New York City Luxury Rental Blog Archives for December 2011

In an unexpected twist, Related Cos. elected to switch the luxury condos in MiMa, their 63-story glass high-rise on 42nd Street and 10th Avenue in Midtown West, to luxury rentals. Related planned for over 3 years to sell the 151 units as luxury condos, all located above the 50th floor of MiMa. The 663 luxury rentals on the lower stories were always been designated as rentals, but this sudden reversal to an all-rental building rather than a mixed sales and rentals building is more telling than it appears, though not in the way we might initially assume. This is not a case of desperate landlords panicking and using the luxury rental market as a safety net. Rather, this is a calculated decision based on the strengths and weaknesses of the rental and sales markets. If Related is making a smart decision, and it certainly appears that way, then MiMa's move to rental bodes well for the luxury rental market in Manhattan.

Last week the Astor Suite in the Plaza on 768 Fifth Avenue hit the market for $165,000 a month, officially becoming the most expensive apartment in Manhattan. The Astor Suite is a 5,087 square foot 4-bedroom 6-bathroom luxury home. Jurgen Friedrich, the owner of Esprit, bought the Midtown West residence for $25 million in 2007, and turned it around the next year at an asking price of $55 million. We wrote earlier about how more New York residents are taking up an interest in the most luxurious Manhattan rentals. Maybe Friedrich saw the article because now, after three years without a buyer, he’s put up the apartment for rent at its current superlative asking price. We all know luxury apartments for rent at places like the Plaza don’t come cheap, but this story got us wondering what some of the other highest rental prices in Manhattan were. We looked around, and found that rental inventory starts to fall off a little before $100,000, but there are a few places that can compete for the title of "most expensive in Manhattan."

When it comes to nicknames, acronyms and word blends, there are no shortage of them in Manhattan real estate. Investors and developers alike often generate and promote catchy neighborhood names such as NoMad (North of Madison Park) in order to generate buzz around new construction developments and micro-neighborhoods. While long time neighborhoods such as Soho (South of Houston Street), TriBeCa (Triangle Below Canal) and FiDi (Financial District) have slowly but surely crept into our everyday vocabulary, others are just beginning to emerge and fighting to stay relevant in our (sub)consciousness. The newest addition to this trend is Chumbo in Lower Manhattan.
 

It seems like we’re writing about new residential development projects in Manhattan every day, but commercial developments have become something of a lost art. Commercial buildings are less lucrative financially than residential buildings, where New York City’s constantly growing population keeps them in high demand. Most developers don’t want to risk leasing space to commercial industries, so today we are happy to report on a new project to build the area north of Madison Square Park into a commercial district called NoMad.

With Chelsea and the Flatiron District to the West and South, respectively, the area surrounding Madison Park is one of the most developed places in Manhattan, filled to the brim with high-end luxury condos for sale and apartments for rent. But the NoMad area itself remains relatively empty. It was a major area for bootlegged merchandise until recently, when developers saw the potential in turning it into an upscale commercial area. To encourage development, a couple savvy property owners lowered the rent for commercial buildings. Now they’re watching eagerly as potential culture-makers start nibbling at the bait. The new Museum of Mathematics, which opens next year, just recently leased space on 26th Street, and other projects are falling in line.