Demand for luxury real estate among investors is encouraging developers to add to Midtown’s growing stock of high-end housing.
At least three luxury condominium towers are planned along 53rd Street, reports Bloomberg. The buildings are seen as an extension of the 57th Street corridor of new high-rise residences known as Billionaires Row. Like those developments, the 53rd Street buildings provide a vehicle for wealthy foreign buyers to park cash, Dylan Pichulik, CEO of XL Real Property Management, told Bloomberg.
“Foreigners see Midtown as accessible to offices, theater, to Times Square,” Pichulik said. “While it’s not on a typical New Yorker’s top list of neighborhoods, there is a fair amount of interest from foreigners.”
The Three 53rd Street towers include the 60-condo Baccarat Hotel and Residences at Fifth Avenue across from the Museum of Modern Art. About 60 percent of the units have sold since March 2013 in the 50-story building, where one-bedroom prices start at $3.95 million, according to Tribeca Associates, LLC, which is backing the Baccarat with Starwood Capital Group LLC.
Another development on the block, a 72-story condo tower at Sixth Avenue, would include 145 apartments and a four-floor expansion of the MoMA. That project is backed by Pontiac Land Group, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Hines. A 61-story building is also planned at Lexington Avenue by China Vanke Group and Aby Rosen’s RFR Holding LLC. [Bloomberg] — Tom DiChristopher