Using Meier to Sell Brooklyn to Manhattanites
Are Manhattanites ready to pay Manhattan prices for an apartment in Brooklyn, albeit one designed by arguably the biggest brand name architect in town, Richard Meier? It’s too early to tell, but Mario Procida, the developer behind On Prospect Park is betting a lot of money that the answer is yes. As his brother puts…
Are Manhattanites ready to pay Manhattan prices for an apartment in Brooklyn, albeit one designed by arguably the biggest brand name architect in town, Richard Meier? It’s too early to tell, but Mario Procida, the developer behind On Prospect Park is betting a lot of money that the answer is yes. As his brother puts it, “There are always 100 rich people who will pay for a piece of fine art…Mario’s got the only piece of fine art in Brooklyn.” Since opening for business in late October, somewhere north of 12 units (or about 10 percent of the inventory) have been sold. Asking prices are around $1,200 a foot, an untested milestone for the borough. Procida says his costs are well over $700 a foot and The Times estimates that he would have trouble breaking even at $850 a foot. Clearly sales haven’t been as fast as hoped, but, to be fair, the building is not complete yet and most people have a hard time with “the vision thing.” In his targeting of Manhattan buyers, the developer has gone so far as to locate the building’s sales office in Tribeca. Other developers question this strategy: “I think the Brooklyn buyer is a Brooklynite,” says a partner from the Clarett Group, which is building the Forte high-rise on Fulton Street in Fort Greene. Do you think OPP is going to sell out at or near the current asking prices? And to do so, will it have to be mostly Manhattanites doing the buying?
Betting on Star Power [NY Times]
Photo by Tracy Collins
Anon 12:38,
Believe it or not there are lots of wealthy people who DO NOT LIKE walking around.
Many of the folks who’ve bought new construction in Hudson Square/Far West Side are a better comparison.
12:29. I have to agree with you. The only reason I didn’t consider buying in the building is the fact that they don’t offer helipads and the nearest private airport is at least 30 mins away by porsche.
WTF are you talking about? This is New York, not Nairobi. People with tons of money actually DO WANT TO WALK AROUND AND SPEND IT. See: Tribeca, Dumbo, Lower East Side, etc . etc .
To the person who said:
“I need to stop reading comments at this site but can’t. They drive me crazy. Why do I care what half-assed ignorant things people have to say – I don’t. Maybe I can kick the habit. Wish me luck. Au revoir.”
I agree. This site is toxic too much of the time. I feel like I need a detox, a bath and a good therapy session to rid myself of the posts here, and yet I visit this site too often. I’ll try and cut back on my time here too.
Anon 12:29pm,
You’re right. These buyers are looking for a lifestyle that has nothing to do with Brooklyn — they want the cache of telling their friends they live in a Meier building and they want great views and everything to be brand new.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that. . .
Anon 12:16 You know not of what you write. I live a block and a half away from 1EP on Sterling Place and actually know and use the amenities in the nabe daily. One could do a lot worse for food shopping than this location. 7th Av is about a 5-7 minute walk, with two GAP crossings that are just not that bad. But if you dont want to cross GAP, the 24 hr Key Food and greengrocer on Flatbush are less than a 5 minute walk; Met Vood on Vanderbilt is consistently ranked as one of the top 3 supermarkets in NYC. Union Market and Blue Apron (on Union St at 7th and 6th respectively) are less then 10 minutes away and both deliver. Try matching that in Brooklyn Heights, PS south of 3rd Street, or anywhere in FG/CH.
first of all groceries…many many people in the neighborhood buy from freshdirect. i assume the same will be true in this building.
if you think 7th avenue is not a short walk, you either have one leg or are 80.
vanderbilt avenue has tons of great places. i believe mr. b even talked about it last week as being a new smith street of sorts. it’s right outside the door.
this place is no farther from retail than meiers buldings on the far west side of manhattan.
you are paying for a lifestyle not proximity to ctown.
11:24 – it will definitly take a long while before the Bronx is viewed as favorably (locally and internationally) as Brooklyn, but you are way off if you think it will be 20-30 years before (large sections) of the Bronx are “viable” options for the people here.(it maybe 30+ years before anyone has the balls to ask $1200sq ft in the Bronx to be sure).
Many sections of the Bronx are already ‘viable’ (Kingsbridge Heights, Bedford Park, Morris Park, Throgs Neck, Riverdale and a few others). Sure the schools suck – they suck in most places in Brooklyn too, but the crime rate in most of the Bronx is lower now then when many parts of Brooklyn started to ‘come up’ and lower then what currently exists in many parts of Bed Stuy, Bushwick and PLG.
As for the sitgma of “The Bronx” – for sure it exists but certainly no worse then “Bed Stuy”(for decades), or “Crown Heights”(which had race riots in the early 90’s).
The folks buying in this building propably travel a lot, mostly use private car services, not the subway, and don’t care too much about nearby ammenities.
They’re rich folks who don’t have the time or interest to renovate brownstones and assume they’ll be decent investments that will appreciate over time with the improvement of the nieghborhood.
It’s a building for folks who want to show-off — not people interested in hanging out in the hood and walking to do their grocery shopping/restaurant excursions/bar hopping.
The naysayers are just out of their minds on this one – it’s a great building and a wonderful addition to the brooklyn condo explosion. I even love the way it looks from the long meadow of prospect park itself; initially i thought i would be offended.
These guys will do well and the buyers will get a great place to live – geez, the building is still under construction – give ’em a break! (and i think an interesting mix of europeans, manhattanites and brooklynites will buy in droves once it’s finished.) Barring market gloom, I’ll bet it sells 80 or 90% within the next year.
And, I actually could see GAP becoming a destination point, especially if they can figure out the plaza to make it more “pedestrian friendly.” It’s an absolutely spectacular entrance to PP, but right now no one can really explore it safely or easily.
just don’t let the DOT come up with any more ideas…