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
Albany is the new Manhattan. Manhattan is the new Dubai. Screw the middle class. Build it from glass and people with no class will give up their cash because everyone wants to live on some new tacky knock-off of Rodeo Drive.
So true, 11:43, nobody criticizes the big architects’ work anymore because they’re afraid they’ll seem unsophisticated. I can’t stand Richard Meier. His Getty museum in L.A. is one of the ugliest buildings I’ve ever seen. Meier fought tooth and nail to have the rough-sided marble on that building and it was a terrible choice. All the shiny white plastic on the choo-choo train stops there, are bad too. I kept thinking it reminded me of storm trooper body armor. Not in a cool way.
“The building looks like crap and nobody is saying it.”
maybe we aren’t saying it because that is your opinion and i personally don’t agree at all. i live in north park slope and walk by it everyday and think the building looks quite good.
we are entitled to our opinions and just because you happen not to like it does not make it crap.
the bronx has the highest asthma rate and the largest number of brownfields per capita. Queens (L.I.C.) is next.
I am usually a fan of Meier’s but I think this building is careless looking. I don’t think it is a good example of his work. The building looks like crap and nobody is saying it. I think it is an Emperor’s clothes situation b/c nobody wants to appear unsophisticated.
linusvanpelt, I understand your position. Mine is the opposite. Brownstones don’t offer the same natural light or volume of spaces as well-planned apartments. Those things are more important to me, as is not living vertically over several floors. To each his own.
they’ll sell at $1000 pst and everyone will be happy.
while the bronx might be a stop on the gentrification train at some point, i think it will probably be a good 20-30 years before anything significant changes. most people (even if only because of the name bronx) will move farther out into brooklyn and queeens before they start moving to the grand concourse. i really think that the bronx as a destination or viable place for most of us to live is probably a good way off.
that is not to say that it’s not a good investment and i realize things are improving, but those that gentrified ps, cobble hill, carroll gardens, heights, prospect heights, ft. greene, kensington etc….i see them going into sunset park, ditmars, flatbush, even bayridge far before they start making a trek to the bronx. it is not family friendly and the schools would need a total overhaul to get any families in there in any significant numbers.
we hear complaints for Scarano, whom designs not as bad buildings as many others…… we hear complaints for even worst s..t than scarano and now we hear complaints for richard meier?????, what do we want? the building is great! and it is expensive. If you can’t afford it, fine don’t buy it or make to many comments, you have the money? don’t listen to this crap! get it, is the greatest condo of brooklyn!!!!!