and a movie screening room. But amenities aside, the building also won the unfortunate title of Curbed’s Worst Building of the Year 2014, thanks to what the website described as its ugly wavy blue facade.
432 Park Avenue #80B (Photography courtesy of DBOX for CIM Group & Macklowe)
432 Park Avenue #80B $44,300,000 4 beds, 5 baths, 2 half baths; 5,421 square feet; $8,162 per square foot
432 Park Avenue was completed at the end of last year and is the new kingpin of the New York City skyline. It’s the tallest residential building in the world, and if it weren’t for that pesky spire on One World Trade Center, it would also be the tallest building in New York City. All residences at 432 Park Avenue have the same finishes, said listing broker Eva Penson of Douglas Elliman; however, she pointed out several factors that make 80B special, including its oversized living room, eat-in kitchen, private elevator landing as well as his-and-her bathrooms located on opposite sides of the master bedroom. Penson describes the services offered in the building as on par with “the most luxurious hotels in the world.”
20 West 53rd Street PH (Photography credit: Albert Vecerka)
20 West 53rd Street PH $60,000,000 5 beds, 5 baths, 1 half bath; 7,381 square feet; $8,128 per square foot
The penthouse at 20 West 53rd Street is, not surprisingly, the largest and most expensive in the building known as the Baccarat Hotel and Residences. The unit is spread across two floors atop the 50-story tower and has an interior designed by Tony Ingrao. He incorporated touches of Baccarat crystal throughout the apartment, including a signature light fixture in the foyer and a door handle with a custom crystal inlay. Thanks to the Baccarat hotel, residents get to enjoy what listing agent Janice Change of Douglas Elliman described as “the full-service Baccarat lifestyle,” featuring the world’s first Spa de La Mer, run by luxury skin care specialist La Mer
53 West 53rd Street #63 (Photography credit: Hayes Davidson)
53 West 53rd Street #63 $50,900,000 4 beds, 4 baths, 1 half bath; 6,786 square feet; $7,500 per square foot
After being stalled FOR almost a decade, construction at 53 West 53rd Street began last year. The Jean Nouvel-designed tower — also known as the MoMA tower, thanks to its close proximity to the Museum of Modern Art — won’t be completed for a couple more years. A spokesperson for the building explained that every residence is unique due to Nouvel’s “diagrid” structure (the zig-zag beams you’ll see on its facade.) The building offers amenities aplenty including a wellness center, theater and wine vault and it will also house new galleries for its next-door-neighbor. It appears to be the only building on this list to come with special museum perks. Corcoran has the listing.
50 UN Plaza PH4243 (Photography credit: Hayes Davidson/John Ewing)
50 UN Plaza PH4243 $70,000,000 4 beds, 2 staff beds, 7 baths, 1 half bath; 9,704 square feet; $7,213 per square foot
At $70 million, the duplex penthouse at 50 UN Plaza (another Norman Foster design) is the biggest on our list by a large margin. “While the penthouse is the jewel of the building,” Jill Mangone, director of sales at Zeckendorf Marketing, said, “all units are the embodiment of luxury.” Which means all residents get to enjoy the granite, red marble and mahogany lobby, the luxury spa and the landscaped motor court. But only the penthouse has a 525-square-foot north-facing terrace and a 10,000-pound stainless steel spiral staircase. It’s also the only residence listed here with a private outdoor infinity pool.
150 Charles Street #9A (Photography credit: Evan Joseph)
150 Charles Street #9A $40,000,000 6 beds, 6 baths, 1 half bath; 5,840 square feet; $6,849 per square foot
This apartment at the Cookfox-designed building is the most expensive listing on the market in the West Village right now and it comes with 3,200 square feet of private outdoor space. Madeline Hult Elghanayan and Peter Zaitzeff of Douglas Elliman have the listing. The duplex has river and city views as well as a double-height, south-facing dining room. Jon Bon Jovi likes the building too — he snapped up a four-bedroom place here last year.