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

[RoldanTTLB]

Eh, with starting prices likely to be over $8,000 a square foot and apartment sizes likely to start around 800 sqft, it is unlikely that anyone working on the site will be able to afford a $6.4m apartment. I don't care how well you manage your money. Assuming you has the $1.8m 20% downpayment (which seems steep for a 20 year old, even if you've been earning $500,000 a year since you were 16), your mortgage would be about $26,000 a month. Based on the normal 40x rule, that means you should be earning about a million dollars a year to afford it. I suppose if you managed your money well you could maybe afford it if you were earning $800,000 a year. Do journeymen carpenters earn that? If so, I am unabashedly changing careers stat.

[599GTO]

Originally Posted by kiwi4life

what makes you say that. im a journey man carpenter in this area of formwork and i have no problem buying a brand new condo at age 20. anybody can afford what they what if they manage their money well. all these guys could be rich and wealthy if they put their mind to it. most people these days arnt that smart however. just thought id mention that from my point of view. anyways project is coming along well

You can't afford anything in this tower.

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by Ed007Toronto

Small floorplate means they can go fast.

In New York, even buildings with smaller floorplates than this sometimes take longer to rise. This building is just rising faster than what we are used to seeing.

[NYguy]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/re...anted=all&_r=0

Manhattan Rentals, Left Out in the Cold




The view of Manhattan from 737 Park Avenue, which is being converted to condos. Two apartments on the 21st floor are being combined to create a 5,600-square-foot penthouse.


By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO
February 21, 2013

As developers continue to push the story line that New York’s luxury residential market is a high-end utopia that shows no signs of slowing, you might consider one seldom-discussed factor that is driving their decisions to build for the wealthiest buyers.

Last year property owners sold 158 development sites in Manhattan, up 51 percent from 2011, according to Massey Knakal, a New York property sales company. Of those, owners sold 69 sites in the fourth quarter alone. In dollar terms the volume was $3.12 billion, up 128 percent from 2011,with $1.73 billion sold in the fourth quarter, the company said. The bidding wars behind those sales figures sometimes involved as many as 40 developers battling over a single site, said Bob Knakal, Massey Knakal’s chairman.

The ballooning prices are giving developers little choice but to focus on building — or in some cases, converting to — high-end condos. Doing anything less, in most cases, would be too risky, brokers said. “The fact is, the way the free market is working today, land is just too valuable, so developers can’t afford to do anything but build super luxury product,” Mr. Knakal said.

Developers’ struggle to build rental units doesn’t bode well for a New York in need of more “work-force housing” for teachers, police officers and fire fighters, Mr. Knakal said. “There are so many millions of people that keep the city functioning,” he said. “If you earn $40,000 a year, where do you live? We need new housing for those folks.”

Mr. Miller said the tightness in the property market made the proposed rezoning of Midtown East to allow more tall towers “very important to the future of real estate development in the city, at least as an international location, both for commercial and residential.” With luxury towers like One57 and the approved 432 Park Avenue, under construction on the site of the former Drake Hotel, there has been a renaissance of residential development in Midtown. “We need to create other ways of bringing supply, or making potential development sites viable by making them taller,” Mr. Miller said.

[Ed007Toronto]

by making them taller

Which all of us here are certainly happy with.

[Zerton]

Is the exterior concrete going to remain exposed? It doesn't look all that well done.

[ThatOneGuy]

Apparently they will clean it when they have the chance. Parts are still not dry yet and look blue-ish.

[NYguy]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/re...anted=all&_r=0

The Great Air Race




The air rights to 140 West 58th Street were bought by the developer of the 90-story One57.


By ROBIN FINN
February 22, 2013

Because a room with a view has always been preferable to one without, the price of air in New York City is becoming more expensive. Yes, the air is for sale, but not on sale. And not the dodgy urban air the city’s eight million inhabitants breathe as they scurry around the boulevards, but the rarefied and fast-disappearing air overhead where condominium towers do not fear to tread, and rooms with sunlit windows can make the lucrative difference between a legal three-bedroom residence and a mere two-bedroom with a den/office.

With Manhattan’s skyscraper-proof bedrock in finite supply and the city’s fixation on housing and envelope-pushing office buildings on the upswing — and also the impetus behind the proposed rezoning of 70 blocks around Grand Central Terminal called Midtown East — the sky is not only the limit, it’s the solution. Ubiquitous developers-about-town like Gary Barnett, Harry B. Macklowe and the Zeckendorf brothers are all not-so-secret members of the air appreciation society.

“The trading of air rights is more prevalent than it’s ever been before,” said Robert Von Ancken, an air-rights expert and appraiser who is the chairman of Landauer Valuation and Advisory Services, “and it’s why you’re seeing these monster buildings springing up all over town. All of these new supertowers that are changing the look of the city’s horizon, they couldn’t happen without air-rights transfers.”

Not all small-fry neighbors opt to sell: “We get turned down more often than not,” said Michael Namer, the chief executive of Alfa Development, who bought air rights to expand two of his downtown condominium projects, the eight-story, 36-unit Village Green on East 11th Street, and the nearly completed 14-story, 51-unit Chelsea Green on West 21st Street. Both are in height-restricted neighborhoods.

“There are people who believe in skyscrapers and people who don’t,” he added, “and you can’t do the Hudson Rail Yards and you can’t do One57 without air rights, but that’s not really the issue. The city Planning Department has taken steps to ensure that the way we sculpt our city is something that makes sense in terms of light and air. The reason behind the big increase in air-rights trades is that, bottom line, they can make the difference between a marginal and a profitable project.”

Post-recession, the air above New York City is its own best marketing tool.

“It’s coming back with a vengeance,” said Robert A. Jacobs, a land-use specialist and partner at Belkin Burden Wenig & Goldman. “The technology available is such that if you’re a developer of a residential property you should build as high as you can, because you get the higher sales price for the higher floors. The race to accumulate light easements and air rights is tied to the mandate for these high-priced condos to offer views worthy of the purchase price,” added Mr. Jacobs, who lectures on air rights at the city bar association. If there is a danger inherent in them, it is the potential, Mr. Jacobs mused, for a city dominated by towers that overshadow the rest of the landscape. “Is the future of the city going to be this series of 200-story towers with stultified buildings in between?” he asked. “You wonder how this will affect the street life, the trees. You wonder about urban plazas surrounded by 50-story walls: what would grow there, mushrooms?”

The accumulation of air rights for 432 Park Avenue, the site of the former Drake Hotel and the future site of the city’s tallest residential tower at 95 stories, began back in 2004, even before the involvement of Mr. Macklowe, who visualized the luxury skyscraper, and CIM Group of Los Angeles, which now owns the property. When the Host Marriott Corporation sold the site to Mr. Macklowe for $418.3 million in 2006, it had already acquired nearly 115,000 square feet of buildable air rights, according to Mr. Shapiro. Perfect fodder for an $82.55 million penthouse.

[NOPA]

Originally Posted by Ed007Toronto

Which all of us here are certainly happy with.

That's what happens when there is a de facto regulatory quota on new development (due to excessive zoning restrictions and a byzantine approval process). When a developer is limited in the number of new units, they will maximize profits, which is why most new development is all luxury.

[TechTalkGuy]

Speaking of luxury, I'm surprised that Donald Trump is not involved with any of this.

So many supertall luxury high-rise towers and none of them have his name attached.

[World Citizen]

hey, its the second day that I havet seen any workerss on site. whats going on?

[mheadroom]

Originally Posted by TechTalkGuy

Speaking of luxury, I'm surprised that Donald Trump is not involved with any of this.

So many supertall luxury high-rise towers and none of them have his name attached.

That's because he's little more than a fraud who run out of people to screw over. Almost every single development he's been involved with is largely financed by third parties and then managed into bankruptcy. He puts in 5-10% to get naming rights and uses the brand recognition to lure in the next sucker.

Anyone smart enough and bold enough to build buildings like the Beekman Tower, 432 Park Ave, or One57 know enough to stay clear of Trump.

[RoldanTTLB]

Always tough to know why there's no construction. It's possible they need a crane jump and no one from the DOB is available to oversee (as per the new rules from all the accidents a few years ago). It's also possible that weather somewhere delayed the shipment of more of the sliding forms that are getting added as the building clears its neighbors, thus delaying construction some. It's also close to the end of the month and someone's checking account might be a little short of money. With a tower this prestigious, if it's something major (SWO), it will make the news.

[RoldanTTLB]

Originally Posted by mheadroom

That's because he's little more than a fraud who run out of people to screw over. Almost every single development he's been involved with is largely financed by third parties and then managed into bankruptcy. He puts in 5-10% to get naming rights and uses the brand recognition to lure in the next sucker.

Anyone smart enough and bold enough to build buildings like the Beekman Tower, 432 Park Ave, or One57 know enough to stay clear of Trump.

I think there's some real confusion on this board about how a skyscraper (or any building, really) happens, either here in NYC or elsewhere. Suffice to say, there is no material difference between Extell, Forest City Ratner, CIM, or Trump as developers. That's neither a damning indictment of Extell, nor a glowing review of Trump.

The place where a developer fits into the puzzle is to match money (as much of someone else's as possible) with an asset (generally a new building, since we're talking about real estate development!). A developer is not much different than an investment banker, an venture capital firm, or a normal bank. All that differs is the level of risk, and thus the expected ROI.

Further, when you're the California State Worker's Pension fund, you don't know anything about buildings, or stocks, or bonds, or any other profit bearing investment vehicle (other than an ROI and a risk rating), but you do have a pile of money, and you do need to look out for your pensioners. Based on that, you diversify, and some of your money buys Tbills for security, and some of your money buys 11 Times Square (or rather the future 11TS in the past!) hoping for a huge return.

Developers don't make money investing a ton of their own money. That's how leverage works for you, it's how it works for them.

[JACKinBeantown]

Originally Posted by NYguy

I don't remember anyone pointing this out, but it seems that there are five double-level floors (1, 6, 7, 8 & 9) making the floors above it at levels equivalent to five floors higher than they are numbered. So the 10th floor is actually the 15th floor, and so on. Does anyone know what that means for the 89th floor? Is it really the 94th, or will it be listed as the 84th, or will there be some clever Trump-esque fudging with the floor numbers?

The floors are listed as 15'-6" each. 15.5 x 89 = 1379.5 , so it looks like 89 actual floors (give or take 18.5 feet).

[RoldanTTLB]

Floor numbers are almost always fudged. There is unlikely to be a 13th floor. Additionally, if the marketing is at all geared towards asian buyers, there will be no 4th floor either, the first residential floor will be 8 if at all possible, and there will be a floor numbered 88 no matter what it takes dropping to get there.

[scalziand]

Yesterday was George Washington's birthday, dunno why they aren't working today.

[World Citizen]

Third consecutive day with no workers, what's going on?

[Marc from Rotterdam]

When people have a (national) holiday on a Friday, most likely they also don't work on the Saturday after.
As we call it in Europe, they take a "long weekend".

[RoldanTTLB]

Friday and Saturday were somewhat questionable. But... This tower has had a live webcam for a year and a half now, and they've never done work on a Sunday except to, maybe, jump a crane. Let's see what happens tomorrow.