Manhattan hasn’t quite shaken off the rust that has accumulated in its development pipeline.
In 2023, the borough’s top 10 most expensive projects totaled just $1.3 billion, the lowest total in recent history. The 10 priciest project filings this year have a total sellout of $2.6 billion; doubling last year’s nadir, but still below pre-pandemic numbers..
In 2019, the sellout price for Manhattan’s 10 priciest developments was chopped by $3.1 billion – more than half compared to the prior year. Since then, the development market has been weathering a series of unfortunate events.
The condo boom of the mid-2010s left the market with a glut of unsold luxury units heading into the market-warping days of the early pandemic. By 2021, construction costs spiked and interest rates followed, in an attempt to get inflation under control.
This has all added up to five straight years now where the priciest condos have been getting less pricey. Years of supertalls have given way to boutique offerings that have less downside risk but lower sellouts.
This year only one building filed — Naftali Group’s 255 East 77th Street — expects to sell more than half a billion, while only two developments filed for this year will have at least 100 units.
But some of the projects filed this year have already helped boost this fall’s new development sales market back to pre-pandemic levels, like Naftali’s The Henry, which already has sold more than one third of its 45 apartments after starting sales two months ago.
Details on The Henry and the nine other most expensive condo projects filed this year can be found below, which The Real Deal analyzed using plans filed with the attorney general and data from New York City.
255 EAST 77TH STREET | $531M
Miki Naftali has become a rock in the storm of foreclosures bearing down on developments in the city, with the two most expensive condo filings this year. Naftali Group filed its initial plans, which were accepted earlier this year, for the 62-unit development at 255 East 77th Street in 2022.
The developer bought the Upper East Side site in 2021 for $73 million — or $428 per zoned square foot — and last year landed a $236 million construction loan from J.P. Morgan Chase and Barry Sternlicht’s Starwood Capital for the project.
The project scored another $140 million construction from J.P. Morgan this December following a strong start to sales in September. The building has sold nearly 30 percent of the building, according to Marketproof.
Robert Stern A.M. Architects and Hill West Architects are designing the building, and sales are being led by Compass Development Marketing and Alexa Lambert.
211 WEST 84TH STREET | $472M
The Henry has been another hot-selling new development from Naftali Group, with sales also led by Compass Development Marketing and Alexa Lambert.
To secure the project, Naftali Group had to knock down a 130-unit rental tower and convince one particularly obstinate tenant to vacate the premises, aided by a sizable check. Earlier this year, Naftali closed on a $129 million construction loan.
The 45-unit development is being designed by Robert Stern A.M. Architects and Hill West Architects across two buildings on 84th Street.
Prices range from $2.5 million to $27 million for the penthouses.
720 WEST END AVENUE | $440M
Glacier Equities and InterVest Capital Partners have teamed up on this 131-unit West Side project. The 1927 building, originally slated as the Hotel Marcy, is being redesigned by Thomas Juul-Hansen, with exterior restoration done by BP Architects.
The property was purchased for $165 million in 2021.
Sales launched in the summer but the building has not reported any contracts yet. Units are priced between $1 million to more than $12 million. Two new floors are being added to the original layout for duplex penthouses and outdoor space.
520 FIFTH AVENUE | $392M
Mickey Rabina’s supertall on Fifth Avenue harkens back to last decade, when it was not unusual to see thousand-foot skyscrapers popping up in the city’s skyline.
The 88-story, 1,000-foot-high building will be the tallest on Fifth Avenue, offering towering views of its Billionaires’ Row counterparts without the attendant prices.
Rabina took over the previously debt-ridden project, paying $205 million to secure the site, and in 2022 secured a construction loan for $450 million.
Residential units in the building range from $1.8 to over $12 million, and since sales began in April nearly 80 percent of the tower’s 100 units have gone into contract, including 37 deals in the third quarter, the most for any building in the city.
Kohn Pedersen Fox is the designer. Amenities include a private, members-only club.
200 EAST 75TH STREET | $286M
Ted Segal’s EJS Development is developing a 36-unit building with prices ranging from over $3 million to $23 million. The designer is Beyer Blinder Belle and the interior design is being done by Yellow House architects.
The developer purchased three buildings for $32.5 million in 2021 to make space for the 18-story development, which netted $112.5 million in construction financing from Bank OZK last year.
EJS considered building a rental tower but opted for condos with the expiration of the 421a tax breaks in 2022. The building is part of a prominent street-view in which the EJS Development and a 32-story luxury condo building from Elad group loom over a 110-year-old apartment that is nestled in between the two towers.
609 SECOND AVENUE | $105M
The Leser Group and The Horizon Group are developing a 65-unit condo in Kips Bay.
Developer Abraham Leser purchased four low-rise buildings at the site back in 2014 for $26.5 million, which he originally planned to turn into a 30-unit development before doubling the condo count.
Prices range from under $1 million to just under $4 million.
Horizon and Leser snagged a $58 million construction loan from Ponce Bank last year. ODA and Fischer + Makooi Architects designed the building, which has a step-like ascension to the penthouses beginning in the middle floors of the 18-story project.
The building offers a residents’ lounge, roof terrace, indoor basketball court and yoga space.
429 SECOND AVENUE | $95M
A 60-unit development from New Empire Real Estate is marketing itself to the working professional.
The building comes with indoor and al fresco co-working spaces, and residences feature home offices with custom furniture and shelving. The studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments range from under $1 million to over $4 million.
Morali Architects and DXA Studios designed the project, which began sales five months ago.
83 THOMPSON STREET | $88M
Three developers teamed up to create these seven residences at this boutique Downtown condo.
Madison Realty Capital, SK Development and CB are the developers on the project and Selldorf Architects is the designer.
Prices range from $3 million to $29.5 million and two of the seven residences have gone into contract since sales launched this past spring. The top two floors will hold the building’s duplex penthouse, while the remaining six residences will be full-floor lofts.
83-85 WORTH STREET | $69M
Ariel Lahmi’s Beekman Real Estate Investment Management has turned a former Soho commercial space into five boutique residences.
Lahmi purchased the property in 2017 for $21 million. Original plans filed with the attorney general’s office listed the five units — four lofts and a duplex penthouse — for $10 million a pop, but Lahmi amended the offering prices to $11.3 million in August.
Combined Architecture is overseeing the renovation and Paris Forino is handling the interior design.
Taylor Swift has already made use of the lofts, using one to shoot polaroids for her album, 1989.
370 LENOX AVENUE / 60 WEST 129TH STREET | $69M
A five year-restoration of an 1898 building in Harlem has yielded 55 units ranging from $500,000 to $1.5 million.
The project is being developed by Renaissance Realty Realty Group, and ND Architecture & Design is overseeing the restoration.
The building comes with a sauna, steam room and game room with billiards, pool and table tennis.
Sales began in February and the building has moved signed deals on more than half of its units so far.
Correction: This article has been corrected to reflect updated data, with The Naftali Group’s 255 East 77th Street leading in priciest development projects, not The Henry on the Upper West Side, and also to remove an erroneous reference to private parking at 520 Fifth Avenue/