One of the hot new luxury developments being built on the Upper West Side was unsuccessful in its early attempts to woo buyers, forcing the developers to pull the units off the market, according to a report in Crain’s. Naftali’s new condo project at 210 West 77th street did not draw enough interest in its first few months on the market, the paper reported. As high end projects sprout all over the city, some are having trouble selling units.
That appears to be what has happened at, among others, 210 W. 77th St. Sales for that 18-story, 25-unit project kicked off in September, but went nowhere. Two months later, developer the Naftali Group pulled the units off the market and is now in the process of bringing in a new sales team. For the time being, the message on the building’s website reads, “We’ll be back in early 2015.”
The units were priced from $4.9 million to $12 million.
Naftali is also developing another project across the street.
So, is this a hiccup, or the first sign of a downturn in the ultra-luxury market?
Could be a sign of a bubble starting to burst, but also could just be a sign that the ultra-rich are holding off temporarily because so many luxury projects are in development and they want to see what ends up being the best bet.
Also, 210 W. 77th has a beautiful rendering but not the most beautiful block (awesome fire station aside). And given that it’s a north-facing structure on a narrow street surrounded by tall buildings, you can forget about sunlight.
With 6,500 new condos expected to hit the market in 2015, it’s no surprise to see a slowdown in the frenzy. However, a “bursting bubble” would be bad for the UWS. Let’s hope that’s not the case.
Yesterday I was on the High Line and then in downtown Brooklyn. The amount of development going on is insane. It’s not going to end well. But this development here is way over-priced for a mid-block building with little or no views.
If given the choice (and there are a lot of choices for millionaires+ on the UWS these days), who would pick to move onto that block? It’s noisy, congested, lacks sunlight, and isn’t around the corner from the subway.
They were asking too much for too little.
I agree – these apartments are priced poorly (or too richly!) for this block. If I had that money to spend, I would want a better location. Maybe something on CPW with a view of the park.
One thing that’s not discussed enough is how much the nyc market is being impacted by the enormous decline in global currencies. Alot of the hot money from brazil Russia Europe Mexico Japan is being silenced quickly. That has a large impact on luxury sales at the margin.
That’s a great point on the weaker foreign currencies. These are out of my reach, sad to say, but they’re gorgeously rendered. I wish I could afford one…
I said it all along that there was a real estate bubble was ready to burst and it is definitely starting. Even optimistic real estate brokers are saying that all of Manhattan will see sales slowing down but only rising at a “healthy” level of 4%. I think we will see a lot of these jumbo apartments split in half and quarters and being sold at lower rates.
For the developer, renting the units as supersized hotel suites might be a profitable alternative. Good for small business events or groups, well stocked and maintained, $5000-$15000 a day rentals may not be out of the question.
Really?? $5k to $15k a day? I can’t even imagine. Better come with its own tropical island.
But who knows, maybe in 2045 we’ll all be wishing we’d bought a nice little pad for ONLY $3000 a square foot.
The properties being offered are not for day to day living, business and investment use only.
Even though these units are residential, the target buyer is probably a business or investor. A business could buy an apartment as an alternative to renting a suite in a hotel.
You lost me, nycissues. Thought we were discussing the condo project on West 77th Street.
HFZ has a slew of condos of their own to bring to market; I got a chuckle out of their quotes in the Crains article.
You can thank the RE brokers and developers for pumping up rentals and housing in Manhattan and its neighbors. I know people that bot apartments for 10M less than two years ago and are now offering it for 15M. There was always a realtor somewhere that claimed they knew a foreign investor that would buy it. Often times this was true in the past. This went on a great deal since 2009. They created such an inflated market.That’s capitalism for you, but there’s a price to pay…now we are going to experience deflation. No gloom and doom, just very practical with a shot of reality. If we don’t experience a Global Monetary Reform very soon…and I said global not just US…we will be in a lot of trouble economically. I see QE4 on the horizon from the Fed, and what will be attached to this very possible are “bail ins”. Don’t know what that is? Learn…study!
The US dollar is skyrocketing, really? Gold is being suppressed down, really? The stock market is making all times highs, really? Oil is dropping drastically!! What does all of this tell you? I would not buy real estate at this time, we are going to see a huge 30% to 60% drop in this market, and yes even in Manhattan. After everything crashes, watch gold skyrocket, but not before it drops way below 1000.
Manhattan real estate has never dropped like you are predicting, even in the Great Depression of the 1930s. A HUGE real estate drop is 10%-15% in Manhattan. Of course, there will always be isolated incidents of people who way overpaid for a bad property on a bad block, but for the most part that 10-15% is a “big drop” in Manhattan real estate. I’ve owned real estate in the West 70s for 33 years now, and watched the market very carefully. Done a bit of research about the Depression….Manhattan is a pretty safe bet to continue to grow at the cost of living or better, marching forward with just little blips along the way.
Maybe it’s telling us the millionaires have done their shopping and what we really need is AFFORDABLE housing for all the people earning less than $250,000/year! Its such a shame to see all this new construction with so little of it affordable to average hardworking people.
… and lets recall that median income for a family of 4 in NYC is about 60K. it used to be people like that (or smaller families at 60K) could find places on the UWS. I hope we can get enough affordable housing built, somehow, that they can again.
I SOOO AGREE with you diane!!!!
Good luck buying one of these if you’re “only” making 250K.
There seem to be a number of Luxury buildings that have a lot of vacant apartments in their buildings. May be a bubble burst.
Does anyone think that a starting price of 4.9 million dollars, presumably for an apartment on the second floor facing north to a fire station, is the real reason this building didn’t sell as opposed to the gloom and doom I am reading on this thread?
You’re right, these units are priced too high. If sold to someone who will actually live there, passing on the purchase price of the land will be a major problem for the developer.
Would a “burst bubble” at the high end result in lower market-rate rentals for normal people? It seems like hardly anything happened in the UWS ca. 2008.
Why anyone would spend this much money for an
apt. on dark, congested street is more the question. Obviously priced too high!!
Bah hah haa…. $4.9 million to $12 million.
Yep..if that was me…I WOULDN”T lIVE IN THIS CESSPOOL of a city!!!!
I would be moving to Colorado. Unless there is a guaranteed view of the river, a year round pool on roof and parking space that comes with that price…YOU MIGHT convince me to live in this filthy city!
Bah.hah….the UWS is still 60% RENT STABILIZED!!!. Anyone coming here thinking they can sell this shit to this community or even wealthy people… is really out to lunch! Wealthy people will live here till they’ve slummed it for awhile..but really…it’s no way to live..especially if you have money.
Paying millions to be awaken by Fire Trucks (Hook and Ladder 25, directly across the street). It’s a very busy street with a boutique hotel next door. It was and still is a decision in poor judgment – to sell condos there at that high end price. Good Luck!
Goes to show you real estate development is a very risky business. I don’t know there numbers and who knows where the market is going , but there are no guarantees – BUT, if the market tumbles, these units will sell/rent for less, making them more AFFORDABLE to a larger market. see how that works, the housing bust in the U.S. actually made housing more affordable to many. That did happen in New York to a lesser degree, but it is so hard to build here, that there is little chance of overbuilding.
Also for the housing jihadists – this building replaced a parking lot for those wealthy enough to afford $500+ a month to park a car in NYC – (not me! ). Also who knew the UWS was such an affordable bastion? Back in the day, my family lived in Queens and couldn’t imagine affording the UWS when I was a kid. It was only later that we “moved on up” to West End Avenue. I never knew I actually had “right” to an UWS place. Good to know!
The UWS was indeed affordable for middle class people until relatively recently. I too grew up in Queens. You got more space in Queens, more proximity to many things on UWS. But it was affordable. Many many middle class people still live here. Look around.
those who believe in affordable housing are now “housign jihadists”?
and how far down in price would these condos have to come to make them approach “affordable housing.” Seriously?
Housing in this city has gotten way way too expensive. “the rent is too damn high.” also the commercial rents. we have to do something about it.
You report on so many comings and goings on the Upper West Side, but say nothing about why so many, many storefronts remain empty for months on end. I’ve lived on the UWS for close to 50 years now and have never seen it like this. And yet landlords continue to ask for unreasonable increases in rent. What the #@$% is going on?
LL’s are looking for the best possible rents and the right type of tenant, that limits the field in gigantic proportions. By eating 18 months of vacancy they may find exactly what they are looking for.
Rent it. Rent it too disabled mothers with honor roll students. Who worked all their life to become disabled, and now want a better life and environment for themselves. People always speak of affordable housing what about Mothers who are Permanently Disabled with Kids? I live in Fort lee, where it is not affordable. Looking for the same environment, but affordable, Guess thats Alaska, where humans are part of the food chain.