With construction well underway at 45 Park Place, Soho Properties has brought in Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group to jump-start sales at the 50-unit condominium.
Developer Sharif El-Gamal has tapped Corocran’s Vickey Barron to lead the marketing effort, replacing a team from Stribling & Associates, which had been working on the project since mid-2014.
“This is essentially the launch of the project and the launch of sales,” said El-Gamal, citing Barron’s track record of “record-breaking transactions,” including a penthouse at Walker Tower that traded for $50.9 million in 2014, the priciest closed residential sale Downtown.
Soho Properties and Stribling parted ways in early September, calling the move a “mutually beneficial decision” in a joint statement.
On Monday, El-Gamal credited Stribling with preconstruction and predevelopment work. “Both us and Elizabeth’s team are very proud of the work we’ve accomplished together at the building,” he said, calling the split amicable.
Soho Properties received the green light to launch sales at 45 Park Place in 2015, with a total projected sellout of $391.9 million, according to the project’s offering plan.
The developer declined to say how many units are taken, but four of 50 appear to be in contract, according to StreetEasy. They include a three-bedroom (3,238 square feet) that was asking $12.35 million and a four-bedroom (3,562 square feet) asking $10.5 million.
El-Gamal has said he’s planning to ask more than $3,000 per square foot at the building, which will have 15 full-floor condos measuring 3,200 to 3,700 square feet. There will also be two duplex penthouses.
Despite an overall slowdown in the luxury market, the developer said 45 Park Place, slated to be complete in early 2019, is poised to capitalize on the migration of buyers toward Downtown and away from Billionaire’s Row. “When we look at some of the penthouses that are going into contract, they’re happening below 14th Street,” he said. He believes 45 Park Place will be “one of the last towers” offered in Lower Manhattan during the current real estate cycle. “It’s almost impossible to procure the construction financing you need to build one of these towers today,” he said.
El-Gamal secured $219 million in sharia-compliant financing for the project, which will include a three-story Jean Nouvel-designed Islamic museum next door. It’s believed to be the largest sharia financing ever issued in the city.
“We were able to tap into a pool of water that nobody’s in,” El-Gamal told The Real Deal during an interview last year. “We saw an appetite to do something without paying extra for it.”
Designed by Michel Abboud’s SOMA Architects, the 43-story tower will rise 665 feet over Tribeca. Milan-based designer Piero Lissoni designed the interiors.
El-Gamal dismissed competition from other nearby projects, including Silverstein Properties’ Four Seasons hotel and condominium at 30 Park Place. “They’re two different products,” he said, using the analogy of two different kinds of luxury race cars. “This is a vertical Ferrari that we’re building.”
— Miriam Hall contributed reporting.