Location: 280 W. 78th St. (between Amsterdam and Broadway)
Size: 33 units, 20 stories
Prices: From $1.6 million – $8 million
Expected Occupancy: 2008
Developer: Urban Residential
Architect: Handel Architects
Sales & Marketing: Corcoran Sunshine

Overview: A Boutique Condo Building in the Land of the Brownstones
Linden 78 hasn’t actually been built yet – as of this writing it’s just a gap halfway down the Broadway-to-Amsterdam block on the south side of W. 78th Street – but that hasn’t prevented the developers from showing a lot of stunning pictures and pre-selling a lot of wildly expensive condo apartments. Recently I took a look at the building site, which offers views of a medium-rise building to the south and a row of typical Upper West Side brownstones on the north side of the street, and then paid a visit to the Sales & Design Center a few blocks away to see the model showrooms for the condo apartments that are planned.

The workmanship and design are outstanding – custom kitchens designed by Florense, an interior design boutique in Soho, are outfitted with Viking and Miele appliances; the master bath features his ‘n’ hers soaking tubs and Lagos Azul limestone floors; living room floors are made with 5-foot-wide oak planks.

In keeping with the Upper West Side’s older buildings and traditional family appeal, Linden 78 has been designed with only spacious apartments – none of those tiny little boxes that are being jam-packed into so many condo buildings today. The smallest apartments are two-bedrooms with about 1,200 square feet, and the largest are five-bedrooms with more than 4,500 square feet. There are only one or two apartments per floor, and at least one seems to take up two full floors. In addition to the decks on the penthouse apartments, there will also be a roof deck for the non-penthouse condo owners to share.

Tenants will have plenty of other amenities, too – bicycle storage, personal storage bins, a fitness center, a children’s playroom, and a landscaped garden.
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Location: 635 W. 42nd Street (between 11th and 12th Avenues)
Size: 478 units, 46 stories
Prices: From $.7 million – $1.5 million
Occupancy: 2007
Developer: The Moinian Group
Architect: Costas Kondylis and Partners
Sales & Marketing: The Marketing Directors, Inc.

Overview: A Haven for Celebrity Spotters

Is midtown stretching west, or is Chelsea stretching north? The Atelier, which takes up most of the block on 42nd Street between 11th and 12th Avenues, aims to stake out what the developers call “a dynamic new neighborhood” along the northern edge of Hudson Yards. There may not be much surrounding the building, but 478 condominium apartments go a long way to creating an instant neighborhood, and the indoor pool, 12,000-square-foot health club, rooftop lounge and terraces, art gallery in the lobby, and 15,700 square feet of retail space help make the neighborhood more livable.

The condo’s developers have worked hard to create a celebrity aura around the building. Rumor says they gave an apartment to Hollywood bad-girl Lindsay Lohan – and, at any rate, Lohan is now a condo owner. Other residents include singer/actor Nick Lachey and his girlfriend, MTV personality Vanessa Minillo.

Appealing to younger buyers, the developers created a condominium with only small apartments – the largest are two-bedrooms a little over 1,000 square feet. However, they’ve made the most of the abundant light and views afforded by the building’s far-west location, and the apartments are well-appointed, with polished marble and Italian white oak flooring, stainless steel appliances and chrome faucets and fixtures.

Other amenities include:
• 24-hour doorman and full-service concierge
• Bosch large-capacity washer and dryer in every unit
• Sunning divans, basketball and volleyball courts, bocce ball and children’s play area on terrace.
• Billiards room, catering kitchen and landscaped sundeck in rooftop lounge
• 100-car underground garage.
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Location: 455 Main Street, Roosevelt Island
Size: 124 units, 18 stories
Prices: From $.6 million – $1.3 million
Occupancy: 2006
Developer: The Hudson Companies Inc.
Architect: Costas Kondylis and Partners
Landscape Architect: Mathews Nielsen
Interior Designer: Kondylis Design
Sales & Marketing: Related Companies

Overview: Small-Town Utopia in NYC
Even though it has a 212 area code and is only one subway stop or a tram ride away from Manhattan, Roosevelt Island is still nearly invisible to New Yorkers who do not live there or have no friends there. Strange, given that it is such a spectacular waterfront site.

With a moving landscape of boats in the river, this island may be the best of both worlds – the cosmopolitan lifestyle combined with a truly serene and relaxing environment, removed from Manhattan yet a mere 20 minutes away. The ambience here is modernly utopian: within yards of the city, a waterfront paradise with abundant open space and high degree of community-mindedness.

Owned by the city, Roosevelt Island was leased to the State of New York’s Urban Development Corporation for 99 years in 1969 and became the site of a utopian housing experiment in the 1970s. With the corporation’s approval of the Riverwalk, the first luxury condo, Roosevelt Island has been transformed from a subsidized housing collective into an upscale residential neighborhood with small-town ambience.

Compared with Manhattan’s luxury condos, this one has more open space and more recreational opportunities. Thirty percent of Riverwalk’s buyers were already island residents before Riverwalk was born, so they understand the value of what they’re getting: an ideal residential lifestyle in a striking waterfront park setting with unmatched Manhattan skyline and river views, priced 30% below comparable offerings in Manhattan. In addition to individual buyers, Cornell has bought four floors in Riverwalk Court for faculty residences.

Amenities include:

• Floor-to-ceiling windows with wonderful views
• Kitchens with granite countertops and stainless-steel appliances
• Kitchen garbage disposals
• Marble baths
• Hardwood plank flooring
• Washers and dryers in units
• 24/7 attended lobby
• Fitness center with state-of-the-art equipment
• Children’s play room
• Rooftop entertaining lounge
• Landscaped sundeck
• Bicycle room
• Storage lockers

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Are you concerned about whether you can sell your apartment if the market slows down? New research shows you how to present your apartment to buyers and end up with a win-win transaction, even if the market as a whole is going nowhere fast.

An interesting story in the Baltimore Sun this week reveals exactly what it takes to make homes sell quickly. (And in Baltimore’s soft housing market, if you don’t sell your home quickly it will sit there forever – the average time on the market is now more than three months.)

In November, about 13% of Baltimore-area homes sold within two weeks. You might think that, just by the law of averages, someone had to find the right buyer on Day One – but this wasn’t random variation. When the Baltimore Sun analyzed the data, they found the fast-selling homes weren’t unusual properties. They were typically older houses, with prices just about 1% below the citywide average. The reason they sold quickly was that the sellers were especially smart.

Here’s what the reporters learned:

Rule #1: Pay very, very close attention to comparable sales, and price your home slightly below comparables. Don’t ask for more than the market will bear. And watch out for psychological barriers like round numbers – $699,000 seems like a better value than $700,000.

Rule #2: Show your home to best advantage, both in person and in the photos you take. Make whatever cosmetic improvements you can, and get rid of the clutter.

Rule #3: Market aggressively.

It didn’t seem to matter whether the owners undertook major renovations or not. Some buyers are looking for a home in walk-in condition, while others want a chance to remake it according to their own tastes. The article gave examples of both.

What everyone wants is a good deal. As a smart seller, that’s what you can give them.

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Location: 750 Fifth Avenue (at 59th Street)
Size: 181 condominium units and 152 hotel-condo units
Prices: Starting at $1.5 million – the sky’s the limit
Occupancy: Late 2007
Developer: Elad Group
Architect: Originally Henry J. Hardenbergh; renovations by Costas Kondylis
Interior Design: Gal Nauer
Sales & Marketing: Stribling & Associates
Website: www.theplazaresidences.com

Overview: Buying a Slice of History
F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote here. Frank Lloyd Wright visited here. The Beatles were headquartered here in 1964; the Plaza Accord was signed here in 1985; kings and queens have enjoyed royal visits here and every U.S. president since Theodore Roosevelt has spent time here. Occupying the corner of Fifth Avenue at Central Park South, the Plaza Hotel, a French Renaissance château-style building, is steeped in history.

Fans of New York City history have heard a lot about the Plaza’s décor, its beauty and its famous landmarks like the Palm Court, the Edwardian Room, the Oak Room, and the Pulitzer Fountain. Many movies have been filmed at the hotel, beginning with Hitchcock’s masterpiece, “North By Northwest.”

For almost one hundred years, flying the flags of the countries of visiting dignitaries over its Fifth Avenue canopy, The Plaza mirrored the social history of Manhattan: its tastes in design, entertainment, restaurants and accommodations, as well as the Great Depression, two World Wars, the Cold War, women’s rights and British rock-and-roll.

This city’s best chateau defined grandeur for a century and, like a fine wine, it has aged well. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1986. In 1998, it was also designated as a literary landmark and eight of its public rooms were declared interior landmarks in 2004.

In 2004 the Plaza Hotel was sold to the Elad development group, and in April 2005 the developers began renovating the hotel with the aim of converting it into 181 condominium units, 134 hotel rooms and 152 hotel condos. The hotel’s historic rooms will be restored to their original 1907 appearance. Even the Palm Court’s glass ceiling, which was removed during the 1940s, will be recreated.

Anybody buying a condo at the Plaza is truly getting a slice of history. There are two separate groups of condominiums. The 152 ‘hotel condominium suites,’ which are being marketed as pied-a-terres, are something like former hotel rooms at the Plaza – only in mint condition. The Palm Suites are about 550 feet and start at $1.6 million; the Plaza and Terrace suites start at $5 million and are considerably larger.

The private residences are a separate ballpark altogether. Starting at $2.5 million per unit, these will be the newest and most unique spaces at the Plaza. The apartment sizes vary widely from 1 bedroom (about 800 square feet) to 5-bedroom, duplex penthouses. The new residents here include Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots, who bought an 11th-floor condo for $14 million, and real estate baron Harry Macklowe, who bought several contiguous apartments for close to $60 million, a record-breaking number for New York City – and, quite frankly, the world. Tommy Hilfinger and Flavio Briatore, James Cayne and Jocelyn Wildenstein are also on the the purchasers list.

The “Private Residences” at The Plaza Hotel have their own entrance on Central Park South and a large garden court with cascading fountain at the bottom of the building’s large rectangular lightwell. Entry to the hotel rooms is on the south side along 58th Street.

The bathroom fixtures have been designed exclusively for the Plaza residences. The kitchen will have Nero Marquina stone kitchen countertops (gorgeous) and Callacata Marble tiled backsplashes.

The massive public spaces such as the Terrace Room, Edwardian Room, Grand Ballroom, and Oak Bar are still in place. In addition, because the Plaza is a hotel in addition to a condominium, it offers every possible service, from room service to maid service, to a private butler, to valet parking, to pet care. Everything.
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Location: 200 West End Avenue (entrance on W. 70th Street)
Size: 173 condominium units, 29 stories
Prices: $.7 – $4.6 million
Occupancy: Late 2007
Developer: Clarett Group
Architect: Costas Kondylis
Interior Designer: Celerie Kemble
Sales & Marketing: Corcoran Group Marketing
Website: www.200wea.com

Overview: Exquisite Attention to Detail Pays Off
Originally a planned development of American Continental Properties, 200 West End Avenue was acquired by the Clarett Group in May 2006. Although it is still under construction, this 29-story, 170-unit luxury condominium, architected by the ubiquitous Costas Kondylis and designed by Celerie Kemble, is now open for occupancy, slightly ahead of schedule.

The building façade is predominantly glass, with some limestone trim. This luxury condominium did not participate in “affordable housing” plans, and 13,000 square feet of retail space is expected.

Floor-to-ceiling windows are complemented by occasional smaller windows with ledges in kitchens and bathrooms. Considering the height of the surrounding buildings, residents would have to live above the 16th floor to experience the more open views.

Brazilian cabreuva hardwood flooring works well with kitchen cabinetry. Walnut vanities in master baths provide ample closed and open storage. Each home is delivered with a full-size washer and dryer.

Amenities at 200 West End Avenue include:

- Fitness center with billiards room
- Wine tasting room
- Peter Sis playroom
- On-site valet parking
- Landscaped community terrace
- Bicycle storage and general storage
- Hotel-style concierge service from Abigail Michaels

Other Clarett Group projects include the recently completed Place 57 with Baccarat crystal lobby and garden designed by Vicente Wolf; and the 55-story, brick-faced Sky House condominium tower under construction at 11 West 29th Street, which is attached to the Church of the Transfiguration (“The Little Church Around the Corner”) whose air rights the developers bought.
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