Foundation stone laid for $1.7b. Manhattan luxury apartment project
By YIGAL GRAYEFF

The foundation stone has been laid for a $1.7 billion Manhattan residential project that is owned by Eyal Ofer's Global Holdings, Goldman Sachs's Whitehall Street Real Estate Funds, Arthur Zeckendorf and William Lie Zeckendorf.

The project is situated on the former site of the Mayflower Hotel opposite Central Park and it encompasses an entire block on the corner of Central Park West and Broadway. It will consist of 202 units divided between two wings - the 20-storey "House" and the 43-storey "Tower," Global Holdings said on Tuesday.

The cost of the units starts at $2 million for a one-bedroom apartment and rises to $45m. for a duplex, and the first residents are expected to move in at the beginning of 2007. For such large sums, the buyers will obtain high-ceiling apartments with wide balconies, panoramic views of Central Park, large kitchens, service entrances and accommodation for staff.

In addition, the project will contain wine cellars, a swimming pool, a gymnasium, saunas and a game room, and residents will be able to order room service, with the food prepared by a private chef.

Ofer, who is the son of Israel Corp. owner Sami Ofer, showed no reticence when talking about the project.

"Without doubt this is the most significant contribution in the last few years to the urban culture and architecture of New York," he said.

Robert Stern is the architect and has designed the building using the "neo-classical" style, which is influenced by buildings constructed in the 1930s. The building will be clad with rare Indiana limestone, a material that was used on the facades of the Empire State Building and the Rockefeller Center.

אתה יכול להסביר במה מדובר? לא הבנתי נאדה!

The ofer brothers conglomerate (his son) is building NY's biggest residential project..

Israelis are buying up and building up NY.. I think there's 30-40 projects by Israeli companies and developers there - the largest well known are the Plaza hotel (Tshuva) and this one now..

^^ Also there was an article about huge Israeli projects in vegas. Did you see that?
http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3150139,00.html

This is what 15 Central Park West will look when it's done.

http://i.pbase.com/v3/55/435155/1/48580851.15cpw2.JPG
http://i.pbase.com/v3/55/435155/1/48580849.15cpw.JPG

Looks good. I like N.Y

I wish I could afford a penthouse there,
give me one and Im moving in tomorrow!

The project is currently under construction as the foundation work is still being made for it.

this is the website:
http://15cpw.com/home.html

Im waiting for the plans to see what apartment to buy :)

I wish I could afford a penthouse there,
give me one and Im moving in tomorrow!
Hell, I could satisfied with a regular apartment!!!!

I wish I could afford a window there, let alone a regular apartment ;)

^^ Also there was an article about huge Israeli projects in vegas. Did you see that?
http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3150139,00.html
We should learn from Las Vegas and also legaliz Gambling in Eilat!!! they should have done this a long time ago!! it will Help the economy in tourism and the estimation says that a casino in Israel will make $1 Billion Every year!! :eek:

Yeah I think so too, but this 1 billion$ won't go to your pocket, you can count on that ;)

and how much money will go to police investigations on gambling lords?

Israelis already have casinos in europe and Empire Online and other web-gambling companies are all Israeli - what do we have with gambling?!
anyway I hate gambling!

ME TOO, but if a casino is built in Eilat, It will be like in another dimension. People come, swim and gamble, then go home! No damage done. Plus, Eilat will have much better chances to compete with Sinai and Jordan.

you forgot jericho as well..

Believe me, there will be no "Gambling Lords" , because most of the casinos will be under the goverment control, and obviously that there will be some limitation in the sector...

if its government owned im all for casinos! in eilat and beer sheba, beer sheba could really be the same as las vegas!

Here is a recent shot of it.

Originally posted on Wired NY by NYatKNIGHT
http://www.wirednewyork.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=1224&d=1129902476

Africa Israel and Boymelgreen also have lots of land on the vegas strip for huge projects worth billions, so you can expect some more towers in vegas like the ivana and trump towers

Speaking of Africa-Israel, they have several projects that are going on in Manhattan and Brooklyn right now, but I don't want to go any further on this, b/c it will be off-topic.

http://www.therealdeal.net/issues/NOVEMBER_2005/1130899966.php
A luxurious new cornerstone at south end of Central Park

At up to $6,000 a square foot, Stern's opulent design on Mayflower site lures bluebloods with greenbacks

By Steve Cutler

http://www.therealdeal.net//issues/NOVEMBER_2005/images/1130899966.jpg

For years, Manhattan real estate mavens held their breath in anticipation of what might arise on the full-block vacant lot at West 61st Street between Central Park West and Broadway, which was once home to the Mayflower Hotel.

Now that plans for the Robert A.M. Stern-designed ultra-luxury condominium at 15 Central Park West have gone public, many insiders are breathless still.

"It's created a vortex, sucking the market from all the other buildings in the $5 million to $15 million price range," said broker Mazhar Raslan, whose IT Properties holds exclusives in several such buildings, including Trump International Hotel & Tower, 15 Central Park West's next-door neighbor.

"Most of those buyers want to go there," he said. "A friend at 110 Central Park South said that when the sales office for 15 Central Park West opened, her market declined substantially. Anything in that price range and location would be affected."

And what a price range. Some units sell for more than $6,000 a square foot. A 6,600-square-foot penthouse with set-back terrace overlooking the park asks $45 million. "Bargains" do exist among the lower level units that do not face Central Park, some of which can be had for around $2,000 a square foot.

Zeckendorf Development Corporation, developers of the project, originally figured it would take four years for all the apartments to sell at these prices, but it appears unlikely it will take that long. The building opened for sales on Sept. 8, and more than 70 of the 202 units were in contract as of mid-October, not in small part due to a marketing campaign estimated to exceed $20 million. The entire 39th floor has reportedly already been sold to a single buyer.

The sales office, designed by Stern, is a lavish, full-floor apartment at Carnegie Hall Tower on 57th Street, displaying some of the finishes he will use at 15 Central Park West. An elaborately produced short film was created to promote the building.

The $1 billion project will consist of two wings: the 20-story House on Central Park West and the 43-story Tower bordering Broadway. The two are connected by a private courtyard.

"The lower building facing the park is simply following the zoning," said Stern. "The zoning model for that block is the typical tower buildings along Central Park West, which took their cue from the Dakota. With the twin tower buildings on Central Park West built in the late 1920s, the towers rested on top of the low building masses. Our tower rises behind it."

Contemplating the design for the building, recalls Stern, "we thought this building, which is on the last significant available site likely for a generation – maybe forever – on Central Park West, should enter into a conversation or a dialogue with the typical building along Central Park West."

The neo-classical design provides a remarkable complement to its northern neighbor at 25 Central Park West, the Century, a 1930 Art-Deco masterpiece. And to stamp it with an indelible touch of class, Stern clad the exterior of the building entirely in limestone.

"Studying apartments in New York," said Stern, "and reviewing them with our clients, the Zeckendorfs, we came to the conclusion that by and large the toniest buildings, the ones that convey the greatest sense of value, are clad in limestone."

The limestone will come from the Empire Quarry in Indiana, the source of the stone for the Empire State Building, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 834 Fifth Avenue, and 740 Park Avenue South. The quarry was reopened to supply this building.

The interiors reflect traditional prewar construction values. "They have big rooms," said Stern, "opening to each other in ways that are gracious so people can flow through the apartment, particularly the living rooms, libraries and dining rooms." And they have big windows. "It's a myth that if you have a masonry façade you don't have opportunities for big windows," Stern said. Ninety percent of the units have Central Park views.

The elevator cores in the buildings are separated, two per floor, so that no more than two apartments share one elevator, another detail borrowed from prestigious prewar apartment houses.

Residents of the tower building will enter through the garden courtyard, as the back of the building rests on Broadway and must conform to the zoning requirements of the Lincoln Square Special District. The first two floors on Broadway will offer 85,000 square feet of store space in one of the most active retail markets in the city.

"There are approximately 80 layouts for the apartments," said Corcoran Group agent Robby Browne, famous for selling a $42.5 million apartment at the Time Warner Center in 2003, "and every one has merit." Browne, who lives next door at The Century, took an apartment at 15 Central Park West for himself.

Amenities at the building include a 13,500-square-foot, Sterndesigned fitness center and spa, with a 75-foot swimming pool featuring skylights illuminated by the reflecting pool in the garden above; private dining room with full-time chef; wine-cellars; business center, children's playroom; and a Theo Kalomirakas-designed private screening room with seating for 20. Owners are offered 29 guest/staff suites for purchase.

"15 Central Park West is the sexy deal of the day," said Raslan, raising the bar for luxury finishes and extravagant marketing for future contenders like the Plaza Hotel, which will debut shortly, and where condos are expected to sell in the $5,000-plus-per-squarefoot range.

"Once you see what Zeckendorf did, you're going to have to do something like that," he said. "You can't turn the clock back."

http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/58089.htm
$45M APARTMENT

By BRADEN KEIL
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
November 22, 2005 -- EXCLUSIVE

A brash hedge-fund manager is putting his money where his mouth is — agreeing to pay a record $45 million for a Manhattan residence.

Daniel Loeb, the outspoken founder of New York-based Third Point LLC, has signed a contract to buy a more than 10,000-square-foot penthouse condominium under construction at 15 Central Park West at the site of the old Mayflower Hotel.

The hard-charging investment mogul, who manages a $3.6 billion fund, is known for his publicly circulated poison-pen letters to executives he claims are pretentious or lazy. The New Yorker magazine described him as an investor's version of the late political columnist H. L. Mencken, but added that his manner could be "self-interest disguised as moralistic bombast."

Loeb had no comment about his purchase.

Plans for the 10,700-square-foot, full-floor pad include eight bedrooms, 10 full bathrooms, two powder rooms, a large screening room, his-and-hers offices, a library and terraces measuring nearly 800 square feet. The 39th-floor apartment features 14-foot ceilings. It is to be completed by spring 2007.

The towering sales figure beats the previous record held by News Corp. Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch, who paid $44 million earlier this year for the late Laurance Rockefeller's triplex co-op penthouse on Fifth Avenue. News Corp. owns The Post.

It also bests the previous record condo price of $42.25 million that Mexican financier David Martinez paid at the nearby Time Warner Center. Martinez combined a full-floor apartment on the 76th floor with a half-floor residence above. He then recently purchased the other half of the 77th floor for about $12 million, giving him almost 17,000 square feet total after spending nearly $53 million.

Loeb's purchase comes seven months after he bought a sprawling eight-bedroom West Village town house for $11.2 million.

The 15 Central Park West complex — designed by renowned architect Robert A.M. Stern and developed by brothers Arthur and William Lie Zeckendorf — will comprise two structures between Broadway and Central Park West (from 61st to 62nd streets).

A drive-in courtyard will separate the 20-story building and a 43-story tower, both with pricey Indiana limestone facades. There are 200 residences ranging in price from $1.97 million for a one-bedroom place to Loeb's $45 million palace. Also featured in the complex are retail stores, a private 13,500-square-foot gym and spa, a private restaurant, wine cellars and staff quarters.

According to a release by Zeckendorf Development, the building is about 40 percent sold, with 12 of the 16 penthouses already spoken for.

braden.keil@nypost.com

^^ already 40 percent sold?
$1.97 million for a one-bedroom ?!
boy people are rich in NYC..

Right now this project has just gotten off the ground.

Originally posted on Wired NY by Edward
http://www.wirednewyork.com/real_estate/mayflower/15cpw.jpg

Wawawiwa.. Nice to know the project pays off to Africa-Israel. Now build something nice in Jerusalem!

^^ ha for 45 million you dont get a penthouse you can buy a street...

You can still buy something good with that money.

An recent ariel of this project.

http://www.curbed.com/2005_11_15cpwbiggest.jpg

^^ cool, but what is that giant building that will overshadow it (on the right)..
and wont get any sun either from the left.. hmm.. good thing it faces the central park..

That's the Trump International Hotel and Tower.

You can now say that it's above the ground.

Originally posted on Wired NY by Zippy the Chimp
http://img500.imageshack.us/img500/3409/15cpw07c2gy.jpg