Prices In Downtown Manhattan Hit New Peaks

Price points in downtown Manhattan are soaring to new heights, with the recent sale of a West Village penthouse leading the charge.

The five-bedroom apartment at Steve Witkoff’s 150 Charles Street closed for an astonishing $11,500 per square foot. Few Manhattan buildings have exceeded that price per square foot, and even less 14th Street, an analysis of TRD Pro data shows.

The deal placed the unit on par with sales at some Billionaires’ Row supertalls and uptown trophy properties. Among those that have achieved a price per square foot above $11,500 are Vornado’s 220 Central Park South and Singapore’s Pontiac Land Group’s 53 West 53rd Street.

The $52 million off-market deal for the West Village penthouse closely followed another top-dollar sale in lower Manhattan. A 10,000-square-foot penthouse at 151 Wooster Street in Soho closed for $50 million, but the price per square foot was less than half of the 150 Charles sale.

The market’s downturn over the last year could be driving these standout prices, as activity skews toward the ultra high-end of the market, Jonathan Miller, head of the appraisal firm Miller Samuel, said. With high mortgage rates driving down financed purchases, high-priced, all-cash deals, and the luxury listings that come with them, are dominating the market.

“When you see these sales, it seems like a burst of activity. It’s really not,” Miller said. “These sales are less unexpected because pocket listings and cash-related purchases are a big subset of the market right now.”

The penthouse’s sky-high sale price could be attributed to its 2,500 square feet of outdoor space, which isn’t included in the apartment’s total of about 4,500 square feet.

To factor in the outdoor space, Miller said to add in half of the exterior square footage, about 1,250 square feet, to the total square footage and divide it from the sale price.

This calculation would bring the price per square foot down to about $9,000 — “not outside the realm of possibility,” Miller said, but still “at the high end” for the area.

The only lower Manhattan property to exceed this price point is a townhouse at 137 West 13th Street, which sold for $9,800 per square foot in February.

Related’s 70 Vestry Street and Michael Shvo’s The Getty Residences hold the records for the priciest sales in downtown Manhattan. The buildings in Tribeca and Chelsea claimed the titles in 2018, when units in each building closed for $56 million and $59 million, respectively.