Rooms With A View - Time Warner Center

 

ABOVE AND RIGHT: Apt. 60A of the Time Warner Center, at 25 Columbus Circle, could be combined with Apt. 60G to create an aerial mansion with both park and river views. Photos: Corcoran Group

 

Apartments with park or river views, and sometimes both, have always sold at a premium in the city where every square foot matters.

River views are extremely rare from the center of Manhattan, especially in areas where zoning restrictions hold developers back from building ever-higher mansions in the sky. Developer Ian Bruce Eichner's The Continuum Company has spent years securing the air rights to a midblock space in the otherwise zoning-restricted Flatiron District, creating the opportunity to build the tallest residential building between Manhattan's Midtown and downtown neighborhoods. Construction is already underway at 45 East 22nd Street, a new 777-foot-tall, 83-residence condominium that will blend into its traditional surroundings for the first seven floors with a 75-foot wide rusticated granite-clad base, and then taper outwards with a glass spire that will gradually cantilever over its neighbors.

Kahn Pedersen Fox Associates, known for its designs of some of the world's tallest buildings, is the architect, while London-based Martin Brudnizki Design Studio, a firm known for its sumptuous designs for hotels, restaurants and private clubs throughout the world, is handling the interiors. Five floors of amenities will include a fitness center with boxing and private training suite, basketball court, golf simulator, library, children's playroom, billiards, card room and a terrace with an outdoor grill. The two entertaining spaces include the Upper Club on the 54th floor, where all residents, including ones from the lower floors, can enjoy sweeping river views.

With very little advertising, the building is nearly 50 percent sold. Two-bedroom units start at $4,830,000 for 1,930 square feet of living space, with full-floor four-bedroom units going for more than $20 million. Move-ins will start in February 2017. "People really love this neighborhood, but didn't have an option like this before," said Jeannie Woodbrey, senior sales director for 45 East 22nd Street. "Our buyers appreciate the privacy of having no more than two apartments per floor, with total privacy, great amenities and protected views from what they see as the best residential neighborhood in the city."

Great city and East River views are the motivating factors behind the potential combination of two apartments on the 44th floor of 845 United Nations Plaza, a Trump World Plaza property located in Turtle Bay between 47th and 48th Streets on First Avenue. Jointly listed for $10,895,000, apartments 44BC will command five bedrooms, six-and-a-half bathrooms and 5,000 square feet of space. The B-line was recently gut renovated, while the C-line shares the southern views and adds sunset views to the west.

The full-service condominium provides a doorman and concierge service, 24-hour valet for the parking garage, a wine cellar, private spa with swimming pool and a health club. "One of the chief selling points is the parking garage with valet service: Most of the residents have cars, and have a very easy commute from this location so close to the F.D.R. Drive," said Eva Penson, associate broker with Douglas Elliman Real Estate. "There are just not many residences on the market with three exposures on a high floor with 10-foot ceilings, floor-to-ceiling windows and 5,000 square feet for under $2,000 a foot. For this level of luxury in this location, the price is actually very reasonable."

The views at another combination unit, apartment 10FG in the Park Belvedere, a full-service, white-glove condominium at 101 West 79th Street, stretch across the Museum of Natural History and Central Park from the living room, dining room and second bedroom, and over land marked brown-stones and low-rise buildings to the west from the master bedroom.

The views from all the rooms of the 1,700-square¬foot apartment. on the market for $3.9 million, are protected, explained Barak Dunayer, associate broker with Halstead Property. "Many buyers prefer the flexibility and privacy of condos to co-ops, and this is one of only a few Upper West Side condominium options on Columbus in the 70s and 80s, which is mostly co-ops, that is only a block from Central Park and two blocks from Broadway."

An elegant 21st-floor prewar loft with 16 windows featuring city and Hudson River views is currently listing for $5,195,000 at Tower 270, a full-service southeast TriBeCa building converted to condominiums in 2002. Facing west, the 2,554-square-foot three-bedroom residence, at 270 Broadway on the corner of Chambers Street, offers direct 50-mile sunset views over the Hudson from the living room. "TriBeCa is going to see some great buildings in the near future coming to the Broadway corridor," said Shannon Wisniewski, associate broker with Stribling & Associates. "Premium properties like 30 Park Place, 111 Murray and 100 Barclay are revitalizing the area, as is the redevelopment of the South Street Seaport nearby. They are all coming to this neighborhood for a reason: this is a great place to live."

Views that manage to encompass both Central Park and the Hudson River continue to attract the world's most well-heeled buyers to 25 Columbus Circle, a.k.a. the Time Warner Center. A $21.5 million combination residence on the 60th and 61st floors - joining 60A, a three-bedroom, three-bathroom apartment (listing individually for $12.5 million) with 60G (listing for $10.5 million) - would create a 3,582-square-foot mansion in the sky with incomparable views.

"The Time Warner Center was the first building on what I like to call Billionaires Row near 57th Street and Central Park South, and with its success, it is still the cornerstone," said Scott Stewart, associate broker with The Corcoran Group. "There is indeed a market for buyers who insist on both park and river views at the same time in the center of all things luxury in New York, especially for international buyers. Individually, each apartment is a good entry for someone who doesn't want to spend $18 or $20 million to get into the building, where a natural 3,500-square-foot space could go for up to $7,500 a square foot. This combination is about $6,500 per square foot, which saves the buyer $1,000 a square foot, or about $3 million. With that, the buyer will have enough left over for the custom renovation that is second to none."