Naftali Files Plans for Kips Bay Residential Project

Miki Naftali’s next Manhattan project is coming into focus.

The Naftali Group filed plans for a 69-unit project at 301 Third Avenue in the Kips Bay neighborhood, Crain’s reported. The site is between East 23rd and East 24th streets.

Plans call for a 19-story, 210-foot-tall building spanning 111,000 square feet, including ground-floor retail space. It’s unclear from the plans if the units will be rentals or condos, but many of Naftali’s recent developments in New York City are of the luxury condo variety.

Naftali did not respond to a request for comment from the publication.

The Midtown-based developer doesn’t own the site, instead leasing it from Snake River Development, an entity of BNS Real Estate. Naftali signed a 99-year ground lease in September for $21.5 million, and filed demolition permits for the low-rise property on the site this month.

Miki Naftali has emerged as a towering figure in New York City’s condo market, despite the challenges facing the sector in recent years. At the end of 2023, he scored a $236 million construction loan for a 62-unit project at 255 East 77th Street on the Upper East Side.

Since 2020, he’s launched and sold out three condo projects on the Upper East Side, including an 85-unit building at 200 East 83rd Street. Naftali is also working with Len Blavatnik’s Access Industries to develop 470 Kent Avenue in Brooklyn, a three-building, 561-unit complex.

A pandemic-era champion of New York who once hung a billboard with a Jerry Seinfeld-penned op-ed about the city, Naftali has also set his sights on Miami with a 67-story residential project.

“There is a real need for quality in South Florida,” Naftali said during a recent Salon Series event at The Real Deal’s New York office. “There are not as many talented developers in South Florida as in New York.”

— Holden Walter-Warner