Tuesday, June 9, 2020 – Luxury Apartments

I live two blocks from Fiori on Vitruvian Park®, a luxury apartment building. It has a Dale Chihuly glass art wall in the lobby and a leather ceiling in the mail room. The mail room! Apartments range from a 1-bedroom at $1,222/month for only 620 square feet to $3,111/month for a 2-bedroom with 1,687 square feet. None of the penthouses are currently available for rent, although I have heard they are as high as $5,000/month. Here are seven short videos showing the property:

I am in no way promoting this property. I am just astounded at the over-the-top luxury. These are the community amenities:

· 24- hour concierge services.

· 24-hour package pickup.

· Bike racks.

· Billiards and game room.

· Conference rooms.

· Controlled-access building.

· Dale Chihuly glass art wall in lobby.

· Furnished apartments available.

· Guest suite available.

· Indoor and outdoor entertainment spaces.

· Media lounge.

· On-site storage.

· Pet friendly.

· Private garages.

· Reserved parking available.

· Sky lounge.

· Short term leases available.

· 2 swimming pools.

· Two-level fitness center.

· Walking and fitness trails.

· Wine room.

These are the apartment amenities:

· 9-ft. ceilings.

· Balcony.

· Built-in bookcase.

· Closet built-ins.

· Dual vanity.

· Floor-to-ceiling windows.

· Granite countertops.

· Hardwood floors.

· Keyless entry.

· Kitchen island.

· Large soaking tub.

· Nest thermostat.

· Stainless steel appliances.

· Stand-alone shower.

· Surround sound.

· Walk-in closet.

· Washer and dryer.

There is also this powder-coated steel sculpture “Communication Unbound” by Nic Noblique in the parking garage. The parking garage!!!

Houston

According to Christopher Groskopf’s article “America’s luxury apartment boom is gentrification on steroids” in Quartz, across the country a wave of dual-income couples and downsizing baby boomers are skipping home ownership and choosing apartment living instead. These elective nomads are pushing rents in American cities through the roof. Meanwhile, other renters — who have a median household income less than half that of homeowners — are finding that fewer and fewer homes fit their budget.

Developers have responded by flooding the market with new apartments — nearly 250,000 were completed in 2015 alone. However, those who hope the building boom will provide shelter for the huddled masses are in for a nasty surprise: Three out of every four new apartment buildings are luxury designs targeted at high-end renters.

Denver

Housing data compiled by RentCafe, a rental search company, track completion of all new apartment buildings with 50 or more units. These buildings are graded based on presentation and amenities. The top two grades are classified as “luxury,” indicating that they are primarily targeted at those who choose to rent, even though they could afford to buy. In 2015 there were 895 such buildings completed in the U.S., up 134% from 2012.

Not surprisingly, the luxury boom is centered in some of the fastest growing American cities. The five metropolitan areas with the most new apartments are Houston, Dallas, Seattle, Denver and Washington, D.C. Each of those cities —suburbs included — completed more than 50 new buildings in 2015 and had at least 75% luxury development.

Charlotte

Many smaller, less dense cities are also making room for rich renters. Austin, Texas, and Charlotte, North Carolina, each saw more than 5,000 new apartments completed in 2015. Slow-growing Milwaukee, Wisconsin, had nearly 1,000. Energy-rich Midland, Texas — with a population of just 167,000 — built nearly 2,000 new luxury apartments in 2015. Even Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Cleveland, Ohio, two cities that lost population over the last five years, built luxury apartments in 2015.

Per Alan Ehrenhalt’s book “The Great Inversion and the Future of the American City,” central cities increasingly are where the affluent want to live, while suburbs are becoming home to poorer people and those who come to America from other parts of the world. Highly educated members of the emerging millennial generation are showing a decided preference for urban life and are being joined in many places by a new class of affluent retirees.

New York City

The 2010s was marked by the construction of many new luxury condominium towers in New York City, often appealing to wealthy overseas buyers, such as One57 and Central Park Tower.

One57

One57, formerly known as Carnegie 57, is a 75-story, 1,005-foot supertall skyscraper at 157 West 57th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues in the Midtown neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. The building has 92 condominium units on top of a new Park Hyatt Hotel with 210 rooms, the flagship Hyatt property.

Billionaire's Row

The tower, developed by Extell Development Co. and designed by Christian de Portzamparc, was the first ultra-luxury condominium tower along the stretch of 57th Street that was subsequently named Billionaires’ Row. Upon completion in 2014, it was the tallest residential building in the city for a few months until the completion of 432 Park Avenue.

Prime Minister of Qatar

In May 2012, it was announced a buyer had agreed to pay a record price in New York of more than $90 million for the 10,923-square-foot duplex penthouse on the 89th and 90th floors. Just two months later, the Prime Minister of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, broke that record by agreeing to purchase a penthouse unit for $100 million.

In February 2018, it was reported that Michael Dell had paid $100.5 million for the penthouse in 2014, setting the record for the most expensive home ever sold in the city. The sale had been reported previously, but the buyer's identity had initially been kept secret. The record was broken in January 2019 when hedge fund manager Ken Griffin paid $238 million for a unit at 220 Central Park South.

Bill Ackman

The building also set the record for the second-most expensive sale in New York City with a 75th floor duplex purchased by hedge fund manager Bill Ackman for $91.5 million. Other units have reportedly been purchased by billionaires Lawrence Stroll, Silas Chou and Liu Yiqian.

Central Park Tower

Central Park Tower, also known as the Nordstrom Tower, is a residential supertall skyscraper being developed by Extell Development Co. and Shanghai Municipal Investment Group along Billionaires’ Row on 57th Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Designed by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, the building rises 1,550 feet and is the second-tallest skyscraper in the United States and the Western Hemisphere, the 15th tallest building in the world, the tallest residential building in the world — the much taller Burj Khalifa in Dubai has 900 residential units, but is mixed-use — and the tallest building outside Asia by roof height. Construction of the Central Park Tower was halted in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City, and remains in that state.

The building contains 179 condominiums starting on the 32nd floor, spanning on average 5,000 square feet, with open layouts and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Central Park. Interiors of the building's condominiums are designed by Rottet Studio. Interior features include Miele and Sub-Zero appliances, custom cabinetry and white oak floors. A triplex penthouse at the top of the building will span 17,000 square feet across floors 129 through 131.

There will be 50,000 square feet of amenities on floors eight to twelve. On the 14th floor, the building will feature the “Central Park Club” with a lounge, theater, conference room, play area and a tween lounge. A landscaped terrace designed by HMWhite will feature a 60-foot outdoor pool with pergolas and trellises, central lawn and two gardens. On the 16th floor, there will be a 63-foot indoor pool, exercise room, spa, gym, basketball court and children's playroom.

There will also be a three-floor private club named "The 100th Floor" near the building's apex, marketed as the highest private club in the world. The 50,000 square feet space will contain a 126-person ballroom, a cigar bar, and a private dining room.

Williamsburg, Brooklyn had the highest rent increase, rising by 54% on average from 2010 to 2019.

However, the market for luxury properties may be waning. According to Stefanos Chen’s September 13, 2019 article “One in Four of New York’s New Luxury Apartments is Unsold” in the New York Times, among the more than 16,200 condo units across 682 new buildings completed in New York City since 2013, one in four remain unsold, or roughly 4,100 apartments — most of them in luxury buildings, according to a new analysis by the listing website StreetEasy.

One57

The super-tall One57 tower, completed in 2014 and considered the forerunner of Billionaires’ Row, a once largely commercial corridor around 57th Street in Midtown, remains about 20 percent unsold, with 27 of roughly 132 multimillion-dollar apartments still held by the developer, according to Jonathan J. Miller, president of Miller Samuel Real Estate Appraisers & Consultants.

“That’s mind-blowing,” he said, “because the building actually began marketing eight years ago, in 2011, and a typical building might sell out in two to three years in a balanced market.”

In an analysis of seven luxury towers on and around Billionaires’ Row, including pending sales, almost 40 percent of units remain unsold, Miller said.

The recently completed 285-unit tower at 15 Hudson Yards was just 37.5 percent sold through late August, though marketing began in 2016.

At One Manhattan Square, an 815-unit skyscraper that towers over nearby Chinatown, prices ranged from $1.2 million for a one-bedroom to over $13 million for a penthouse. As of Aug. 26, 2019, the tower — which received a permit for occupancy in late 2018 — had only sold about 20 percent of its units.