Thursday, September 18, 2014

You can finally shop at 51 Astor Place!



The IBM Watson building finally has some (temporary) retail.

On Tuesday, hotelier-developer Ian Schrager unveiled the sales office and model apartment for his incoming hotel-condo tower at 215 Chrystie just below East Houston.

We haven't covered this at all so … we're looking at a 28-floor building due, maybe, winter 2016. There will be 11 residences sitting atop the 370-room hotel.



Per Curbed:

Prices start from more than $7 million for a two-bedroom, half-floor apartment, while the full-floor units on the 30th and 31st floors will be more expensive, naturally. The penthouse, which takes up the whole 32nd floor plus a roodtop deck, will be "in the twenties."

The Real Deal notes that the condo prices are poised to break a sales record for the neighborhood. No kidding.

Anyway, the sales office, on Third Avenue near East Ninth Street, has a model unit with a living room, dining room and kitchen, per Curbed. (Not sure about a bathroom. But ask anyway. Say you had a particularly bad $1 slice. It will be cool.)

Here's a rendering of one of the units…



Head over to Curbed for more details. Also, the Observer.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Another forgettable building with unremarkable apartments in a less than desirable area.

Gojira said...

Oh, for the days when the whole Christadora Building sold for $62,500.

Anonymous said...

Meanwhile, those us of us with less than a million dollars to spend are forced out to the outer boroughs or further afield because no developers are interested in trying to meet the need for $500k to 1M units in Manhattan.

These apartments will be empty most of the year because they will be bought by the global super-rich as pied-a-terres.

No longer rich enough to live in Manhattan

Anonymous said...

to Gojira: Or when the city sold the magnificent old school P.S. 64 to a private developer for $3 million.

Giovanni said...

Ian Schrager has perfected the art of separating money from rich people for a very long time. From Studio 54 to the Delano in Miami to the W hotel chain, he is a master of overcharging for exclusive access.

But this latest project is a bridge too far. This tower isn't just a playground for the rich, it's also their home, starting at $7 million and with a top price they so flippantly announce as being in "the twenties" as in $23 miilion. In other words, only the 1% of the 1% need apply.

And for all this money you get to live or stay on this crap-ass strip of Houston St. where bums urinated for a hundred years and cars and trucks whizz by at all hours of the day and night. With 11 apartments and 370 hotel rooms, this is literally a building for people who want to live in a hotel.

Ian Schrager himself calls this nonsense "uptown meets downtown (Midtown South, anyone?)...gritty..tough lux" because even he knows this is like putting a diamond on a hot pile of steaming crap. No matter how much you polish it, it still stinks.

If history repeats itself, and it always does, it is only a matter of time before the latest bubble bursts. Or maybe Ian Schrager thinks he's smarter than the market. Maybe he better rethink the plan, or start reading the news.

Two days ago, Trump Soho, the combination hotel/condo (sound familiar?) just a mile to the west, went into foreclosure. That's the same Donald Trump that is closing down 2 bankrupt casinos in Atalantic City. For some reaon people didnt want to spend a ton of money to live in a dead manufacturing zone.

The most we can hope for to delay the era of the billion dollar apartment is that places like this will stand half-finished for a decade or more, inhabited by rats or squatters like the Tower of David in Caracas, or maybe just sit an nice quiet empty lot, awaiting the next bubble to grow, and burst again.

51 Astor Place said...

Wipe your feet before you come in, cretins.

Makeout said...

Lemme know about the bathroom please. Experiencing a bout of the "fury of the curry". Thanks!

JAZ said...

It sticks straight up between the other buildings like its giving the rest of the neighborhood the finger.

No way that's unintentional

Anonymous said...

You guys got it wrong the filthy rich will not be living here but their kids will. Just think, doing shots on Ludlow then vomiting with a gorgeous 32nd floor view of the Empire State Building, AWESOME!

Anonymous said...

I'm going to visit the "watson" building this week just to see how snobby a reception I will receive. I'll tell them I'm a nerd working in the tech world and my new company is having its IPO next week.

bowboy said...

There goes a big chunk of sunlight for the Liz Christy Garden. ugh! That's gonna cast a nasty shadow over anything that wants to grow there.

Gojira said...

@Anon. 11:13 - The Christadora sold for $62,500 in 1975. PS 64 sold for $3.15 million in 1998. Please explain to me how the two are in any way comparable in price or in what the city was like in each of those two respective years?

Anonymous said...

Not " you", those with SIoS can finally shop at Death Star. I find your lack of faith in SIoS disturbing.

Oops, there I go again.
#SIoS

Anonymous said...

"Oh, for the days when the whole Christadora Building sold for $62,500."

How about the days when Manhattan sold for $24 and some trinkets? I guess the Dutch were the hated newbies then.

Scuba Diva said...

Gojira: As I recall, when P.S. 64 was auctioned off for a cool 3.15 million in 1998, everyone groaned at how low a price Gregg Singer had ended up paying; we were sure the deal was fixed—and it probably was.