NEW YORK | 432 Park Avenue (Drake Hotel dev.) | (1,396) FT / 432 M | 89 FLOORS

[hunser]

Originally Posted by lakegz

Mr. Burn's voice- "Excellent"

In Seinfeld's voice- "What's the deal with those wooden slats in between the floors in the core?"

My guess is those wooden slats will be removed. The reason would be to make a connection between the slab and the core. Later it will be filled with concrete.

[lakegz]

That makes sense and i kinda thought about that too. There must be something for the floors to latch onto as they rise.

[Ed007Toronto]

Great updates.

[meh_cd]

Originally Posted by Onn

New York is the luckiest city in the world right now. But if you think about it that makes snese. I've always wondered why someone would want to invest their money in desert real estate or empty cities. NYC is the real deal, you've got everything there one could ever possibly want in a big city. Because of the large rise in the global middle class a lot of people suddenly have money they didn't before and they want to spend it.

All I can hear is the cash register going "Cha-Ching!"

The people buying these apartments/condos/whatever are not the "global middle class." These guys are the elite of the elite, for better or for worse.

[NewYorkDominates]

^ Yes,this people are the rich people's,rich people.Elite of the elite.

[NYguy]

( January 22, 2013 )

http://www.432parkavenue.com/new-con...res/2013/1428/

[xnyr]

Originally Posted by NYguy

( January 22, 2013 )

Anybody know what those white discs are for?

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by meh_cd

The people buying these apartments/condos/whatever are not the "global middle class." These guys are the elite of the elite, for better or for worse.

If you've got it, flaunt it....


http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/12/ny...mpty.html?_r=0


By ELIZABETH A. HARRIS
February 11, 2013

Pieds-à-terre exist throughout the New York City condo market, a separate little world of vacation homes and investment properties. But the higher up you go in price, the higher the concentration is likely to be of owners who spend only a few months, a few weeks or even just a few days each year in their apartments. This very costly form of desolation means that some of the city’s most expensive residential buildings stand mostly dark, lonesome and empty on the inside.

“Our next door neighbors were absolutely lovely, and we saw them maybe once a year,” said a former resident at the 25 Columbus Circle, the south tower of the Time Warner Center, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “Most people don’t actually live there.”

There are no reliable statistics on the number of pieds-à-terre in New York City, but real estate experts say that global economic jitters have drawn more and more astonishingly wealthy people into the market in recent years. They come from all over, whether Monaco, Moscow or Texas, looking for a safe place to put their money, as well as a trophy, and perhaps a second — or third or fourth or fifth — home while they’re at it.

“It is a safe haven,” said Jonathan Miller, president of the appraisal firm Miller Samuel. “It’s not coming from just one country; it’s a global phenomenon.”

Scott Avram, an assistant vice president at Toll Brothers City Living, a company that builds luxury condos, said that 40 percent of the buyers at the Touraine, a project at 65th Street and Lexington Avenue, are from foreign countries. And the ultraluxury condo building One57 on West 57th Street, where two apartments are in contract for at least $90 million, has had billionaire buyers from China, Canada, Nigeria and Britain, as well as from America.

We really shouldn't be surprised that this building is doing well.

[babybackribs2314]

I would be hesitant to trust those #s. Keep in mind there's a ton of competition for foreign buyers, and the market is rapidly becoming saturated. I'm definitely an optimist but you have this, 56 Leonard, One57, 225 W57th, and Torre Verre rising at the same time. Obviously with minor gaps in between, but really--there is no shortage of luxury developments. I'm feeling a bubble coming on, but hopefully I am incorrect... if not, it's only the people with tons of money that will lose out anyways, so who cares.

[scalziand]

Originally Posted by xnyr

Anybody know what those white discs are for?

Those are spacers, to help keep the rebar properly placed with respect to the forms. They are round so they can roll when the forms are raised, preventing the rebar from striking and damaging the forms.

[Onn]

Originally Posted by meh_cd

The people buying these apartments/condos/whatever are not the "global middle class." These guys are the elite of the elite, for better or for worse.

I didn't mean literally middle class income, but you know people globally who have money and influence who wouldn't have before. There is no "new global elite" type label yet.

[xnyr]

Originally Posted by scalziand

Those are spacers, to help keep the rebar properly placed with respect to the forms. They are round so they can roll when the forms are raised, preventing the rebar from striking and damaging the forms.

Got it! Thanks a lot.

[Tectonic]

Wouldn't those lower sections be covered by a 'podium'?

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by babybackribs2314

I would be hesitant to trust those #s. Keep in mind there's a ton of competition for foreign buyers, and the market is rapidly becoming saturated.

I don't know about that. A lot of demand is being focused on New York right now.


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-0...and-soars.html

Manhattan New Condos Raise Prices Monthly as Demand Soars


By Oshrat Carmiel
Feb 12, 2013

Michael Stern was prepared for a gradual real estate rebound after buying a New York office tower in December 2009, with plans to convert it to condominiums following a housing plunge that sent prices down 31 percent. Now, long before the final floor tile is laid or the first resident moves into the Walker Tower development in the Chelsea neighborhood, Stern’s firm, JDS Development Group, and its partner have increased prices on units at the building 13 times.

At least 21 new condominium buildings in Manhattan, comprising 1,188 units, increased some of their asking prices last year, according to New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office, which reviews details of condo plans. The market has heated up to the point where buyers are putting deposits on units that haven’t been finished...“Ultra-low inventory, international demand and rising domestic confidence has really pushed pricing,” said Kelly Mack, president of Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group, the new- development sales unit of New York brokerage Corcoran Group. “We’re seeing quick decision-making like we haven’t seen in years,” she said of buyers. Manhattan developers revived plans for new condo projects two years ago after sitting on the sidelines as the market worked through a glut of 6,500 newly built -- and unsold --units following the recession that ended in 2009....

Harry Macklowe, the New York developer whose short-term debt woes led him to relinquish seven Manhattan office towers purchased in 2007, has boosted prices on two East Side condominiums he has in development....At Macklowe’s 432 Park Ave. -- located on the site of the former Drake Hotel and slated to become Manhattan’s tallest residential tower when it is completed in 2015 -- prices have climbed 1.3 percent since July, when the attorney general first approved its sales plan.

An outside spokesman for the property declined to comment on the price increases or how many units have sold at the building, which has yet to go vertical. An Oct. 24 letter from the developer’s lawyer to the attorney general’s office said that six units were in contract, and as many as 12 more were close to deals. Plans for the 1,397-foot (426-meter) property include private wine cellars guaranteeing a climate no warmer than 57 degrees Fahrenheit, and a catered private dining room in which residents must purchase at least $1,200 in meals annually, according to offering plans filed with the attorney general.

Extell Development Co. was one of the earliest adopters, breaking ground in 2009 on One57, a luxury tower that has smashed sales records with two deals valued at more than $90 million each for upper-floor duplexes. Buyers have been putting in deposits based on floor plans, a model apartment in the 6,000-square-foot offsite sales office and photographs by a camera mounted on a drone helicopter that show views at different elevations of the 90-story tower.

Extell has increased prices at least twice. A 6,200-square- foot full-floor apartment on the 88th floor, the highest unit available for sale as of September, was listed at $67 million, a 28 percent markup from its initial offering price in June 2011. The 87th-floor unit was increased to $64.5 million, or 36 percent more than in June 2011, sales documents show. “Many factors play into a decision to raise prices, but specifically we look at demand, absorption rate and supply,” Donna Gargano, senior vice president at Extell, wrote in an e- mail.

[chrisvfr800i]

Originally Posted by hunser

My guess is those wooden slats will be removed. The reason would be to make a connection between the slab and the core. Later it will be filled with concrete.

The wood slats are installed to form a keyway for rebar couplers or bend-out dowels that connect the core and slabs.

[CCs77]

The second floor is being built.



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[hunser]

I'm sure the white concrete along with those huge windows will look splendid. But let us judge when the tower is nearly finished, i.e. when we can see the cladding working.

[ThatOneGuy]

Were these renders posted?

[THE BIG APPLE]

^ Second one yes. First and third no.

[ATLksuGUY]

Originally Posted by THE BIG APPLE

^ Second one yes. First and third no.

Agreed. Second one YES. Something POWERFUL about simplicity. I understand those who look for more extravagant designs, but a sheer wall of repetitiveness is absolutely powerful, and can be stunning like the original WTC. If you ever stood directly in front of it about 30 feet away and just stared up, it would blow your mind with its sheer vertical prowess. I can't wait to see this building in person, completed one day. You NY-ers are lucky.

Cheers