Another Super-Luxury Tower Planned for Billionaires Row

Park Avenue soon will have a another new limestone tower to join the ranks of the street's architecturally noteworthy buildings. Zeckendorf Development will soon build a 51-story building featuring vertical mansions and the city’s most expensive apartment.
  

520 Park Avenue is the latest of at least eight super-luxury condominium towers in the works near or along 57th Street, a neighborhood known as Billionaires Row.

The would-be district of the uber-wealthy extends from Broadway on West 57th Street to Park Avenue, and the surrounding area.

The smallest of the tower's 31 apartments will sprawl over full floors of about 4,600 square feet. They will each have their own elevator landings and are set to list at more than $27 million each.

There will also be seven super-luxury duplex apartments, each with six bedrooms, which are expected to price considerably more than $50 million per unit.

The largest apartment, a 12,400-square-foot triplex penthouse with a private terrace and pool, will be priced at $125 million.

The 85-foot wide building will have sweeping views of Central Park. It has floor-to-ceiling windows of varying sizes topped by another detail recalling buildings built in Manhattan before World War II: a temple-like structure on the roof to hide a water tower and mechanical equipment.

"It is a new market category, it is being called Billionaire's Row," said Jonathan Miller, a market analyst, of the new development area. He said the demand for hard assets in the U.S. is so strong—especially among international buyers—that the market is likely to remain warm far into the future.

But he added that too many luxury buildings will be coming to market at the same time, and the unlimited prices we have seen, may be unsustainable. At the same time, he noted that the sheer size of the new apartments will effectively limit their supply—and support their high prices.

The new building at 520 Park, designed by Robert A.M. Stern, the dean of the Yale architecture school, was assembled by brothers Arthur and William Lie Zeckendorf and the same team that constructed 15 Central Park West.

It grew to 178,000 square feet through the combination of several lots and the $30.4 million purchase of air rights from Christ Church at East 60th Street and Park Avenue.

It also purchased the right to cantilever over much of the Grolier Club, a club on East 60th Street.

The developer obtained additional building rights by providing funding to build affordable housing on the Upper East Side as well as meeting the requirements of the city Green Building program.

But the large number of expensive apartments on the market is causing pause for some real estate brokers.

 Although the number of listings in Manhattan shrank to the lowest levels in at least a decade, there is now about a 31-month supply of apartments and houses priced at more than $10 million.

Still, new project on East 60th Street would do well, since it is on the lower fringe of the Upper East Side, where demand for large apartments remains strong.

Since the success of 15 Central Park West, the Zeckendorfs have a track record and a following among super wealthy apartment buyers.

Although the new building will have a Park Avenue address, now used by the church, its entrance will be located a few doors down from Park, on East 60th Street, toward Madison Avenue.

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