The “It” buildings in each of The Real Deal’s markets are condo developments that typify the moment in their regions, according to brokers, insiders and our reporters’ carefully honed instincts. You can read the full series here.
In New York City, a new luxury tower in the West Village is shaping up to be the one to watch — partly because there isn’t much else to look at.
Manhattan brokers have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of 80 Clarkson Street, the planned 113-unit condo portion of Zeckendorf Development and Atlas Capital Group’s two-tower project on the Hudson River.
“That’s the big one that everyone is interested in,” John Gomes, the co-founder of Douglas Elliman’s top-producing Eklund-Gomes Team, said. “That’s the one everybody wants to get into, the one everyone wants to sell in.”
It’s one of few developments of its size, and likely price point, on its way up in the borough. An offering plan filed last summer includes pricing for just 22 of the tower’s units, ranging from nearly $7 million for a two-bedroom apartment to $63 million for a five-bedroom, two-terrace condo on the 31st floor. But complete pricing is still a mystery.
The new development is nearly unrivaled in Lower Manhattan, where just last month, buyers proved they’re willing to pay record prices for apartments. (A penthouse at the Witkoff Group’s 150 Charles traded for $60 million in March, setting a new record for condo deals in the area.)
“That product doesn’t exist downtown,” said Elliman’s Jade Chan, who leads sales at Michael Shvo’s Mandarin Oriental Residences on Fifth Avenue. “That part of downtown is in demand always.”
With an expected sellout close to $2 billion, the building will inject a much-needed swath of new condos into a market, which saw most of its existing inventory scooped up last year as few projects emerged to take their place.
Agents are betting on 80 Clarkson to bring relief to the dry spell in Manhattan, where high building and land costs caused what Gomes described as a “bottleneck.” Years earlier, developers stopped buying up sites, so instead of a fresh set of new development buildings hitting the market, there’s very little.
Developers have also been leaning toward smaller projects — a departure from the glitzy Billionaires’ Row supertalls that flooded the city’s new development scene years earlier.
Boutique buildings like the Reuben Brothers’ Surrey Residences and Aurora Capital Associates’ 140 Jane Street, each with fewer than 20 units, have been success stories, while some larger buildings, rife with discounts and languishing units, have served as cautionary tales.
Despite the trend toward small, few have raised doubts about the size of 80 Clarkson, especially since it’s from the team behind Manhattan’s original buzzworthy building, 15 Central Park West, the tower that redefined condo pricing in the city and set a new standard for ultra-luxury.
So far, 80 Clarkson’s developers have been tight-lipped about it, with only a few details making their way into the public eye. The sales team, led by new development marketing veterans Dan Tubb and Amy Williamson, was announced in October.
Sources told TRD last month that the duo is likely to quietly begin shopping units in the spring, but no launch date has come out.
The building’s planned amenities include a fitness center, pool, spa and hot and cold plunges.