Trump SoHo, the 46-story hotel-condo development that’s set to shake up downtown when it opens early next year (target date: Feb. 1), isn’t really in SoHo. It’s at the corner of Spring and Varick, which is west of Sixth Avenue, SoHo’s official western boundary.
This marketing sleight of hand is no surprise, though. The true magic act is the building’s pricing: close to $3,000 per square foot — more than twice what condos in the nearby Hudson Square area (just west of Trump SoHo) are fetching.
Trump SoHo prices (for units that buyers are allowed to live in only 120 days a year) have remained firm since sales started in 2007.
The numbers seem to tell the story of a huge success, a building that’s defied the downturn. Or do they? It’s difficult to figure out because Trump SoHo and its sales are shrouded in mystery.
“We have a good number of units under contract,” says Julius Schwarz, a principal with the Bayrock Group, which is developing the building along with the Sapir Organization and a Trump affiliate. “And we just signed a number of contracts within the last few weeks.”
How many total?
“We’re sold at 55 percent of phase one,” he says.
How many units are in phase one? That he won’t say.
After repeated inquiries, a building spokesperson reveals that phase one includes “more than 50 percent” of the building’s 391 units, which at the very least equals 196 units. Given that 55 percent of 196 units is 108 units, this would mean that, at minimum, about 28 percent of the building is sold.
But in January 2009, when we last covered the project, Rodrigo Nino of Prodigy International who is selling the building (and who didn’t return phone calls for this story), claimed that the building was “61 or 62” percent sold. And he never mentioned different phases of sales.
And back in 2007, Shaun Osher of Core Group Marketing, who was selling Trump SoHo at the time, said that the building was 50 percent sold. He claimed that there were “well over 1,200 letters of intent.”
Of course, deals have fallen through all over town since the downturn. And granted, 55 percent of phase one’s “more than 50 percent” could mean many more than 108 units. But the developers won’t elaborate.
What we do know is that prices at Trump SoHo start at $1.121 million for a 422-square-foot unit — $2,656 per square foot, much higher than anything else in the area. In Hudson Square, prices tend to hover between $1,000 and $1,500 per square foot.
“I bought at the height of the market, and I sold for exactly what I paid,” says Jill Meilus, a Corcoran Group broker who sold her 1,233-square-foot apartment at 505 Greenwich for $1.45 million in August.
And a lot of buildings in the area aren’t selling at all. A glut of new residential development in Hudson Square has made it difficult to unload apartments. (Word is that the Renwick at 15 Renwick St. is stalled, and the nearby No. 22 Renwick is dealing with buyers wanting to rescind contracts.)
Trump SoHo, however, is fortunate. Since it’s not fully residential, it will open regardless of how its units have sold. And when it does, it will transform the neighborhood.
Its four public spaces alone are guaranteed to not only draw people west from SoHo, but also bring a brand-new demographic to the area.
“It’s a whole new downtown,” says Prudential Douglas Elliman broker Leonard Steinberg. “I think a lot of people who gravitate uptown will be pulled downtown. Trump has uptown pull.”
Trump SoHo’s attractions include Bazaar, a lounge that will open onto the street and have a capacity of just 100, ensuring a scene and a difficult door.
“Bazaar will be very exclusive,” says Ivanka Trump, who has become the face of Trump SoHo (she tweeted Wednesday about “The Apprentice” filming there). “We don’t want it to be a distraction for our guests, but an amenity.”
Bar d’Eau, an indoor/outdoor seasonal bar, will service the fifth-floor pool deck and be open during the day. Think DJs and swimsuits.
Downstairs, with a bird’s-eye view of the lobby, will be the Library, an intimate sitting room filled exclusively with Taschen books. The idea is for the Library to be filled with people sipping pre-dinner cocktails while waiting for a table at Quattro, the highly anticipated outpost of the Miami eatery owned by KNR Restaurant Group and popular with South Beach’s jet set.
“We wanted a restaurateur who wasn’t already in Manhattan, but who had a solid following,” says Ivanka Trump.
“There isn’t that much going on around Varick,” says Karim Masri of KNR. “It will be a destination for dinner, no doubt.”
Trump SoHo will also feature an 11,000-square-foot spa, modeled after a Turkish bath, or hammam. This was Ivanka’s idea, which she had after visiting Turkey herself.
Trump SoHo “will be a draw for me as well, having moved downtown with [husband] Jared [Kushner],” she says. “To have the outdoor pool, to have the pool bar, the cabanas, the landscaping.”
A draw indeed. But this is an otherwise sleepy neighborhood with residents who seem to relish its sleepiness. According to Steinberg, the area around Trump SoHo is crawling with celebrities who came for the relative quiet.
“Denis Leary lives there; Kate Hudson lives over there. It’s a nice place to escape the maddening crowds of SoHo and still be in spitting distance,” he says.
“I always like that if you’re coming home at 2 in the morning, there is always something going on, but it isn’t disruptive,” says Meilus, referring to neighborhood nightspots Don Hill’s, Sway and Anchor. “They’re really low-key, so they don’t intrude on the neighborhood.”
That said, the area is also home to Greenhouse, a popular and controversial bottle-service nightclub that opened last year. Plus, the Parlor Club, a members-only social club, is slated to open next year on Spring Street.
And like it or not, change is coming in the form of one giant, glassy, expensive and buzz-worthy building.
“Look at what the Standard [hotel] is doing; it’s very successful,” Osher says. “Ten years ago, the Meatpacking District was desolate. It takes a pioneer to go into a neighborhood and change it. Trump SoHo is absolutely pioneering.”
And after a beat . . . “Now the question is, will they come?”