NEW YORK | 953-961 First Ave | 370 FT | 34 FLOORS

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Toll Brothers Pays $64M for Residential Development Site
By Al Barbarino

It looks like luxury home builder Toll Brothers may have yet another New York City residential development project on the drawing board after scooping up a financially troubled and stalled development site – once dubbed the Oliver – from Alexico Group for $64 million, The Commercial Observer has learned.

The plans for the new acquisition could not immediately be confirmed, as Toll Brothers did not return calls seeking comment, though the company builds luxury homes and condo developments throughout the United States, in addition to New York City and places further upstate.

The site fell within the grasp of the then embattled developer Harry Macklowe in 2011, who along with Douglas Elliman Chairman Howard Lorber planned to build a residential tower on the site, according to an article that appeared in Crain’s in March 2011.

Toll Brothers Picks Up Midtown East Residential Site for $64M
Tuesday, January 8, 2013,
by Jessica Dailey

We have been watching the 150,000-square-foot site at 953-961 First Avenue for several years, patiently waiting for the hole in the ground to actually become something. Alexico Group tried to build a 161 luxury rental building there, but the developer defaulted on loans and the site went into foreclosure. Now the site is once again on the path toward residential development, but from a different developer. The Commercial Observer reports that Toll Brothers bought the stalled site for $64 million.

New York keeps on booming!