NO ONE BUILDING SHOULD HAVE ALL THAT POWER: The recession-proof, record-nuking 15 CPW upped its game when Will Zeckendorf found a buyer willing to pay more than $10,000 per square foot for his penthouse. (Angel Chevrestt)
A NOD AND AN INK: Houston Rockets owner Leslie Alexander sold his never-inhabited penthouse at Superior Ink for $6 million more than he paid for it (
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By most measures, 2010 has been a checkered year, real estate-wise.
Despite some improvements, Manhattan prices remain below pre-Lehman Brothers meltdown levels. Plenty of buildings still have hundreds of unsold units. In the last two months, the sales pace of co-ops and condos slackened.
According to the latest “Real Time Report” from real estate firm Core, there was a 22 percent slip in the number of co-op closings in November compared to October, and an 11 percent dip in the number of condo closings.
But it’s not all bad news — at least for a certain segment of the market.
“The $10,000-per-square-foot trade is certainly very positive,” says Shaun Osher, CEO of Core, “and there’s strength in the high end of the market.” (Wait . . . there was a $10,000-per-square-foot trade?)
In fact, numbers at the absolute top of the market showed Kanye West-levels of resilience in 2010. In that spirit, it’s time to toast the inhabitants of the stratosphere.
In November, The Post reported that developer Will Zeckendorf is in the process of selling his personal 3,899-square-foot penthouse condo at 15 Central Park West for an estimated $40 million. The price of more than $10,000 per square foot would make it a record. Zeckendorf bought the then pre-construction apartment for $10.7 million in 2005.
After the sale was reported, “I got 10 calls from luxury sellers saying, ‘Do you think my apartment is worth $10,000 per square foot now?’” says Osher, who wasn’t even involved with the deal.
A 3,173-square-foot, 33rd-floor unit at 15 Central Park West — eight floors below the penthouse — has sinced been listed for $31.5 million, or nearly $10,000 per square foot.
Also last month, Leslie Alexander, owner of the Houston Rockets, sold his never-been-lived-in West Village penthouse condo at Superior Ink for $31.5 million to Mark Shuttleworth, the South African entrepreneur who once paid approximately $20 million for a trip to outer space. Alexander bought the condo for $25.46 million last year.
“The amazing thing is it was completely raw space,” says Melanie Lazenby, senior vice president at Prudential Douglas Elliman, who represented Shuttleworth on the $31.5 million deal, a record for downtown. “It was literally concrete floors and no walls.”
But the property was big (6,321 square feet) and had stupendous views (from four terraces, totaling 1,200 square feet).
“Initially people made offers for what [Alexander] paid for it — $25 million,” Lazenby says.
But that would have meant taking a loss after transaction costs. Others made offers that factored in his likely break-even figure (around $26 or $27 million).
Alexander, though, “was not interested in taking a loss or breaking even,” Lazenby says. “He was interested in selling for a profit.”
Of course, Superior Ink and 15 CPW (both designed by Robert A.M. Stern) both came to market before the Lehman Brothers crash. But high-end success is not limited to these two hardy buildings. Older co-op buildings got in on the action, too, moving units at colossal prices, like the sale of Conan O’Brien’s sprawling seven-bedroom 17th- and 18th-floor duplex at the Majestic on Central Park West. It sold for $25 million this spring.
Even troubled projects like the Plaza, which has dealt with multiple lawsuits, not to mention Charlie Sheen’s hotel rampage, managed to ink big deals. Casino mogul Steve Wynn sold his 5,600-square-foot penthouse last month for $24.1 million — about $1 million more than he paid for it earlier this summer — after a bidding war. (Granted, this was still a lot less than the apartment’s 2007 asking price of $31 million.)
“As of the end of October — not counting November or December — I’ve closed properties totaling $150 million,” says Sharon Baum, director of the Corcoran Group’s exclusive properties division.
“We did more deals over $10 million than any time since 2007,” says Pam Liebman, CEO of the Corcoran Group.
“In general, the market continues to be a value-oriented proposition — in that buyers who find a property will go forward, but have to really feel it’s right,” says Paula Del Nunzio, senior vice president and managing director at Brown Harris Stevens.
She listed a 13,000-squarefoot “blank canvas” mansion at 12 E. 63rd St., which sold for more than $19 million.
“It was a very strong price, the buyer was from abroad and it was perfectly located,” Del Nunzio says.
Case closed.
Some luxury buildings did come down on prices but nevertheless wound up moving some seriously expensive real estate. Take 535 West End Ave.
“We did five deals last month,” says Gary Barnett, president of Extell, which developed 535 West End Ave.
In a building with only 30 units, that’s significant.
“We cut prices on average . . . about 20 percent,” says Barnett, and some have been cut as much as 40 percent — but four apartments have traded at $15 million and over.
Over at another new building, Setai Fifth Avenue, developers say there are contracts on nearly half of the 184 units, which are priced at more than $2,000 per square foot. Available penthouses top $4,000 per square foot.
And at Corcoran Sunshine Marketing, which sells new developments, there were 71 deals “over $5 million” in 2010, according to president Kelly Mack. That’s up from 49 in 2009.
Of course, the other 99 percent of the market did not perform at nearly the same level.
“These are very high numbers — but they’re few and far between,” cautions Dolly Lenz, vice chair of Prudential Douglas Elliman, who listed Alexander’s Superior Ink penthouse. “There’s no depth in the market.”
Adds Lenz, “The fact that we’re wowing about it — that it’s the top story of every blog — says how rare it is and how shocked we are that people are doing deals.”
And though the middle of the market isn’t experiencing these kinds of dramatic deals, after a lousy 2009, it’s certainly leveling out.
“We’re definitely seeing the recovery and a new normal,” says Diane Ramirez, president of Halstead Property.
“It’s far better and more stabilized than a year, a year-and-a-half ago,” says Jonathan Miller, president and CEO of appraisal firm Miller Samuel.
Which doesn’t mean that there isn’t uncertainty on the horizon. “There are a lot of unknowns, like unemployment, tight credit and shadow inventory,” Miller says.
But the panic of the last two years has dissipated.
In Miller’s third-quarter market report for Prudential Douglas Elliman, there was a 19 percent jump in sales from the same quarter last year. In addition, prices went up. The average apartment sale in the third quarter of 2010 was $1,487,472 — a 12.4 percent rise from the same time last year.
“It’s definitely taking a lot more to get deals done,” Osher says. “We’re not out of the woods . . . But things are certainly a lot better than they had been for 2½ years.”
Let’s have a toast indeed.