One New York developer, two projects and US$3.4 billion of new flats
New York developer Ziel Feldman is unleashing about US$3.4 billion worth of new condos onto the Manhattan market, at prices that guarantee him an exclusive buyer pool – and lots of competition.
He is listing 95 units at the Belnord, a century-old Upper West Side building getting an overhaul by architect Robert A.M. Stern, where the cheapest three-bedroom flat will cost US$5 million. He’ll also start sales for the 236 condos at the Eleventh, rising near the High Line park in Chelsea with a futuristic design by Bjarke Ingels. Two penthouses there are tagged at US$70 million apiece, a purchase price that would set a downtown record.
“I believe that when you have exceptional product, in unparalleled locations, with visionary architects and designers, that there will be no shortage of demand,” said Feldman, chairman of HFZ Capital Group.
It’s a bold move. Luxury-home buyers in Manhattan already have plenty of choices, and their appetites for high-end real estate, once seemingly insatiable, are flagging. And many other builders have similar plans: This year, 4,600 newly developed flats are expected to be listed across the borough, with almost half of them priced at US$2,400 a square foot or more, according to an estimate by brokerage Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group. That is on top of the 3,323 new units that reached the market in 2017.
The well-heeled buyers those developers are competing for are in no rush to commit. They’re taking time to assess their options and driving hard bargains to reach a deal. This year through June 4, contracts were signed for 500 Manhattan luxury homes, down 11 per cent from the same period in 2017, according to brokerage Olshan Realty, which counts units priced at US$4 million and above. The properties spent an average of 435 days on the market, up from 395, and buyers got discounts averaging 9 per cent, Olshan’s data show.
“We are now in uncharted territory,” Donna Olshan, the brokerage’s president, said in an interview. “There’s absolutely classic buyers’ resistance going on right now.”
Still, when a project’s construction is moving forward, a developer has no choice but to try to sell units, she said.
