Embattled Lower East Side luxury condo project relaunches sales

It’s Take 2 for an embattled condo project on the Lower East Side. 

An Optimum Asset Management-led development at 222 East Broadway initially launched sales in October 2022 with Cantor Pecorella. Progress was slow, with only four units in contract on StreetEasy by June 2023. 

This past June, the development team announced a relaunch of sales with Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group and a new name, 222 LES Tower + Lofts. 

“We’re going to do our best to highlight the building,” Katie Sachsenmaier, senior sales director at Corcoran Sunshine said. Sachsenmaier said the team would lean into the area, which is a combination of old school Chinatown and internet celebrity hot spots like Dimes Square.

Sachsenmaier declined to comment on sales progress since Corcoran took over, and Optimum and Cantor Pecorella did not respond to requests for comment. 

The redoubled sales efforts and new name provide another facelift to a project that has undergone numerous nips and tucks since Optimum began planning the project back in 2016. Optimum bought the three lots that make up the development site for $47.5 million in 2016. 

The current development – a 28-story luxury tower and an 11-story loft building converted from a nursing home – was cobbled together after a neighboring local group shot down an initial proposal that would have allowed for three larger towers.

The project team, consisting of Optimum and partners Ascend Group and Round Square Development, had put in a $54 million bid for 155,000 square feet of air rights owned by neighboring Seward Park Cooperative, which the co-op rejected in 2018 over concerns about height and gentrification. 

At the time, it was reported that the plan would instead move forward with two smaller 17- and 20-story buildings. Those plans were also scrapped for the current set up, which, in addition to the two existing structures, includes a 6,700-square-foot green space where the third tower would have gone. 

The existing two towers form somewhat of an odd couple, with the 52-unit new development sitting snugly against the 18-unit art deco landmark, which used to house the Bialystoker Center and Home for the Aged.   

“The shabby-chic quality of the neighborhood is changing, and I guess we’re sort of part of that,” said Richard Cantor, Cantor Pecorella co-founder, at the time. “But we like to think of this building as where the past meets the future of New York.”

The two-tower plan was initially expected to bring in $157 million, according to an offering plan accepted in 2022. The average price per square foot was $2,100, with the cheapest apartments going for $975,000. Units range from studios to four bedrooms.

Those estimates have yet to be realized, as no closed sales have appeared in the city register since 2022. An amended plan submitted this year shows that Optimum expects to generate nearly $154 million, just over $3 million shy of its original target. A June press release states that apartment prices will start at $799,000. 

Currently on StreetEasy, in addition to the four contracts inked by Cantor Pecorella, Corcoran Sunshine has added two more sales. All six of the contracts are for either studios or one-bedroom units.