Penthouse at Skyline Tower sets price record in Queens

Queens’ tallest building is reaching unprecedented heights for pricing, too.

A penthouse at Chris Jiashu Xu’s Skyline Tower set a Queens price per square foot record when it closed last week for $2.3 million, or $2,300 per square foot, according to Modern Spaces, which heads sales at the building.

The seller of PH302 is Risland Holdings, which had acquired the penthouse as part of a $161 million bulk purchase of Skyline apartments from Xu’s firm a year ago. Risland is an equity investor in the condominium.

The 66th-floor apartment at 3 Court Square topped the mark of $2,200 per square foot set by a larger penthouse in the tower. That unit sold earlier this year for $2.9 million.

Modern Spaces CEO Eric Benaim declined to share the identity of the buyer, though he confirmed it was an all-cash deal.

The two-bedroom apartment features views of the Manhattan skyline, white oak flooring and a walk-in closet in the primary bedroom. Amenities at the 67-story building include a fitness center, pool, children’s playroom and pet spa.

Nine months after Risland’s bulk purchase, the Hong Kong-based investment company used the units to secure a $60 million loan from Emerald Creek Capital.

Four years after sales launched at Skyline Tower, Queens’ first billion-dollar project, 587 of its 802 units have sold and another 13 are in contract, according to the sales team.

Xu’s United Construction and Development aimed for a $1.1 billion sellout at Skyline Tower, making it the priciest condo ever in Queens. The building has attracted a slew of international and all-cash buyers, but selling out the ambitious project has been a challenge.

Deals flourished at the building after Amazon announced in 2018 that it would build a Long Island City office campus, but the company ditched its plans in February 2019.

The pandemic hit a year later, slowing contract signings again, but Benaim said sales have picked back up over the past few months, propelled by the market’s inventory shortage and rising rents.

“Early in the year, people weren’t sure what was happening,” Benaim said, noting that buyers have since adjusted to inflation and higher mortgage rates. “People are just like, ‘This is it. This is going to be the new normal for the next year or two.’”

Benaim also attributed the uptick in sales to new retail options in the area, including Target and Trader Joe’s. “The surrounding area of Skyline has changed dramatically,” Benaim said.

Sales of the tower’s penthouse collection launched in 2021 with Nest Seekers Development Marketing at the helm. Modern Spaces, which has handled the bulk of Skyline Tower’s listings since 2019, has since taken over all sales.

Last year, a group of 90 buyers — just shy of 20 percent of unit owners at the time — filed a complaint with the state attorney general about the tower’s marketing, management and construction, including flooding and a lack of amenities.

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