WHEN it comes to transactions in the New York City real estate market, April is the sweetest month, at least for the sellers of co-ops and condominiums and those hard-working brokers who count on the commission checks handed over at closing.
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Time Warner Center
159 Bleecker Street
A tabulation of property closings in April and a trickle of closings in May filed with the city’s Department of Finance show nary a shadow of the retrenchment in the national real estate market.
Average prices at closings in Manhattan appear to have reached or exceeded the top levels achieved in the spring of 2006. Average prices were higher by 6 percent than prices in the previous quarter.
Median prices were up as well, suggesting the middle of the market remains solid, even for those without trust funds, hedge funds or tax shelters. The prices reflect contracts signed in April as well as in earlier months, and brokers say they have not seen signs of slackening in the peak spring season.
At the Lucida, a new glass-walled condominium at Third Avenue and 85th Street with 110 apartments, Extell Development said that more than 60 percent of the apartments had sold in a matter of weeks.
Buyers who have waded into this heady real estate market include Oleg Baibakov, a Russian executive who has branched out from nickel production to large-scale Moscow real estate development. A few months ago, Mr. Baibakov turned up his nose at a penthouse at the Plaza, according to an account by Bloomberg News, because the building’s developer, in an effort to maintain a sense of mystery, did not allow an inspection of the raw space.
“If you are buying a $30 million apartment, you are entitled to see the view,” Maria Baibakov, Mr. Baibakov’s daughter, was quoted as saying. “It’s kind of silly.”
But property records show that Mr. Baibakov found a suitable alternative just up the street. On April 26, he closed on a $13.5 million apartment at 80 Columbus Circle, the north tower at the Time Warner Center, which comes with hotel services from the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.
The three-bedroom condo, with nearly 3,200 square feet, was sold by Sheila Potiker, who bought the apartment in 2005 for $9.4 million, with her hu*****and, Hughes, the founder of Entertainment Publications, which produces books of discount coupons.
Mr. Baibakov’s purchase price was $500,000 over the asking price in a listing by Paula Del Nunzio at Brown Harris Stevens.
In the south tower at Time Warner, Sergio Kostek, a trader in emerging markets at Deutsche Bank, paid $6 million last month for a condo on the 58th floor.
Over at the Dakota, at 72nd Street and Central Park West, Ping Jiang, a trader with SAC Capital Partners, a hedge fund with offices in Stamford, Conn., paid $16.5 million for a 4,000-square-foot co-op with a den, living room and two bedrooms facing Central Park.
Mr. Jiang presumably had no trouble meeting the co-op’s financial standards. He is on the list of the top 100 traders in the current issue of Trader Monthly magazine, with an estimated income more than $100 million last year.
In city records, the sale price for the Dakota apartment was also more than $500,000 over the final listing price but well below the $20 million asked when the co-op was first listed.
The tabulation of closing prices identified 23 condominiums and 19 co-ops in Manhattan that sold for $4 million or more last month, the fifth-highest month since mid-2004, but many sales have not yet been recorded by the city. Several brokerages release market reports at the end of each quarter, but the methodologies differ, and there is no single authoritative tabulation of sales prices.
Greg Heym, an economist at Terra Holdings, who prepares market reports for Brown Harris Stevens and Halstead Property, said the city’s tabulation of market prices follows the same trends as his own reports. “From what we see, the market has remained very strong in April and May,” he said.
The Dalton Dorm Mystery
ONE of many mysteries buried deep in the file cabinets of the Department of Buildings is the case of the student dormitory of the Dalton School, a private day school on the Upper East Side that has thrived for most of the last century without the need for a dormitory or residence for students in kindergarten through high school.
But last October, a Greenwich Village developer filed a restrictive declaration promising to turn over six apartments in a eight-story building at 159 Bleecker Street to the school for use as a student dormitory. “The units for Student Dormitory will be occupied by students only, and not their family,” said the declaration, ted by Emmut Properties, the developer.
The document surfaced when the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation began looking into how the apartment building, constructed atop a two-story structure that once housed the Circle in the Square Theater, had gotten permission to be so tall and bulky. It towers over the small tenements surrounding it and has balconies that extend over the street.
The building, it learned, received a bonus allowing it to be built larger, often up to 20 percent larger, in exchange for providing “community facilities” — space for doctor’s offices, schools or dormitories — under a provision of the zoning code.
When the preservation group objected, the Department of Buildings held up occupancy of the building. But the agency reversed itself and issued a temporary certificate of occupancy, after the developer promised that the units would be used as a Dalton student dormitory.
Ellen Stein, the head of school at Dalton, and Edward Pinger, the chief financial officer, did not respond to several phone calls last week and an e-mail message seeking comment about the filing. John Young, a principal at Emmut Properties, also did not return calls.
But Andrew Berman, the preservation society’s executive director, said that when he checked with Dalton he was told the apartments would be used for faculty housing, a use he said was prohibited under zoning-code changes designed to eliminate abuses by developments.
“The community facility regulations are being abused as a way to make buildings bigger,” he said. “If the building is in fact larger than it is allowed, they should remove the illegal square footage.”
The developer originally put 16 condominiums on the market, but when the market softened last year, the building was switched to a rental structure. Apartments are being marketed by Coldwell Banker Hunt Kennedy.
Mr. Berman has also objected to the size of the balconies and questioned whether the building was too large even with the community-use bonus.
Kate Lindquist, a spokeswoman for the Department of Buildings, confirmed that faculty housing is not an approved community use. “The Building Department is requesting an inspection to ensure the dorms are being used as outlined in the restrictive declaration,” she said. In an earlier audit, she added, the department objected to the balconies and the developer “addressed the objection and reted the plans,” which were approved.
Accident at Conversion
FOR more than a year, many of the 15 or so tenants remaining at 1200 Fifth Avenue, near 101st Street, have been skirmishing with the building’s developer as the 15-story prewar tower, designed by Emery Roth in the 1920s, has been renovated and converted into luxury condominiums. Asking prices reach $19.5 million for a triplex penthouse.
At various times, tenants have complained about broken elevators, rats, leaks and freezing winter nights. Some went on a rent strike. They even hired an engineer to corroborate what they considered shoddy construction and unsafe conditions — including concerns about the safety of triple-paned windows.
Then last month, a 90-year-old woman who lives in the building was injured after attempting to close a new bedroom window before going to bed. The entire four-and-a-half-foot wide window, frame and all, pulled out of the wall and landed on her. The details of the accident were confirmed by tenants and the developer, who identified the woman as Ruth Newkirk. A home health aide in the apartment helped pull the window off Mrs. Newkirk and she was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where she is recovering from surgery for a broken leg.
Anna LaPorte, a spokeswoman for the developers, led by the Chetrit Group, said in a statement that they were doing “a complete internal investigation and cooperating with all the agencies involved” to make sure the windows in the building are in “perfect working condition.”
“This was a terrible accident, and our thoughts are with Mrs. Newkirk and her family,” she said.
But tenants provided a copy of a report by their engineer prepared in April 2006. It noted that “the anchorage for the new windows appears inadequate as compared to the size of the window.”
Jack Lester, a lawyer representing the tenants who went on a rent strike, said the engineer’s concerns in the report had been shared with the building management. “What is unique is that they were on notice that the installation of the windows was defective,” he said.
In a statement, the Department of Buildings said that the building would be inspected and that the agency “will issue violations if appropriate.”
Skip to next paragraph
Time Warner Center
159 Bleecker Street
A tabulation of property closings in April and a trickle of closings in May filed with the city’s Department of Finance show nary a shadow of the retrenchment in the national real estate market.
Average prices at closings in Manhattan appear to have reached or exceeded the top levels achieved in the spring of 2006. Average prices were higher by 6 percent than prices in the previous quarter.
Median prices were up as well, suggesting the middle of the market remains solid, even for those without trust funds, hedge funds or tax shelters. The prices reflect contracts signed in April as well as in earlier months, and brokers say they have not seen signs of slackening in the peak spring season.
At the Lucida, a new glass-walled condominium at Third Avenue and 85th Street with 110 apartments, Extell Development said that more than 60 percent of the apartments had sold in a matter of weeks.
Buyers who have waded into this heady real estate market include Oleg Baibakov, a Russian executive who has branched out from nickel production to large-scale Moscow real estate development. A few months ago, Mr. Baibakov turned up his nose at a penthouse at the Plaza, according to an account by Bloomberg News, because the building’s developer, in an effort to maintain a sense of mystery, did not allow an inspection of the raw space.
“If you are buying a $30 million apartment, you are entitled to see the view,” Maria Baibakov, Mr. Baibakov’s daughter, was quoted as saying. “It’s kind of silly.”
But property records show that Mr. Baibakov found a suitable alternative just up the street. On April 26, he closed on a $13.5 million apartment at 80 Columbus Circle, the north tower at the Time Warner Center, which comes with hotel services from the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.
The three-bedroom condo, with nearly 3,200 square feet, was sold by Sheila Potiker, who bought the apartment in 2005 for $9.4 million, with her hu*****and, Hughes, the founder of Entertainment Publications, which produces books of discount coupons.
Mr. Baibakov’s purchase price was $500,000 over the asking price in a listing by Paula Del Nunzio at Brown Harris Stevens.
In the south tower at Time Warner, Sergio Kostek, a trader in emerging markets at Deutsche Bank, paid $6 million last month for a condo on the 58th floor.
Over at the Dakota, at 72nd Street and Central Park West, Ping Jiang, a trader with SAC Capital Partners, a hedge fund with offices in Stamford, Conn., paid $16.5 million for a 4,000-square-foot co-op with a den, living room and two bedrooms facing Central Park.
Mr. Jiang presumably had no trouble meeting the co-op’s financial standards. He is on the list of the top 100 traders in the current issue of Trader Monthly magazine, with an estimated income more than $100 million last year.
In city records, the sale price for the Dakota apartment was also more than $500,000 over the final listing price but well below the $20 million asked when the co-op was first listed.
The tabulation of closing prices identified 23 condominiums and 19 co-ops in Manhattan that sold for $4 million or more last month, the fifth-highest month since mid-2004, but many sales have not yet been recorded by the city. Several brokerages release market reports at the end of each quarter, but the methodologies differ, and there is no single authoritative tabulation of sales prices.
Greg Heym, an economist at Terra Holdings, who prepares market reports for Brown Harris Stevens and Halstead Property, said the city’s tabulation of market prices follows the same trends as his own reports. “From what we see, the market has remained very strong in April and May,” he said.
The Dalton Dorm Mystery
ONE of many mysteries buried deep in the file cabinets of the Department of Buildings is the case of the student dormitory of the Dalton School, a private day school on the Upper East Side that has thrived for most of the last century without the need for a dormitory or residence for students in kindergarten through high school.
But last October, a Greenwich Village developer filed a restrictive declaration promising to turn over six apartments in a eight-story building at 159 Bleecker Street to the school for use as a student dormitory. “The units for Student Dormitory will be occupied by students only, and not their family,” said the declaration, ted by Emmut Properties, the developer.
The document surfaced when the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation began looking into how the apartment building, constructed atop a two-story structure that once housed the Circle in the Square Theater, had gotten permission to be so tall and bulky. It towers over the small tenements surrounding it and has balconies that extend over the street.
The building, it learned, received a bonus allowing it to be built larger, often up to 20 percent larger, in exchange for providing “community facilities” — space for doctor’s offices, schools or dormitories — under a provision of the zoning code.
When the preservation group objected, the Department of Buildings held up occupancy of the building. But the agency reversed itself and issued a temporary certificate of occupancy, after the developer promised that the units would be used as a Dalton student dormitory.
Ellen Stein, the head of school at Dalton, and Edward Pinger, the chief financial officer, did not respond to several phone calls last week and an e-mail message seeking comment about the filing. John Young, a principal at Emmut Properties, also did not return calls.
But Andrew Berman, the preservation society’s executive director, said that when he checked with Dalton he was told the apartments would be used for faculty housing, a use he said was prohibited under zoning-code changes designed to eliminate abuses by developments.
“The community facility regulations are being abused as a way to make buildings bigger,” he said. “If the building is in fact larger than it is allowed, they should remove the illegal square footage.”
The developer originally put 16 condominiums on the market, but when the market softened last year, the building was switched to a rental structure. Apartments are being marketed by Coldwell Banker Hunt Kennedy.
Mr. Berman has also objected to the size of the balconies and questioned whether the building was too large even with the community-use bonus.
Kate Lindquist, a spokeswoman for the Department of Buildings, confirmed that faculty housing is not an approved community use. “The Building Department is requesting an inspection to ensure the dorms are being used as outlined in the restrictive declaration,” she said. In an earlier audit, she added, the department objected to the balconies and the developer “addressed the objection and reted the plans,” which were approved.
Accident at Conversion
FOR more than a year, many of the 15 or so tenants remaining at 1200 Fifth Avenue, near 101st Street, have been skirmishing with the building’s developer as the 15-story prewar tower, designed by Emery Roth in the 1920s, has been renovated and converted into luxury condominiums. Asking prices reach $19.5 million for a triplex penthouse.
At various times, tenants have complained about broken elevators, rats, leaks and freezing winter nights. Some went on a rent strike. They even hired an engineer to corroborate what they considered shoddy construction and unsafe conditions — including concerns about the safety of triple-paned windows.
Then last month, a 90-year-old woman who lives in the building was injured after attempting to close a new bedroom window before going to bed. The entire four-and-a-half-foot wide window, frame and all, pulled out of the wall and landed on her. The details of the accident were confirmed by tenants and the developer, who identified the woman as Ruth Newkirk. A home health aide in the apartment helped pull the window off Mrs. Newkirk and she was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where she is recovering from surgery for a broken leg.
Anna LaPorte, a spokeswoman for the developers, led by the Chetrit Group, said in a statement that they were doing “a complete internal investigation and cooperating with all the agencies involved” to make sure the windows in the building are in “perfect working condition.”
“This was a terrible accident, and our thoughts are with Mrs. Newkirk and her family,” she said.
But tenants provided a copy of a report by their engineer prepared in April 2006. It noted that “the anchorage for the new windows appears inadequate as compared to the size of the window.”
Jack Lester, a lawyer representing the tenants who went on a rent strike, said the engineer’s concerns in the report had been shared with the building management. “What is unique is that they were on notice that the installation of the windows was defective,” he said.
In a statement, the Department of Buildings said that the building would be inspected and that the agency “will issue violations if appropriate.”
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